6.5mm questions... 6.5 Mauser vs Swede

The practical choice in ammo and rifle selection would be the swede. Zastava made some 6.5x57's and were on the market a couple years back, should of bought one myself but i cant source any for sale.

I bought a Zastava 6.5 x 55 from Tradex about a year ago, and honestly, one of the best gun purchases I have ever made!! It is designated SE so will handle higher pressures; 1:9 twist for heavier bullets; but a few months ago I could only find 95 gr. and they shot OK, but it likes 120 Sierras much better.
 
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Popular in break action doubles and combination rifles... for obvious reasons.


Almost every kipplauf review I see, the rifle is chambered in 6.5x57

Italian, French, German etc

I have never seen a double in 6.5x57 but that’s not saying much, a combo would be a great deer gun

Popularity may be due to older laws in some Central European countries forbidding military cartridges. Were rimmed variants allowed?


Not to mention “6.5 magic”
 
I want to shoot a classic round.

Well, if you want to get way off the reservation, there's the .256 Newton dating back to 1913... the original high velocity 6.5mm chambering. And then there's the not quite as old 6.5x64 Brenneke - which is kind of like a 6.5-30/06.

Of course, that means that you won't mind the extra costs as far as brass and reloading dies goes.

But you WILL be the only one on the range with those rifles. Practically guaranteed. Maybe even the only one in the entire NWT with a rifle chambered in either of those calibers.

I load for and feed a 30 Newton and a 35 Newton. I'd do it again. I enjoy the ownership of those chamberings and the history behind them. I do not try and kid myself that they somehow or other perform better than similar chamberings that I could buy off the shelf rather than have to reload for.

BTW, my interest in the Newtons began when I found a very corroded but still readable 30 Newton case high up on a mountain top while hunting bighorn sheep, back about 1972. Lying under the lee side of a rock on the slope of the basin. My brother and I had backpacked into that basin, a place where we thought that area's outfitter didn't hunt because he had better sheep areas elsewhere in his territory. It was kind of fascinating to sit there that night, wondering about the man who had been hunting up there with a 30 Newton way back then, as we were doing then. Did he use that rock to shoot at a ram on the other side of the basin? Did he even have a scope on what was probably a Newton rifle? Like us, he had humped his ass off to get up into that basin.

The oddest things turn you down different paths through your life, in hunting and many other things.
 
Well, if you want to get way off the reservation, there's the .256 Newton dating back to 1913... the original high velocity 6.5mm chambering. And then there's the not quite as old 6.5x64 Brenneke - which is kind of like a 6.5-30/06.

Of course, that means that you won't mind the extra costs as far as brass and reloading dies goes.

But you WILL be the only one on the range with those rifles. Practically guaranteed. Maybe even the only one in the entire NWT with a rifle chambered in either of those calibers.

I load for and feed a 30 Newton and a 35 Newton. I'd do it again. I enjoy the ownership of those chamberings and the history behind them. I do not try and kid myself that they somehow or other perform better than similar chamberings that I could buy off the shelf rather than have to reload for.

BTW, my interest in the Newtons began when I found a very corroded but still readable 30 Newton case high up on a mountain top while hunting bighorn sheep, back about 1972. Lying under the lee side of a rock on the slope of the basin. My brother and I had backpacked into that basin, a place where we thought that area's outfitter didn't hunt because he had better sheep areas elsewhere in his territory. It was kind of fascinating to sit there that night, wondering about the man who had been hunting up there with a 30 Newton way back then, as we were doing then. Did he use that rock to shoot at a ram on the other side of the basin? Did he even have a scope on what was probably a Newton rifle? Like us, he had humped his ass off to get up into that basin.

The oddest things turn you down different paths through your life, in hunting and many other things.

Don't know about the only guy in the territories. Back in Yellowknife in the early 90's I met a guy who had one. Nice rifle. Of course, he has to be in his 80's now. - dan
 
Well, if you want to get way off the reservation, there's the .256 Newton dating back to 1913... the original high velocity 6.5mm chambering. And then there's the not quite as old 6.5x64 Brenneke - which is kind of like a 6.5-30/06.

Of course, that means that you won't mind the extra costs as far as brass and reloading dies goes.

But you WILL be the only one on the range with those rifles. Practically guaranteed. Maybe even the only one in the entire NWT with a rifle chambered in either of those calibers.

I load for and feed a 30 Newton and a 35 Newton. I'd do it again. I enjoy the ownership of those chamberings and the history behind them. I do not try and kid myself that they somehow or other perform better than similar chamberings that I could buy off the shelf rather than have to reload for.

BTW, my interest in the Newtons began when I found a very corroded but still readable 30 Newton case high up on a mountain top while hunting bighorn sheep, back about 1972. Lying under the lee side of a rock on the slope of the basin. My brother and I had backpacked into that basin, a place where we thought that area's outfitter didn't hunt because he had better sheep areas elsewhere in his territory. It was kind of fascinating to sit there that night, wondering about the man who had been hunting up there with a 30 Newton way back then, as we were doing then. Did he use that rock to shoot at a ram on the other side of the basin? Did he even have a scope on what was probably a Newton rifle? Like us, he had humped his ass off to get up into that basin.

The oddest things turn you down different paths through your life, in hunting and many other things.
Very cool story, and an interesting calibre to keep alive.
 
Well, if you want to get way off the reservation, there's the .256 Newton dating back to 1913... the original high velocity 6.5mm chambering. And then there's the not quite as old 6.5x64 Brenneke - which is kind of like a 6.5-30/06.

Of course, that means that you won't mind the extra costs as far as brass and reloading dies goes.

But you WILL be the only one on the range with those rifles. Practically guaranteed. Maybe even the only one in the entire NWT with a rifle chambered in either of those calibers.

I load for and feed a 30 Newton and a 35 Newton. I'd do it again. I enjoy the ownership of those chamberings and the history behind them. I do not try and kid myself that they somehow or other perform better than similar chamberings that I could buy off the shelf rather than have to reload for.

BTW, my interest in the Newtons began when I found a very corroded but still readable 30 Newton case high up on a mountain top while hunting bighorn sheep, back about 1972. Lying under the lee side of a rock on the slope of the basin. My brother and I had backpacked into that basin, a place where we thought that area's outfitter didn't hunt because he had better sheep areas elsewhere in his territory. It was kind of fascinating to sit there that night, wondering about the man who had been hunting up there with a 30 Newton way back then, as we were doing then. Did he use that rock to shoot at a ram on the other side of the basin? Did he even have a scope on what was probably a Newton rifle? Like us, he had humped his ass off to get up into that basin.

The oddest things turn you down different paths through your life, in hunting and many other things.

I would enjoy meeting and talking with you... Charles Newton's advancements are mostly forgotten these days and it's unfortunate: What he designed then has been on the cutting edge since and (still is) being copied now. My interest in a long distance .338" brought me circle to his 30/35. I don't think he necked to 338 but if I went off that way would have to call it 33 Newton in honour of the developer of the original rimless magnum. If memory serves the Canadian Imperial Magnums are the next earliest with similarities and these became the Dakotas.

That would be an interesting story to hear if that corroded 30 Newton case could tell it: the man who lost it there has probably moved to different hunting grounds. For a timeline (assuming it wasn't handloaded) commercial production of Newton rifles in this chambering ceased in the 1920s and the last ammo production in late 1930s: that case could have laid there between twenty and sixty years until you found it no doubt lost by a client of an outfitter post WW2.
 
"great deer cartridge" - is kinda "faint praise"? So is 243 Win, 6.5x55, 308 Win and so on. My latest, on the way, is a 257 Roberts. I suspect it will also be a "great deer cartridge". But, to be demonstrated, yet, to my satisfaction. My "go to" for 20 plus years was 150 Partition in a 7x57 for deer - Saskatchewan White Tail and Mule Deer... But, for sure a 6.5x57 will have a "cool cartridge" factor, that most other guys that you hunt with won't have.
 
"great deer cartridge" - is kinda "faint praise"? So is 243 Win, 6.5x55, 308 Win and so on. My latest, on the way, is a 257 Roberts. I suspect it will also be a "great deer cartridge". But, to be demonstrated, yet, to my satisfaction. My "go to" for 20 plus years was 150 Partition in a 7x57 for deer - Saskatchewan White Tail and Mule Deer... But, for sure a 6.5x57 will have a "cool cartridge" factor, that most other guys that you hunt with won't have.

Ok, what sobriquet would you prefer? Great coyote cartridge? Great ####tard cartridge? What meets your approval? - dan
 
Ok, what sobriquet would you prefer? Great coyote cartridge? Great ####tard cartridge? What meets your approval? - dan

Some on here would tell you that the .222, 30-30 .44-40, .44, .41, .357 magnums are good deer cartridges; it is a relative and experiential assessment.
 
Some on here would tell you that the .222, 30-30 .44-40, .44, .41, .357 magnums are good deer cartridges; it is a relative and experiential assessment.

And in the right circumstances, they all have been. My assessment was based on the bore size, relative velocity, and bullets available. Great deer cartridge it is. Even moose with the heavier bullets. I wouldn't choose it for grizzly hunting though. - dan
 
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