6.5 55 is a good LR cal. A gentleman on the board Vviking, who will hopefully tune into this soon uses a mauser action (I believe M96 but my memory escapes) exclusively for LR shooting and he gets CCB hits on out 950yrd gong all the time. The cal doesn't run out there either. Its no mile caliber but those long slippery bullets cut through the wind well and can make for a very good shooter in a good rifle with a tuned load.
That man's 6.5x55 Mauser rifle is a marvel to behold and to shoot.
Just now stumbled on this thread ...
Both meself and 'Ol Fugly the 6.5 here, .. we are just a'blushing away from all those kind compliments ^.
After 35+ years of messing about with the M94 Swede Mauser platform, I'm finally ready to concede to it's inherent limitations.
Velocity. Or rather, .. the lack thereof ...
140gr/2675 fps is the highest I've ever achieved with 1/2moa, at sane pressures.
Partly due to action limitations, partly to the oversize .265-.266" groove Swede M38 nos arsenal barrels I've grown so fond of.
That speed with a .600 bc projectile goes transonic out at 1300-1400 yards. And with such low energy levels present to spot one's misses with, also becomes problematical.
So... what's a feller to do about that? ....
BUILD A NEW SHOOTER, thats what.
(hopefully, be my
last custom build) (I'm a poor guy, and getting somewhat long in the tooth y'see ...)
The goal is 2900+fps at 1/2 moa.
My last '98 FN Supreme 6.5/06 build exceeded both those parameters nicely ... but alas, the bore charred itself at 900 rounds, basically just when some tricky digital scale issues finally got resolved. (Determinator ... binned to circular file, hehe) ... the economics are just not acceptable with this badly overbore /06 case..
Sooo, ... how be we take an inch off the back of that otherwise accurate montana rifleworks magnum contour barrel, rechamber to 6.5x55 ... call it another vvik "~custom~" rifle! Ha haaa!.