6.5x55 mm

One of constant things I do in gun stores is to look at the military gun racks. Of course pickings are not as good as they were in the 1970s or even the 80s...but every once in a while something jumps up.....like a few weeks ago. I have had in the back of my mind for awhile to build a long range type sniper rifle, but to keep it in the style of the pre-1950s continental civilian motif that was so popular in Europe and Africa in the 1930s thru the 1950s. I saw them in Africa in the late 1950s and loved the style.

What should I happen across but a Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55mm...by the serial number manufactured in the early 1950s. It had been in it military garb and wood with a 30 inch barrel, battle sights and such. The bore was excellent and turned out to be 1 in 8½ twist to stabilize long bullets....it quickly followed me home.

A local gunsmith as a favor recut the original stock to the Europa Continental pattern with a short fore end and all...the military medallion stayed in the stock. The battle sights were removed, bolt handle reshaped, box follower cut, and a set of leaf back sights and long slooping front sights with a bead tops it off....the barrel was cut to 28 inches. So it will milk every foot per second of velocity...and it really doesn’t look ungainly actually it points like a Britt spaniel on a covey of quail....A BSA 6.5 to 24 power 50mm power scope rounds it off. And test firing before rebluing in deep charcoal blue.

I had a ‘98 Mauser in 7x57mm a number of years back that got away from me..and there isn’t a time that I don’t I think of that grand old rifle that I don’t mourn it’s loss....it had an over sized chamber. But that was great, because it gave the powder room of an improved chambering. With it’s 24 inch barrel I was able to push 139/140 grain bullets to well over 2800 fps. At 440 yards, which is just under a quarter mile, I was able to put those 7mm rounds into a 4 and ½ inch group. Now the 6.5x55mm cartridge is reputed to be 2MM shorter than the 57MM case. Well yes and no. The shoulders of both case come within a fraction of each other...and the 6.5 case is not the basic 7MM base size of .470. It is .480, also the 6.5 case has less taper..what I am saying is it has almost the same internal space as the 7MM case. Remington 7MM case held 49.5 grains of water to the neck/shoulder curve....WW 6.5MM case held 50.2 grains of water to the same place. And the 6.5's long range accuracy potential is unchallenged. So the only question is the strength of the action.

And that is an important question. The round was brought about by a partnership between Swedish and the Norwegians...the Swedes developed the round in 1894 and the Norwegians built the Krag rifles...chamber pressure had to be kept at around 43,000 psi...giving the original 156 grain bullet around 2300 fps. This action is not only old but is considered weak and is the reason commercial ammo has been loaded down for the most part. The Swedes developed their own Swedish Mauser (Mod.96) for the round and it’s strength is unquestioned.

I have read a number of times that the ‘96 action isn’t as strong as the ‘98 action because the ‘98 has the third lug. Personally I don’t think much of that argument...how many fine American rifles have only two locking lugs? And many of those are magnum chambered pushing 55,000 to 60,000 psi.

The 6.5 Swede is to the Swedish and Norwegian sportsmen...what the 30-06 is to American sportsmen. It’s a national caliber. At one point in Swedish recent history the country loaded ammo and gave it free to it’s people...having a small population in both countries they learned from the Second World War, they needed a population of rifleman. The military load selected for years was the Model 41 Cartridge, it had a 139 grain FMJ spitzer boat-tail over around 36 to 37 grains of a nitrocellulose powder giving over 2600 fps from the Model 38 Mauser rifles. Pushing around 47,000 psi. The Norma Factory today produces all kinds of 6.5 ammo. From a 77 grain bullet for varmints to 156 gr. round nose for big game. But much of it is hard to find in the U.S.

The U.S. didn’t really get into the round before the 1980s. Then Remington, Winchester and Ruger made a run of their fine rifles chambered for the round and the word began to get out. Also there is an unknown large number of military and sporterized military rifles in the hands of U.S. shooters. In the 1970s about the only brass and ammo out there was Norma...and occasionally you could run into a few Remington cases, but both had to be ordered and waited on in most cities. Things have changed for the better. The other day I walked into a local Tucson Az store and in the brass section was a goodly supply of WW 6.5 brass and at a very reasonable price. As for bullets all the major manufacturers produce them from 80 grains to 160 grains....with the 120, 125, and 129 grainers being the most popular.

With slow powders my Mauser ‘96 is a 46 to 50 grain user of the slow rifle powders like 4831 and 4350. Though I am not happy with either...not because they are not fine powders in this caliber and case...but the stick shaped granules of these powders just don’t flow and load well. H414 ball powder close to the slow powder burning rate, flows oh so much better, and is as good as the other two...it is my choice for the heavy bullets in the 140 to 160 grain loads. Also WW 785 is good in the very heavy bullet loads like Hornady’s 160 grain roundnose.

For the lighter bullets we have an over whelming selection of medium powders, it’s a 40 to 45 or so grain case. 4320, 3031, WW760, the ReLoader series from 12 thru 19, Accurate medium burners, and so much more. I use ReL#15, and WW 760, with 120 thru 129 grain bullets. Also I bought a box of Federal 6.5x55 ammo with a 140 grain Spitzer soft point...pulling one of the soft points I found it was loaded over what seemed to be a 4350 type stick powder of 43.5 grains.

IS IT REALLY A LONG RANGE CALIBER????

Remember my rifle sports a fine 28 inch barrel...most of the Remington, Winchester, and Rugers and such are 22 to 24 inches. Couple that with ballistic coefficients of 6.5 caliber bullets...and I have some outstanding ballistics from my initial test to report. The 120 grain bullets run B.C.s from .430 to near .450 and the 129s are running close to .500 and the 140s thru 160s are in the B.C. .600 range....that means flat out ballistics. At 2800 fps the Sierra 120 grain spire point I used sighted at 3 inches high at 100 yards was still 1½ inches high at 200 and down 6.5 inches at 300...and 20 inches at 400! And that’s a velocity easily reached by even 22 inch barrels....I ran some of them at that speed to check their down range drop for those with older actions and or short barrels....

Remember these loads are in my rifle only. 44 grains of ReL #15 under the Sierra 120 gr. Bullet went 3110 fps....it is so flat shooting a high hold on a deer’s ribs out to 350 yards will bring home winter’s meat. Under the Nosler 140 grain partition I loaded 45 grains of WW 760 and got 2882 fps....and got better ballistics then the famous 270 Winchester load! A 3 inch high at 100 put the bullet down 5 inches at 300 and 19 inches at 400 yards. My long range rifle is born!!!!!

The Federal commercial 140 grain spitzer went just under 2700 fps from my 28 incher...it should be about 2550 fps from a 22 inch barrel, and that is about average. Figure near 35 fps per inch from 22 to 28 inches as a rough estimate. Since I didn’t have a 22 inch barrel to check with, only loading books figures.

My rifle will push the 129 grain Hornady spire point very close to 3100 fps with H414 powder, 47 grains was close to a top load with it. And with the 140 grain Hornady 2800 fps and H 414 is a breeze with 45 grains. The Hornady bullets both the 129 grain (#2620) and the 140 grain (#2630) are shaped to fly...and they were the flattest shooting of all of makes, except for one....the Sierra 140 grain boat-tail. I had an old partial box of these so I couldn’t try a lot of powders...but 42 grains of Rel#15 pushed it at 2909 fps! It was the outstanding performer of the tests. I got .7 inch group at 100 yards....and 18 inch drop at 400 yards with my 3 inch 100 yr. set.

If I were to use the 6.5 for large game like Moose...(and I really have better heavier calibers for that size game)...I would use the 160 grain Hornady (#2640) bullet. Many feel the 6.5 is too light for such game..well don’t tell the Norwegians or the Swedish, they have been killing extremely large game with the 156 grain round nose soft point at 2600 fps for decades. I watched farmers in Africa kill plains game over the thousand pound weight with real authority...using Swedish (Norma) ammo in the 156 grain weight.

If it were the only rifle I had, I would do it without hesitation. I am guess-timating but the Hornady book states the 160 grainer over 47 grains of WW 785 will give 2500 fps from the 6.5x57 case...remember the same internal space I found in the 57mm case and the 55mm case because of the larger head size and shoulder locations. Add to that around 200 fps more because of the 28 inch barrel and we are at 2700 fps and 2600 ft.lbs of muzzle energy. Being a round nose would lead us to believe the down range ballistics wouldn’t be good...but I don’t go with that either, since this is such a narrow bullet to begin with it still has a superior ballistic shape for it’s weight. I was first surprised at this when pushing a Speer 160 grain Ballistic Tip 7mm bullet from the 7mm Mauser at 2600 fps or so...it’s B.C. was .354 and its shape was fairly blunt and my old notes show a 400 yard drop of 26 inches. The 6.5/160 RNSN would certainly do bit better than that.

For an all around bullet to take game up to big black bear and big deer the 129 grain Hornady spire point is my first choice...the Nosler 125 grain would be second. For varmint hunting I would use the 100 Hornady spire point (using 44 grains of 4064/ 3382 fps), for larger game in the elk class the Hornady 140 spire point or the Nosler 140 Partition. The Nosler is probably a stronger bullet for big game...I haven’t yet tested them in wet phone books but will...in fact I will test all of them from 100 grains to 160 grains and then we will know for sure about how they perform. These are my first test findings and a lot more has to be done...especially bullet performance and velocity tests...tough work but some one has to do it...I’ll report on it soon.