6.5x55 the little overachiever.

I've been fascinated by the 6.5x55 swede ever since I read about it in the 1966 Gun Digest in 1967. the 7x57 Mauser and 280 Remington intrigued me too.

The idea of a 6.5 mm rifle had been with me since I was about 10 or 11 and this old log pirate in Port Hardy I used to hang around with had a handful of 6.5×54mm Mannlicher–Schönauer cartridges laying around the binnacle in the wheelhouse of his old boat, mixed with some 9mm Luger cartridges. I liked the long pencil-like 160 grain bullets in the Mannlicher brass. I was fascinated by the carbine hanging over his bunk too.

"What kind of gun is that Einar?' I asked, because it had a bull stock just like the "army" guns I saw in the Simpson Sears catalogue. His stick had been broken and it was repaired with a splint of yellow cedar lashed on with fishing twine.

"That's a Man-Licker," he said, confirming to me that he had a real army gun.

It was many years before I finally got a 6.5, a Swede, when SIR was selling the M96 rifles for $49.99.

I turned down an M38 when Lever had them on for $69.99 in the 1970s because I thought the threaded barrels meant they'd been used for grenade launchers. lever wasn't kind enough to tell me they were to thread on the wooden dummy bullet shredder.

Anywa, I bought an M38 at a gun show and was kind of disappointed in it as it was a poor example and realized I didn't want to hunt with iron sights any more anyway.

I looked at some sporterized Swedes at gun shows but nothing turned my crank.

Then I had the bright idea of making a poor man's custom rifle. I had a badly Bubbaed '95 Mauser carbine so I ordered a new M38 barrel from Tradex and had a retired gunsmith friend put it on the receiver of the Mauser, which had been drilled for scope mounts. He donated a sporter stock too and I scoped it but the holes were so out of line that I could never line the scope up correctly. Besides, the bolt locked up tight after every shot and had to be knocked open with a 2x4.

Then a buddy who had too much money and guns or both who was in the habit of buying more guns when he didn't need them gave me a 1955 Husqvarna lightweight model 4100 in 7 x57 Mauser and I figured that was close enough and abandoned the idea of getting a 6.5x55 sporter.

Around the same time he loaned me a ZKK rifle in 6.5x55 but as much as I liked the calibre and the fact that I had purchased scope mounts for it, I didn't like the rifle. it was way heavier than I like a hunting rifle to be and that's a deal-breaker for me. The kind of friend he was, He would've just said "keep it" if I liked but I returned it.

Along the way he gave me a custom rifle in 280 Remington on a Brno action and another Husqvarna 4100 lightweight in 270 so with three rifles now in the same realm of the 6.5x55, I realized that as much as I like it, I won't be getting one. I still have the old '96 musket and some Swedish surplus ammo if I want to go shoot some 6.5x55 though.
 
hawk-i said:
I just took a minute and checked the Howa site, Nope no 6.5x55 chamberings but lots of CM

https://www.howausa.com/

and Ruger only in one model that I can see, the African
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In North America the 6.5 CM is being driving by American marketing. Gotta sell new guns; create a desire, then sell a product to fulfill that desire. Next come "mine is better than yours" mentality to justify it. What ever makes you happy.
 
I will give the 6.5 Swede a try!
I ordered a tikka T3x lite ss, leupold vx5hd and atrs light rail and rings combo.
This will be a light setup.
 
odsixer said:
Makes me wonder why we needed a 6.5 Creedmoor, marketing? Or is the Creedmoor that much more accurate?
Click to expand...

The Creedmore has less capacity, than the x55, even less than 260. Its super short, long necked, to fit in a short action while supporting long target bullets magazine length. Personally I will stick to a good.cup n core or premium bullet for hunting, and drive them faster than 303 velocity. Mostly it's marketing, just one of 40 or.so calibers cabable of hunting most north American species. The limitation is always the individual rifle, and the nut.behind the trigger.
 
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