6.5x55?

Yep, 26 cal. Used to be Swedish military round. It is an excellent hunting target cartridge, useful for all but dangerous game in North America. Mild recoil makes it excellent for young shooters & persons who cannot tolerate heavy recoil.
 
Hi,
The 6.5x55 cartridge was adopted by the militaries of Sweden and Norway in about 1893. Many surplus military rifles were imported into North America after their military careers came to and end.
This is about the only 6.5mm cartridge ever to gain acceptance in North America, which is a shame because the ballistics of 6.5mm bullets are extraordinary.
A 140grain, 6.5mm bullet has the same cross-sectional density as a 190 grain .30 bullet. Down range ballistics are equally impressive. One only has to see how many long range matches are won with 6.5mm bullets and the renewed interest in bullets bigger than 5.56mm for military use.
In hunting rifles such as the Tikka T3 with its 1 in 8 rifling twist the best are 6.5mm bullets in the 140 to 160 grain range. My own T3 groups into an honest 3/4 of an inch with 140 grain Hornady Interlock factory ammunition.
This is a wonderful cartridge which has taken more moose in Scandinavia than all the other available calibres combined.
Tack
 
As far as not making brass for the 6.5x55 from 30-06 sized brass, it's mostly a fallacy.
When the huge influx of 6.5x55 rifles came into the country in the mid seventies, brass or loaded ammunition was long out of stock and production. There just wasn't any and no one would bring it in, neither in Canada or the US.

Those of us, lucky enough to have rifles chambered for this cartridge, had few choices. We could either pack the guns away, set back the bbls and rechamber to a wildcat, rebarrel to a popular cartridge orrrrrrr, make up brass from existing brass.

Now we had all heard of the great caveat of the 30-06 rims being a whopping .005in smaller than the 6.5x55 brass rims. Think about it for a few seconds, c'mon, it's not rocket science, .005in is nothing to really worry about. The lower pressures that the Swedish and Norwegian actions operated at were well within safety margins. There were untold thousands of rounds of 06 sized rimmed brass, such as 308Win, yes it's short but it does work well, 7x57, 8x57 and 30-06 were all used and another one, if you were lucky enough to be able to garner a supply was the IVI blank rounds used by the cadet corp and other military units for parade salute purposes. Just cut off the crimps and run through the sizer die. Good to go.

When the first new production Canadian made ammunition became available in the early eighties, the cartridges had 30-06 sized rims so I don't think that the normally overcautious manufacturers were to concerned about .005in rim dia differences. Of course, all of the brass made now, is of proper size, although I was given a few boxes of Privi Partisan brass that wouldn't fit in a shell holder, it was .010 to large at the rim, the base was ok.

bearhunter
 
Tack said:
This is about the only 6.5mm cartridge ever to gain acceptance in North America, which is a shame because the ballistics of 6.5mm bullets are extraordinary.

A 140grain, 6.5mm bullet has the same cross-sectional density as a 190 grain .30 bullet. Down range ballistics are equally impressive. One only has to see how many long range matches are won with 6.5mm bullets and the renewed interest in bullets bigger than 5.56mm for military use.

This is a wonderful cartridge which has taken more moose in Scandinavia than all the other available calibres combined.
Tack
Click to expand...

:agree:
Well said Tack, and also why this is my favorite cartridge. :)
 
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I use a newer gun, and load up to higher pressures. the reduction in thickness is not safe "for me" do what you will

bearhunter said:
As far as not making brass for the 6.5x55 from 30-06 sized brass, it's mostly a fallacy.
When the huge influx of 6.5x55 rifles came into the country in the mid seventies, brass or loaded ammunition was long out of stock and production. There just wasn't any and no one would bring it in, neither in Canada or the US.

Those of us, lucky enough to have rifles chambered for this cartridge, had few choices. We could either pack the guns away, set back the bbls and rechamber to a wildcat, rebarrel to a popular cartridge orrrrrrr, make up brass from existing brass.

Now we had all heard of the great caveat of the 30-06 rims being a whopping .005in smaller than the 6.5x55 brass rims. Think about it for a few seconds, c'mon, it's not rocket science, .005in is nothing to really worry about. The lower pressures that the Swedish and Norwegian actions operated at were well within safety margins. There were untold thousands of rounds of 06 sized rimmed brass, such as 308Win, yes it's short but it does work well, 7x57, 8x57 and 30-06 were all used and another one, if you were lucky enough to be able to garner a supply was the IVI blank rounds used by the cadet corp and other military units for parade salute purposes. Just cut off the crimps and run through the sizer die. Good to go.

When the first new production Canadian made ammunition became available in the early eighties, the cartridges had 30-06 sized rims so I don't think that the normally overcautious manufacturers were to concerned about .005in rim dia differences. Of course, all of the brass made now, is of proper size, although I was given a few boxes of Privi Partisan brass that wouldn't fit in a shell holder, it was .010 to large at the rim, the base was ok.

bearhunter
Click to expand...
 
Sorry blackout, but the .308 Winchester and 7.62x51 are virtually the same.

The 7.62x39 is the Russian/Chinese Ak47 and SKS cartridge.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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7.62x51mm NATO

7.62x51mm NATO rounds compared to AA (LR6) battery.
Type Rifle
Place of origin United States
Service history
In service 1954-present
Used by United States, NATO, others.
Wars Vietnam War, Gulf War, War in Afghanistan, Iraq War.
Specifications
Parent case .300 Savage
Case type Rimless, Bottleneck
Bullet diameter 7.82 mm (0.308 in)
Neck diameter 8.77 mm (0.345 in)
Shoulder diameter 11.53 mm (0.454 in)
Base diameter 11.94 mm (0.470 in)
Rim diameter 12.01 mm (0.473 in)
Rim thickness 1.27 mm (0.050 in)
Case length 51.18 mm (2.015 in)
Overall length 69.85 mm (2.750 in)
Rifling twist 1:12"
Primer type Large Rifle
Maximum pressure 415 MPa (60,200 psi)
Ballistic performance
Bullet weight/type Velocity Energy
146.6 gr (9.50 g) 2,756 ft/s (840 m/s) 2,472 ft·lbf (3,352 J)
Source: Popenker [1][2]

The 7.62x51mm NATO is a rifle cartridge developed in the 1940's and 50's as a standard for small arms among NATO countries. Specifications for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge are not identical to the commercial .308 Winchester though they are safely interchangeable.[3]

The 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge was introduced to military service in rifles and machine guns. It was introduced in U.S. service in the M14 rifle and M60 machine gun in the late 1950s. Fabrique Nationale's FAL became the most popular 7.62mm NATO rifle in Europe and served well into the early 1980s. The M14 was superseded in U.S. service as the infantry adopted the 5.56x45mm M16. However, the M14 and many other firearms that use the 7.62x51 round remain in service, especially in the case of sniper rifles and machine guns. The cartridge is used both by infantry and on mounted and crew-served weapons mounted to vehicles, aircraft and ships.
 
The case wall thickness is different as well, when the cartridge is initally fired they stretch differently and dimensions are not in the reloaders favour.
 
the 6.5 is a great cartridge indeed relativly flat shooting light recoil....ive never fired on in a bolt gun but out of my sweedish AG-42B theres almsot no felt recoil:)....
 
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