6.5x55

Well, for starters, the 160gr RN has a BC of about 0.283 and a good 140gr will be more like 0.520. The 140gr gives significantly more velocity and a far flatter trajectory along with less wind deflection due to the much higher BC. Just because the ogive is not right up to the rifling doesn't mean it will not shoot well. I have 160gr Norma rounds that look just as ridiculous as the above round from badbrass.
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The BC on a 156 grain Vulcan is .354 you can launch em at up 2850 fps (that is published data see above posts)

Even with the modest BC of the hornady and Norma Alaskans the diffrence in drop is of no real consequence compared to what you gain in SD.

The Cartridge was originally designed for the 160 grain bullet. The rifles are chambered and rifled for 160 grain bullets and the reputation of the cartridge as a great killer was gained using the 160 grain bullet.

So are you sticking with your answer that 3 inches of drop at 3oo yards is why you are a proponent of mismatching a bullet to the rifle at hand????

If it shoots good, go with it.
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As for the seating on that very accurate load posted above I do wonder how much runout you'd find in bullets seated that far out also I doubt you could run a bullet seated that far out through the magazine more then once or twice before it would get 'wiggly'. I also see a wonderful opportunity there for either leaving a bullet in the bore or jamming the bullet very deep into the case. Niether is a concern for plinking/BR but that aint no hunting round! How much of the bullet is in the Neck????

Why not just go totally Pope on it and seat the bullet in the lands and then add the case seperately behind it?

My ridiculous comment was not an aesthetic comment I seat 156 alaskans out further then the norma factory seats them so long cartridges are not a turn off to me.


I think the real reason that the 140s have taken off is because of the plethora of Premium bullets available. Hard for a salesman to sell you 100 -160 grain Hornadys for 30 bucks when you could get the same results afield by paying 75 for 50 140s.LOL
 
david doyle said:
The BC on a 156 grain Vulcan is .354 you can launch em at up 2850 fps (that is published data see above posts)

Even with the modest BC of the hornady and Norma Alaskans the diffrence in drop is of no real consequence compared to what you gain in SD.

The Cartridge was originally designed for the 160 grain bullet. The rifles are chambered and rifled for 160 grain bullets and the reputation of the cartridge as a great killer was gained using the 160 grain bullet.

So are you sticking with your answer that 3 inches of drop at 3oo yards is why you are a proponent of mismatching a bullet to the rifle at hand????


As for the seating on that very accurate load posted above I do wonder how much runout you'd find in bullets seated that far out also I doubt you could run a bullet seated that far out through the magazine more then once or twice before it would get 'wiggly'. I also see a wonderful opportunity there for either leaving a bullet in the bore or jamming the bullet very deep into the case. Niether is a concern for plinking/BR but that aint no hunting round! How much of the bullet is in the Neck????

Why not just go totally Pope on it and seat the bullet in the lands and then add the case seperately behind it?

My ridiculous comment was not an aesthetic comment I seat 156 alaskans out further then the norma factory seats them so long cartridges are not a turn off to me.


I think the real reason that the 140s have taken off is because of the plethora of Premium bullets available. Hard for a salesman to sell you 100 -160 grain Hornadys for 30 bucks when you could get the same results afield by paying 75 for 50 140s.LOL
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I would say lot's! They are in there solid! not much neck left to grip it , why would the bullet stay in the bore or get pushed in if you are not on the lands? All I do is chamber all rounds before going out and using for hunting. All I'm saying it works for me, $33.00 a box of 100, Here is a Picture
DSC01609.jpg

As for a hunting round, it also works for me!
IMG_2919.jpg
 
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why would the bullet stay in the bore or get pushed in if you are not on the lands?
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Nothing to do with the lands at all, I never said it did. What I was saying is that a bullet seated too far out has the tendancy to either not end up in the case or to end up too far in the case.

My refrence was to the amount of bullet in the neck. If you have enough neck tension/collet crimp to hold em great. Can run it through the action more then a few time with out changes to the OAL? If so great.

I also never said it was'nt working for you and thrice above commented that obviously you knew how to make your rifle shoot well. Your command of it has allowed you to take a bullet designed to work in another cartridge and make it work in your x55.
 
david doyle said:
Nothing to do with the lands at all, I never said it did. What I was saying is that a bullet seated too far out has the tendancy to either not end up in the case or to end up too far in the case.

My refrence was to the amount of bullet in the neck. If you have enough neck tension/collet crimp to hold em great. Can run it through the action more then a few time with out changes to the OAL? If so great.

I also never said it was'nt working for you and thrice above commented that obviously you knew how to make your rifle shoot well. Your command of it has allowed you to take a bullet designed to work in another cartridge and make it work in your x55.
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No Prob! DD, Just thought I was missing something?? I have not seen any changes to OAL after putting through the action. Thanks BB.
 
if a guy can find them , barnes used to make a x bullet in 140 grain that is very close to the same length of the 160 grain round nose , from the base of the bullet to where the nose engages the rifling .

not sure of the length of their tsx 130 bullet yet .

what i have seriously been thinking of doing lately is recutting the neck portion of the chamber in my swedish masuer , so the neck can be roughly 1/4 " longer so i can seat bullets like barnes tipped tsx 120grain and hornady's 120 gmx out to the rifling .

i was thinking of getting some 8mm mauser brass and working it down to 6.5 and trimming the neck roughly 1/4 longer , anealing several times during the resizing ( not sure if 8mm would provide enough brass for a quarter inch increase in length ) .

that way a guy can have the lighter bullets as close to the rifling as possible , and still have a decent amount of neck to hold the bullet in place .

with some of the lighter bullets this might also increase case capacity .
 
Under SAAMI, the base diameter of the 8X57 / 30-06 familly of brass is 0.4698" (-0.008 min) while the 6.5X55 is 0.477 (-0.008 min).

Then, the base of the 6.5X55 chamber is 0.4782" (+0.002 max) while the 8X57 chamber is 0.4710" (+0.002 max)

Using the 8X57 brass in a 6.5X55 may lead to excessive base expension and case case head separation, wich you really don't want to try in a M/94/96/38, believe me.

If you want to be tricky like that, you can either use once fire (nor resized) 8X57 brass or try reforming 9.3X62 brass instead, the base is much closer to the 6.5X55 one.
 
Baribal said:
Under SAAMI, the base diameter of the 8X57 / 30-06 familly of brass is 0.4698" (-0.008 min) while the 6.5X55 is 0.477 (-0.008 min).

Then, the base of the 6.5X55 chamber is 0.4782" (+0.002 max) while the 8X57 chamber is 0.4710" (+0.002 max)

Using the 8X57 brass in a 6.5X55 may lead to excessive base expension and case case head separation, wich you really don't want to try in a M/94/96/38, believe me.

If you want to be tricky like that, you can either use once fire (nor resized) 8X57 brass or try reforming 9.3X62 brass instead, the base is much closer to the 6.5X55 one.
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actually i was thinking i might have to use 9.3x57 brass so i would have enough material to create the long neck .

i think 9.3x62 would be too long , meaning too much trimming , and possibly having the case neck too thick on spots where the shoulder got pushed back .

i haven't measured the case heads recently , but i'm under the asumption that the remington and federal brass that i have now have almost the same size case heads as the same brass in 30-06 . when i find my calipers i'll measure then again .

i'm thinking that if a person is careful when fireforming , the slightly larger chamber shouldn't be a issue ...... similar to using 8mm once fired brass instead of virgin brass
 
if a guy can find them , barnes used to make a x bullet in 140 grain that is very close to the same length of the 160 grain round nose , from the base of the bullet to where the nose engages the rifling .
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Now that is an interesting option.
 
burnt_servo said:
i was thinking of getting some 8mm mauser brass and working it down to 6.5 and trimming the neck roughly 1/4 longer , anealing several times during the resizing ( not sure if 8mm would provide enough brass for a quarter inch increase in length ) .

that way a guy can have the lighter bullets as close to the rifling as possible , and still have a decent amount of neck to hold the bullet in place .

with some of the lighter bullets this might also increase case capacity .
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As Baribal already mentioned.....not a good idea.

By the way necking down 8mm brass to 6.5 is a pain.....I tried it since I have a 6.5x257 and use 7x57 brass as its easy to neck down to 6.5

Totally not worth it....just use the brass meant for your chamber...I would be worried about the case head dimensions being smaller on x57 familly .
 
Lapua's premium bullet, both for reloading and factory ammo is the 140 grain Naturalis solid. These are very accurate, with 98% + weight retention and always expand very well.

Regards,

Peter
 
ok found my calipers ;

acording to the norma website ;

7x57 brass measures, at the rim , .476" ..... at the case head , .473"
8x57 brass measures , at the rim . .470 " case head , .470"
9.3x57 , same as 8x57
9.3x62 , rim .470" casehead .476"

30-06 family , including 308 family, .473 " casehead .471"

------------------------------

norma factory loaded ammo actual
size , rim .476" casehead .475"

norma once fired brass , rim .476" casehead .476"

remington multiple fired brass
( more than 5 times ) ,
only 2/3's neck sized , rim .472" casehead .473"




anyways . looks like my best bet , if i'm going to increase the length of the neck on my 6.5x55 , is using 7x57 brass , since they fall between the sizes of the 6.5x55 reminton brass and the norma brass .
 
burnt_servo said:
looks like my best bet , if i'm going to increase the length of the neck on my 6.5x55 , is using 7x57 brass
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So you never have to trim your brass ?

7x57 max is 2.235"; trim length at 2.225

6.5x55 max. is 2.165 and trim to is 2.155


Is your chamber cut with a longer neck ?.....last time I check I couldnt' get the cartridge neck into the throat/leade.......

not to mention the 4-7 thou case head expansion your going to "experience" .
 
It is silly to use other than 6.5X55 SE brass and there's lots of fine bullets from 100 grains to 160. Don't belive there is better than 140 solid, used to shoot moose in Finland and Canada with best results.
 
Attention said:
This will shoot 1/2 moa to 300 yards in my Sako 85, but the pressures are to high for your mauser and should be worked up for your T3.
45.7gn IMR 4350 Hornady SST130gn COL 3.153 Win brass CCI primers
(P.S. this is more than 2 grain over book max load)
If you want to experiment a bit, so far for me 130gn bullets shot better with IMR 4350 and 140gn bullets shot better with RL22
Have fun finding an accurate load.
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That load still should be more than safe, my reloading manual has 47gr of 4350 as max load for a 140gr spitzer
 
well was out today shooting 140 hornady sp infront of 42g of H414.... shot well at 100 but opend up quite a bit at 200. im gonna try R22 next
 
For my 1910 CG M96 It likes 42.7 grains of RE-22 at 3.000
I don't have a chronogragh so I don't know the speeds. But I found it alot more accurate in my rifle then 44 or 45 grains of RE-22
 
madluk18 said:
For my 1910 CG M96 It likes 42.7 grains of RE-22 at 3.000
I don't have a chronogragh so I don't know the speeds. But I found it alot more accurate in my rifle then 44 or 45 grains of RE-22
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Probably hovering at or beneath factory ammunition speeds but If it works for you, why change it. I found my old CG like around 46.5 grains (rp brass). For my Tikka I have to turn up a notch or two.......(win brass this time).
 
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