Here's the thing.
The 6.5x55 is chambered in rifles that are "weaker" than today's modern sporting rifles such as the Remington 700 that the OP mentions.
This means that if you have both the older milsurps on hand as well as a modern sporting rifle you need to be extremely careful to mark your cartridges and containers.
Like the OP I was disappointed with the velocities I was getting from the loads listed in my manuals. I was OK with them in my M38s and M96/K98 Mausers because they work well in those platforms.
Accuracy wasn't the issue. Trajectory WAS the issue, especially beyond 300 yards.
I started playing with loads for the 260 Remington. I also made sure I used Lapua cases.
The 6.5 Swede case has more capacity than the 260 Rem but not so much that there will be spectacular gains.
Again, CAUTION is the BYWORD.
I settled on a load of IMR7828SSC over CCI250 magnum primers under 140 grain bullets. The velocities, measured with a magnetospeed, are slightly over 2900fps out of my Tikka T3. Accuracy is exceptional.
One thing, you NEED TO USE well constructed 6.5 mm bullets for this much velocity. Especially if your shots are mostly at a hundred yards or less. Hornady Interlocks would be the least I would use and I'm not saying bad things about them. Lesser bullets tend to be explosive at short ranges.
My loads are safe in my rifle. I will decline to give out the recipe because there will always be some nimrod that will try to run them through an ag42b or one of the 38/96/94 type Mausers. A decent K98 should be ok but BE CAREFUL.
I really like IMR7828SSC in the 6.5x55 because of its burn curve. I use it in my 7x57 as well as my 6.5x57.
I suspect, because of the lengthened curve throat erosion will become an issue much quicker than with other powders.
The powders available today can be a blessing and add a whole new life to century old cartridges and allow them to perform to whole new potentials. The 6.5x55 is a good example of this.
The 6.5x55 is chambered in rifles that are "weaker" than today's modern sporting rifles such as the Remington 700 that the OP mentions.
This means that if you have both the older milsurps on hand as well as a modern sporting rifle you need to be extremely careful to mark your cartridges and containers.
Like the OP I was disappointed with the velocities I was getting from the loads listed in my manuals. I was OK with them in my M38s and M96/K98 Mausers because they work well in those platforms.
Accuracy wasn't the issue. Trajectory WAS the issue, especially beyond 300 yards.
I started playing with loads for the 260 Remington. I also made sure I used Lapua cases.
The 6.5 Swede case has more capacity than the 260 Rem but not so much that there will be spectacular gains.
Again, CAUTION is the BYWORD.
I settled on a load of IMR7828SSC over CCI250 magnum primers under 140 grain bullets. The velocities, measured with a magnetospeed, are slightly over 2900fps out of my Tikka T3. Accuracy is exceptional.
One thing, you NEED TO USE well constructed 6.5 mm bullets for this much velocity. Especially if your shots are mostly at a hundred yards or less. Hornady Interlocks would be the least I would use and I'm not saying bad things about them. Lesser bullets tend to be explosive at short ranges.
My loads are safe in my rifle. I will decline to give out the recipe because there will always be some nimrod that will try to run them through an ag42b or one of the 38/96/94 type Mausers. A decent K98 should be ok but BE CAREFUL.
I really like IMR7828SSC in the 6.5x55 because of its burn curve. I use it in my 7x57 as well as my 6.5x57.
I suspect, because of the lengthened curve throat erosion will become an issue much quicker than with other powders.
The powders available today can be a blessing and add a whole new life to century old cartridges and allow them to perform to whole new potentials. The 6.5x55 is a good example of this.
