Thought I'd share my 6.5 mm wildcats with y'allz
I know most guys here will feint from terror & fall on their face over the "barrel burner" hysteria that seems to turn grown adult males into vaginas ..... Well, all I got is ... y'all stink like old shrimp, hahahaha

just having a bit of fun, cool ? I always get a bunch of flak from terror stricken 'ginas and have grown quite numb to the dumb, lmao !

The big ones are my fun guns and I have several extra barrels for all of these on hand, got Bartlein & Rock Creek 7 twist barrels that stack bullets on top of each other

A lot of folks go apes hit bananas over the Hornady 143 gr ELD-X (2nd photo) but they were the bullets that I experienced the most catastophic bullet failures I have ever witnessed ... 15 times in a row on water jugs at 100 yards at 3500 fps, bullets disintegrated into a million pieces every single time into the first jug, where is that highly vaunted wHorenady redesigned & improved new "Interlock" design that's supposed to hold the bullet together ? buncha BS pos bullet, sold the remaining 9 unopened boxes I had, never again but kept the last 5 loaded rounds for my collection and as a reminder of bad juju .....,

problem was solved via Cutting Edge MTH & Lazer bullets

Some of these predate the 26 Nosler, 6.5-300 WBY & the 6.5 PRC ... been there, done it & still killing them ....

Jus got some new stocks for a couple of these rifles, once I get them bedded/installed I'll take some pics & post them here


6.5 Skuldryl 150 gr Bullets @ 3550 fps
my max improved style of wildcat, 6.5-300 Norma Mag Improved, for drilling animal skulls from the grassy knoll far, far away, this ain't your mamas creedwhore !

6.5 Prometheus 143 gr bullets @ 3500 fps
my 2010 wildcat, 6.5-300 Norma Mag Imp with long neck
the original Bringer of Fire

6.5 Mighty Mouse 140 gr bullets at 3300 fps in a short action
300 Norma Mag case cut down to 1.9" and necked to 6.5 mm, smokes & kills every single 6.5 sa cartridge on the planet with ease

6.5 Wolfkiller 140 gr bullets at 3150 fps
6.5x55 Swede Improved, maxed out case my style
built on a 6.5 lb Tikka T3 Lite with 24" Bartlein bbl, my wolf killing rifle


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Hell yeah, cool bunch of screamers. I’ve got a 6.5 Improved reamer I’ve yet to use. When I find the right itch I’ll be trying it out.

I’ve got a 264 Win, 6.5 PRC, 6.5 Gren and a AR10 6.5 CM myself. While not the screamers yours are they are fun.

Great pictures buddy.

The 6.5 Wolkiller gets a Manners Tikka stock with a winter hunting camo pattern featuring mean wolf faces in the snow

I know that the camo scheme is plain old fashioned vanity but I couldn't resist at $85 extra, lol

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Impressive for sure

The 6.5 Skuldryl also get a Manners stock, an Elite Hunter 3 with a skull pattern ..... also an $85 vanity job but it fits the name.. right ?

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By the way.. before somebody schools me or bites my head off like Ozzy vs the bat

My comments regarding the 6.5 mm 143 gr ELD-X was pure unadulterated sarcasm for the fun of it, I know the velocity surpassed the design parameters of the bullet, especially on water jugs at 100 yards, when working the load up, the bullets actually held up somewhat at 3300 fps but went to hell afterwards quickly

I have zero interest in fast 6.5's. However, I admire the work that you have put into your endeavor. Where did you find the Wolf Head Camo hydro film ?

I like the Wolfkiller round. Would be a good one in rifles with "shorter" long action mag boxs like a Fieldcraft/NULA. I'm not a magnum round guy so this one fits what I like.

I'm a big fan of the EH3 stock design for a sporter barreled rifle. The stock fits me and works well off-hand or prone. Manners does a good job on their comb heights.

Awesome stocks SL. Those are cool as hell.

Alaska Hydrographics have these patterns, Paul had a Holiday $85.00 special and I caved ....

Alaska Hydrographics


it's cool, I'm not a big fan of 6.5's either, got the Skuldryl design in 7mm, 30 cal, 8mm, 338, 375 and 408 cal .
love the 338 version and dinged some dandy bull moose with it a couple times .... pics of moose & ammo is with the 270 gr Badlands Super Bulldozer bullet at 3050 fps

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Nice moose! I can see that 338 being bad news.

And the Badlands bullets, never seen them.

Any words on them. I see they’re mono with an aluminum tip. Pretty good performer?

Shot the bull Texas heart shot style at 53 yards with the 338 version as he turned & bolted back where he got called out of, into the steep thicker n a 70's bush 800 ft deep canyon ...

dumped him in his tracks before he could reach cover, the 270 gr Badlands Super Bulldozer bullet penetrated from stern to bow of the 1000 lb bull after smashing through the heavy hindquarter ball joint, and was found on the offside of the thick neck bones against the hide ....

both of the knives are customs by Bill Poor @ Flatland Forge in Texas

Bill Poor Knives

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forgot the bullet pic

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The 338 Precision Rifled Ordnance with a 26" 5R 9.3 Tw Rock Creek barrel, Ryan Pierce 5 port Magnum Muscle brake & Burris XTR II 3-15x50 scope in a Manners Elite Hunter 3 stock

a killing machine near & far ....

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Nice. Thanks for posting them up. Cool bullet and amazing looking rifle SL.

Wow ! Cool stuff and good pics !

Could you add a commonly available commercial chambering to your cartridge comparison pictures for scale?

Nice rigs! Thanks for sharing!

like this ?

the 300 Razor has a few grains more capacity than the 300 RUM, just enough to reach the next node before pressure, without the length of the RUM and is mag compatible, tears new azzholes & shames the other 3 on the left......

I designed it specifically for moose hunting with long, heavy high bc bullets out to 1500 yards + -

the 300 Razor has no parent case but is an all new case design from top to bottom including the internals of the case, brass is custom made to my specs from super strong hammer forged brass, 4 builds in progress right now ...

I suppose it's not really a wildcat but a proprietary cartridge of sorts
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My kid(s) would love that stock.

Very cool. Those big 30’s are pretty darned awesome.

What’s your preferred load from it?

As a 6.5x55 fan and the owner of a Tikka T3X chambered in it, I like the 6.5 Wolfkiller!

First pic is of the 6.5 lineup with the addition of the 6.5 PRC on the far right ....


A little info I posted on another site back in March 2016

"" A bunch of guys over on the Snipers Hide have been messin with the 6.5x55 AI and I believe a few of them have them built on Tikka T3's,
Quick Design shows two versions the 6.5x55AI and the 6.5x55 BJAI (Bob Jourdan's version) there is also the 6.5X55 GWI developed by a gunsmith at Kelbly's, I don't have the dimensions for that one but the reamer is available from PT&G

I also got hooked on the 6.5x55 Improved meth,
being a long time 6.5 Swede fan it was a no brainer to do it as I had tons of brass, bullets and powder for it already and I had zero interest in the 6.5 Creedmoor which in my opinion is a backwards thinking design as it does not improve on anything over the 260 Rem just shoots the same bullets slower, something the 6.5x47 Lapua had covered quite well

since I had a Tikka T3 in the 6.5x55 Swede I used it for my build, I got a Manners Elite Hunter stock, Bartlein #3B 8 twist 26" barrel and a couple of 5 round extended Tikka mags from Beretta, I didn't use any of the AI versions and instead developed my own 35 degree shoulder wildcat for better feeding from the detachable mags, I also MAX improved the case for full capacity and throated it to run 140 gr Berger Hybrid bullets without hanging into powder space .... in my version, factory loads and standard Swede brass handloads CANNOT be fired as I pushed the shoulder up considerably and headspace is no longer the same,

Took it out to fireform 95 pcs of brass a few weeks ago and it showed pretty good accuracy with the fireforming loads, I had 50 rounds of 6.5 Wolf Killer that I had previously fireformed with cream of wheat loaded with 50.0 gr of H4831SC (2906 fps ave.) and another 45 rounds of fresh Lapua 6.5X55 Swede brass loaded with 48.0 gr of H4831 and Hornady 140 gr AMAX bullets (2841 fps ave.) jammed .024" into the lands for a solid no case movement fireforming process..

after sighting in the Vortex PST 2.5-10x44 I fired 5 round "bursts" directly from the Tikka detachable 5 round mags, fed perfectly from the mags without a single hiccup, let barrel cool and repeated , drilled out a nice 20 shot hole at 100 yards, I can tell this one really wants to shoot but needs a better scope, looks good so far all I need to do is get around to annealing the fire formed brass and start the real load development, My goal is working up to 3100-3200 fps with 140 gr Berger Hybrids using 54-55 gr of RL26 ""

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Cool stuff, thanks for sharin. 👍

Yes, exactly.

This is a sexy thread!....Swamplord continues his one man smoke show on Bullwinkles.

Cool as hell !

👍🏼🦫

That’s a darned good looking version of the 6.5 Swede.

My oh my those are sexy

Very impressive stuff!!!!!!

Diggin it. Who does your brass engineering?

Warning ! pic heavy post ....
** note ** in the last pic, the 8mm Razor has a 250 gr Woodleigh Weldcore RN SN with a sectional density at .343 for bone crushing penetration & stopping power

I design all my reamer and cartridge dimensions then have the brass manufacturer plug in my specs into their programs for brass production

The design phase for the Razor & Headhunter cartridges is done & I have 100 pcs of brass for each cartridge for testing/data creation purposes, all load data will be accumulated while wired with the Pressure Trace II system, hooked up with the Magnetospeed V3 chrono and Lab Radar present at all times , a time consuming process for one guy who has a day job working 6-10's a week in large scale heavy construction projects, but it will get done

The Razor was designed to slightly exceed the capacity of the RUM cartridges to reach the next node level at safe pressures and still work in 3.850" Accurate Mag & AICS CIP magazines with long, heavy high bc bullets

The Headhunter is the same diameter case but designed for single action target use, made longer in order to slightly exceed the capacity of the XC cartridges from David Tubb to reach the next high vel extreme accuracy node ....

One thing sets them apart is that the Razor/Headhunter series were designed specifically to run safely in Remington 700 and Winchester 70 actions, negating the need for expensive custom action for guys on a tight budget, case rim & diameter was crafted to be on the safe side for the tennons of these actions, & not require boltface alteration in the mag boltface aka 300 Win Mag, 375 H&H, 300 RUM etc., also the case head interior at the web on the brass has been beefed up in super tough hammer forged brass for an additional measure of safety and long case life at max pressures .....
All in a years work or 2, almost 3 , lol !

The intent is to release them to the public after the testing phase & once brass goes into production, if all goes well in this wild times we're living in .....

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Outstanding! Quite an undertaking for sure.

I’ll be following your progress.

That mighty mouse looks bad ass.

They all do!

Being a 30 cal loony for the past 100 years or so, I prefer the 30 cal version over the 6.5 MM, at only 2.9" in case length, it mimics 300 Weatherby velocities in a box fed short action Rem 700, I designed it to run 215 gr Berger bullets at 3000 fps and be mag & box compliant in short actions, back in 2012 I originally named it the 300 AKSM (Alaskan Short Magnum) and my intent with it was a light, packable mountain rifle for hunting dall sheep & mt. goats, and for hiking deep into inaccessible by atv valleys for monster moose, but the project got postponed for a couple years due to my ELR wildcats demanding my attention, later on I got involved with a Canuck competition shooter who wanted a 7mm version for comp use, at reamer production the name was changed to 300 LRC (Long Range Competition) .. after reamers were made, he bailed on the project and vanished ... I kinda want to change it to the 300 'Lil Bee or 300 Wee Bee in jest for 300 WBY, lol

Originally I used to cut down Lapua brand 338 Lapua Mag & 423 Dakota brass to fireform the cases but eventually ended up having a batch of fully formed, ready to load n shoot custom brass with correct headstamp made for my two rifles ...

Ist rifle is dedicated for general hunting use & sports a 24" 1:10 tw Bartlein barrel for using the usual bullets up to the 230 gr Bergers and all others suitable for the 10 tw barrel but my go to bullet is the 175 gr Federal Ascent (see 3rd pic with my other 30 cal 'Cats & the 300 RUM) that it shoots 1/2" groups with and I have 450 of them set aside just for this rifle , used one box with my 300 RUM loaded a few up to 3350 fps & watched my brother steamroll a large bull moose, bullet impressed the hell outta me, thems Federal Ascent's are fantastic big game hunting bullets, can't wait to get my hands on the new 215 gr Ascent in 30 caliber, coming soon in 2022, I'll dig in my phone and find the pics of the expanded bullet and the moose that got whacked by it , I'll post them later

the 2nd rifle I built was from misc parts I had on hand for several other projects that got jacked for this emergency use, lol
It has a 30" 1:8 tw Rock Creek barrel so I could shoot any bullet I wanted at the time, and it shoots absofukinlutely great !

I used it to test the very first 100 pcs of the 205 gr Badlands Super Bulldozer-2 bullets ever made by Badlands Precision and ended up shoving one of them into a bull moose in Sept 2020 for a spectacular one shot pop n drop killshot, was extremely impressed with the accuracy & on game performance with the cartridge & bullet, definitely a well arranged marriage

the 4th pic is a lineup of the 30 cal cartridges that I have rifles in my stable, told ya I was a dirt thirty loony ! (except for a 30 Nosler which I am now working on acquiring one ) with a few of my wildcats in the mix, 300 LRC, 300 LRH (300 Long Range Hunter aka 30-338 Norma Mag Improved to my specs, did that one in 2014/15) ... The 300 Werewolf was renamed to 300 Wolverine due to a clash with an existing wildcat named 300 Warewolf, basically a 308 Win Imp by Thomas Ware) the one time I got the incorrect go/no gauges from PT&G, I changed the name to align it with it's older brother the 338 Wolverine from 2010 , I designed the Wolverine off the 500 Jeffery case originally and used Norma, Jamison & Bertram brass to make cases from, but for the purpose of manufacturing a batch of custom brass for myself I redesigned the Wolverine to be a completely new case design no longer compatible with the 500 Jeffery case, such is my wildcat loony madness ! Hoping to see a batch of 300 Wolverine & 338 Wolverine custom brass 1st quarter of 2022 or by midsummer , fingers crossed !

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Great pics SL! Agreed on the Federal TA's. I am looking forward to their heavier 200 308 and especially their heavier 7mm bullets. I have heard about them for awhile, but haven't even spied one yet.

Looks like you could lose a boot pretty easy in there lol Nice bull!!

Thanks for the detailed write up!

Swamplord

What a great write up. Wildcatting at the highest level.
Who makes your custom brass, is there a minimum order and if you don't mind ,what's a run of brass cost?

Hal

It all depends on the size (yup, size matters) of the case and if it has an existing parent for ease of manufacture, my big dogs the 400 Warlord & 375 Mercenary weren't cheap at $10-$12 per pc of brass, when's the last time y'all bought 100 pcs of brass for $1,205.00 ? lol ! plus initial program set up fees @ $250.00 ....

RCC ie Roberson Cartridge Company in Amarillo, Texas make me the brass per my specs plugged into their programs .... Brass is made from super strong hammer forged C272 brass, partly responsible for the high price but well worth it for the 25 firings on a pc of brass at max pressure, contact RCC for pricing on your case design as costs vary greatly based on a number of things ....

see links below ...

The first two pics are from the RCC website where anyone can order the brass direct, reamers can be ordered directly from PT&G or JGS, the other pics are for the website I'm setting up and are also found on my Precision Rifled Ordnance page on Facebook

400 Warlord RCC brass

375 Mercenary RCC brass

Swamploard

I really enjoyed your write up. The only thing better is your photography work.
Top notch all the way.
Keep up the great work.

Hal

Right, you’ve said it all right there.

I really like the idea of that 6.5

Nice camera work - what is the neck length on the SE-AI ?

Pics are all taken with a current iphone, on the kithchen countertop or table, usually the basic model at time pics were taken ... Always impresses the gal to find her kitchen turned into a temporary photography studio for brass & bullets, lol !

I've always hated the pics posted on forums where you couldn't make out crap, can't tell what you're looking at, figured if I'm gonna post some pics they'd better be up to snuff

Wildcatting was borne of necessity which quickly became a hobby then an obssession, eventually a form of madness ...

I often get asked "How much $$money$$ do you spend on that crap "? My response is "All of it, can't take it with you when you're done here"

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What is the neck length of your SE-AI ?

full caliber length at .264" & 35 degree shoulder

throated to seat bullets up to 150 gr with no impact on case capacity and still function smoothly in Tikka factory 3 & 5 rnd mags

the WS2 tungsten coated 143 gr Eldx bullets are seated here with only the boat tail past the neck/ shoulder junction and they scream outta there at 3100 fps !

6.5 PRC ? never heard of that byatch, ha !

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Dude, your like the Elon Musk of cartridges.😂

Keep up the great work and updates, this is awesome.

Thanks, no doubt the results in your target show you have sufficient neck length for accuracy. I may have missed it, but what twist are you running in that one?

Cool pics and amazing wildcats!

Which powders do you use in each application?

Barrel is a 25" #3 1:8 twist 5R Bartlein, originally supposed to be @ 26" finished length but gunsmith picked up a chip when chambering and made some unsightly spiral scratches in chamber that showed up on the initial cases I fireformed, wasn't having it and had him redo, he chopped an inch off the fat end before consulting with me, lol !

Tikka on a Manners stock looks hot, but can really use a better scope though, that Vortex PST 2x-10x44 is a decent scope and worked well enough but gonna go on my Ruger 10-22 that has an early '80's 2x7 Redfield Tracker on it

Need to get that painted stock on it this weekend and do some shooting with the 150 gr ABLR's I just picked up 5 boxes of


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You’re right. That Tikka looks great!

They’ve got to be about perfect builders for the 6.5x55 case. Magazines and everything are tailor made for pretty optimal length. Great stuff. That looks like a screaming set up!

It’s kinda funny, I have a 270 Win Superlite I don’t do beans with. A 6.5 barrel screwed onto it would be most useful. You got the gears grinding.

Tikka 5 round mags were only $60 direct from Beretta, with a 3.1" coal using 140 gr Berger Hybrids and Hornady 143 gr ELD-X bullets at 3100 fps, there is still enough room and bullet meplats don't get battered and deformed .... can shoot all 5 rounds without concern of bc change & accuracy issues from tips getting progressively bashed after every shot

Here's the chamber dims I drew up in Quick Design, reamer reflects same numbers ....

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What an awesome post, the pics,writing, and especially the information! This made my evening, thank you, Swamplord.

Dig it!

Good stuff.

That is cool , love that

It all depends on the cartridge I'm working with , I usually buy 8lb jugs x2 for each powder and if not the same lot I'll mix the powder to standardize the burn for all future loads, same if I get 10-12 1lb cans of mixed lot powder, I could not get 8 lb jugs of N570 but ended up with 27 1 lb cans of mixed lots right before the plandemic hit, just used a tote and mixed it all up then put back into the 1 lb cans

I burn 20N29, N570, Retumbo, H1000, Reloder 50, 33 & 26, lately have been messing with LRT, IMR 8133 & 7977

note that I have cartridges with capacity from 65 gr up to 230 gr (416 SLAYER = top secret, lol)

powder & primers are hard to get now but I'm reasonably set up for a bit

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That .416 Dragon Slayer is kinda a hungry mutha.

Hal

I've long thought that the 6mm/243 Stuver (IIRC it was designed by prairie goat) would be a good fit in a Tikka. It's a Swede necked down to 6mm with some Ackley-ish change in shoulder shape. Should have enough length for the bullets I'd be interested in. Not too terribly different than the Wolfkiller, just smaller diameter bullet.

Swamplord,

I was thinking about rebarreling a Ruger 77 Mk II I bought many (~30) years ago in 6.5x55 Swede. I (foolishly) rechambered it in 6.5x284, which didn't work-out too well, for a couple reasons.

Anyway, I was thinking to rebarrel it in your 6.5 Wolf Killer, since that's based off the 6.5x55 Swede, which the action was made for, i.e. no more feeding problems! And, I will rebarrel with a ~26" barrel to take advantage of the 6.5 Wolf Killer capabilities. Original barrel was 22" - duh!

Is there a shop I can get a reamer for that wildcat of yours? I have plenty of 6.5x55 brass, and I can have Lee Precision make me a set of dies for it.

Thanks!

Sweet thread! I need to know more about the 257 K9 killer!

I'm considering a rebarrel right now myself and going through the mental masturbation of deciding what I want.

My son bought me a 3o cal suppressor and I don't have anything threaded. So as long as I'm waiting my turn for the gunsmith I may as well get something a bit more modern!