Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 6.5X55 SE and the heavy bullets.....

I am currently having a barreled action being made by MRC in the 1999 short action with a custom barrel profile and a 1:7.5" twist. I plan on shooting leaded bullets in the 150-160 range and the non-leaded bullets in the 130-150 range.

The Lapua Mega 155 travels at 2560 fps. This is the current Lapua load, and I have 5 boxes of loaded and three 100 piece boxes of bullets. I want the express sights regulated to this load. I only really want to duplicate this factory load with reloads. I have a line in to both Norma and Lapua, but do you have suggestions for loads?



Interesting ammo with a great looking projectile. These things should really penetrate!

333:

No advice on the loads, I'm afraid, but I'm intrigued with the project. I hope you'll tell us more about the rifle.

- TJM

I iwll update when the stages are complete.

It should look very much like an old best quality bolt rifle from Westley Richards

I knew it!!!

I look forward to hearing more.

- TJM

They sure look like heavy hitter's.One thing about those Finns and Swedes they don't mess around.

The velocity of these rounds seems a little higher than that of the US reloading manuals. iam looking into it. The express sights will be regulated to these loads and then the scope will be sighted for the 130-140s.

I'm kinda fond of the 160gr Hornady's my M70 (post-64) liked them, the M700CL did not.

Poole

The Remington has a 1:9 or a 1:9.5 twist and the Winchester was a 1:7.8" twist I believe. The faster twist helps with the long bullets.

333_okh,

Do you know for sure that your new rifle will shoot this load accurately?

No offense but I would do some testing first then adjust my sights for the most accurate load at the distance anticipated.

Lapua lists several loads for this bullet with their powders in their online reloading manual.

Regards.

sounds like a dandy project. that military type twist of 1:7.8 or so should shoot well anything from 120 up to 160. would love to see pics when you're done. my swedes always liked the old aa3100 and 140-grain bullets.

What powder are you planning to use? I got tons of loads for 6,5x55, but we have some powders that perform great in 6,5 over here in Scandinavia, that you can`t get in the US. No point in bringing a lot of data if you can`t use the,m. So if you tell me what powder you got avialble, I will see if I got some loads for you.

I have everything available in the US here locally. If there is something I cannot get in the US then your right there is no point, but the list of available poweders here is huge, too much to list.

I'm using Hornady 160gr round nose bullets in a sporterized 6.5X55 Oberdorf Swedish Mauser. I think the twist is 1to8. Anyway it works fine on GA deer.

333_okh,

The 6.5 Swede is my main game getter and accounts for over 40 animals per year, big and small. In fact, it wil be going to Estonia in October, along with its '06 sibling for European elk. Having tried virtually every recipe around standard bullet weights (125 - 139gr), I eventually succumbed to the M70's fast twist rate and started to feed it the 160gr Hornady atop Vihtavuori N160.

Trials showed 43gr to be the optimum in terms of accuracy, with a COL of 3.020" and velocity of 2510 fps. Clearly, you will need to run your own DOE, but the VV data is available on-line. If N160 is not easily to hand, you might wish to default to its "high energy" version, N560. Either way, you will be using the core component in your factory ammunition, as Lapua is the sister company of Vihtavuori.

I find it interesting that you are planning to regulate the rifle to this load and look forward to hearing the results. The little 6.5 Swede is a tremendously under-rated cartridge, one that is capable of pinpoint accuracy and killing power well beyond its mild specification. Oh, and yes, the heavy for calibre torpedoes really do penetrate - in fact, I have yet to find one!

Regards,

Jacobite

With the Lapua pills I would look no further then Reloader 22 or N160...one of them ought to do the work for you. I've heard that the Euro companies get more velocity by using magnum primers, but I've never tested the two in a head to head comparison.

With the Lapua pills I would look no further then Reloader 22 or N160...one of them ought to do the work for you. I've heard that the Euro companies get more velocity by using magnum primers, but I've never tested the two in a head to head comparison.

With the Lapua pills I would look no further then Reloader 22 or N160...one of them ought to do the work for you. I've heard that the Euro companies get more velocity by using magnum primers, but I've never tested the two in a head to head comparison.

The Swedes and Norwegians adopted the cartridge in the 1890s, and were doing most of the Arctic exploration in the early days. I would guess more polar bears have been killed with the 6.5 than with anything else, and probably with full jacket military ammo at that.

The 6,5x55 was adopted by the Norwegian-Swedish rifle commision in 1894. Norway chambered it in the krag-jorgensen rifle, while Sweeden chambered it in the Mauser M 96. For over 70 years this round was dominating the scandinavian hunting. Norway banned the krag-jorgensen rifle in 1974, and popularity fell. TO day 30-06 is the most poplular hunting round. But in Sweeden I belive 6,5 mm still is the most popular hunting caliber, and they shoot about 100 000 european moose with it.

Older military ammo was loaded with a 139 grs spitzer full metal jacket loaded to about 770 meters per second. The hunting loads was usually Raufoss or Norma ammo with a 160 grs round nose soft point bullet. It was these bullets the trappers brought with them to Svalbard and Greenland. It is no polarbears in scandinavia, so it is mainly norwegian expeditions and hunters in the polar areas who has shot polar bears with the round. I know the norwegian polar hero Nansen brought 6,5 mm with him when he sailed/drifted with the ice trough the nort-west passage. The ammo was special made for him for use in the polar areas. I am not sure if he used 6,5 when he went on skis to the north pole or not. Anyway the 6,5 mm has proved it self worthy trough over 100 years of hard hunting.

I usually load the 6,5x55 with ca 45 grs with Norma 204 or N 160. We got a lot of cheap powder from Norma over here wich they make for comptition shooting, but the burn rate is not the same from lot to lot, so I have to change the powder charge from lot to lot. But usually it is around 45 grs or so.

I think more enduring to the Norway peoples is Ronald Amundsen and Oscar Wisting....but they used older weapons of the Norwegian Military......Our family friend are the Wisting families in California. I once knew Oscar's son.