Hunting with a 6.5 x 55

Well I did some looking around and it is a Ljungman AG42

It was given to me by a friend of the fanmily. I shot it last year (have no idea what the load was) and it was a joy to shoot with almost no re-coil.

The empties sure shoot out, I'd say a good 10 feet out and right. I lost a few in the grass.:D

Well, I'll give the 95's a go and look into picking up some 140 interbonds or accubonds.

For information sake, any idea what its worth?
 
For cheap shots, use the Remington 140 gr. PSP Core-Lokt. In every 6.5 rifles I tried it, it had outstanding precision (And I was not really what can can call a Remington believer before I tried it). For long range, use a boat tail design.
 
Re22 or IMR 4530 for 140gr and IMR 4350 for 160gr.Been shooting game with mine since 1980.Many deer and moose later....................If it ain't broke don't fix it! Harold
 
i have always loaded the 160 seirras or 156 Normas.
I never take a shot further than 200 meters anyway, so don't need a super fast boat tail, but those big round nosed bullets sure stop stuff!!:D
Cat
 
the 6.5x55 os a 140gr round, swedish mauser sights are configured for 140 grain bullets at roughly 2700-2800 fps. I and other members on cgn can back me up, i can shoot 1" 5 round groups at 100 yards with the sierra hpbt 142 gr bullet at 3.150" oal over 38 grains of imr 4064. This load works very well with the ag42 and bolt rifles (including my new tikka that shoots sub inch at 300yds with the same load)
 
Mumptia said:
Good to know BB,

I have to admit, I don't have the same level of confidence in that 6.5 bullet as I do in a .30 cal. I know its all in the head.
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Consider for a moment that the Swedes happily use this caliber on their moose which are approx the size of our Elk.

beretta boy said:
Mumps:

For the 6.5, I've found Nosler 120 Ballistic Tips worked very well on deer and 14o Nosler Partitions to be very reliable on moose.
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While I haven't tried this combo on a critter myself, others have told me the same combo as well.
and my hand load experiments at the range have been very pleasing in the way of accuracy.

Also +2 on what Savage12 said. :)
 
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Funny thing is the Swedes did a study[hunter survey] on various calibers used on moose and how far they travelled after hit.The .375 H+H killed no better than the 6.5X55 dead is dead!It works fine on AB moose too and you'll always have a exit hole with 156-160gr slugs.[42gr IMR 4350] Harold
 
Savage12 said:
the 6.5x55 os a 140gr round, swedish mauser sights are configured for 140 grain bullets at roughly 2700-2800 fps. I and other members on cgn can back me up, i can shoot 1" 5 round groups at 100 yards with the sierra hpbt 142 gr bullet at 3.150" oal over 38 grains of imr 4064. This load works very well with the ag42 and bolt rifles (including my new tikka that shoots sub inch at 300yds with the same load)
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But when they changed up the rifle to the carbine the needed to speed up the twist because of the new 156(?) grain bullet would not stabilize in the slower twist bullets, no?
Not that it matters, 140, 156, 160, they all work well in my 6.5's!:D
Cat
 
on another continent, i shot LOTS of deer with the 6.5x55, using
Norma ammo with the 140 grain load.
30% of moose get taken with this calibre in the nordic countries.
if i just could find another one...
 
The 6.5X55 is blessed with a broad range of bullet weights, and of the cartridges that bridge the gap between varmint shooting and big game, it is the one of the best for use on big game.

A sleek high BC 140 gr bullet can be driven at a velocity that produces the almost perfect balance between flat trajectory and reliable terminal performance. Any faster and the traditional bullets will begin to fail, but any slower is detrimental to long range shooting. This would be a great bullet weight for any North American medium size game that is shot at longish ranges.

The 160 gr round nose would be a fine bullet for moose or African plains game, and again the velocity insures reliable terminal performance. I draw the line at enthusiastically recommending the 6.5X55 for dangerous game, because I think that even with the 160 gr bullet that bullet mass is a bit lacking for game in this class. But for large non dangerous big game, the 6.5X55 loaded with a round nose 160 gr bullet can be used effectively and has a reasonable expectation of killing game of this class with a single shot from any angle within it's range limitation.
 
The original military load (called M/94) was a 10.10 g (156 grains), round nose at a velocity of 700 m/s (2300 fps). Then, they changed it for what would be known as the Törped M/41 Prick wich was a sharp point, boat tail of 139 grains (9.07 g) at a m.v. of 793 m/s (2600 fps). The working pressure of these loads was 320 ATM (47 000 PSI) MAP.

One can find lots of infos on the ammunitions here; http://www.amkat.se/index.php?Env=Bas&Menu_A=10&Menu_B=0&Menu_C=0&Menu_Value_A=Home&Menu_Value_B=
 
I shoot a couple 260s which are almost identical in velocity to the 6.5x55. For varmints, the 95 grain Vmax rules. 120-140 grainers for deer
 
I havent' made up my mind but Im think of trying 129 gr. SST's this fall.

As far as Factory stuff the Remington 140gr offering is not bad and groups 1.5" or better

A while back I was "deactivating" some old Computer Hard drives and found that the 6.5 Remington Core lockt Bullet would not fail until penetrating 2 hard drives and smashing itself on the third.....food for thought.
 
I have always used RL-22 for my 6.5x55 and 140 grain Hdys for deer. I have not used the rifle for any other game. But the deer I have taken a total of 2 where with great success.
 
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I have taken 2 whitetails with the 6.5x55 swede. I used Winchester factory 140gr bullets. The first was from about 100 ft away, & the second was about 30 ft. The 100 ft shot was a complete pass through lung shot, bangflop. The 30 ft shot was another complete pass through vitals shot. Deer went about 40 ft before collapsing. I really like this caliber & would not hesitate to use it on any NA big game. IMHO I would recommend staying away from the smaller "varmint" type bullets for big game. If I use the swede again I will be handloading some Barnes TSX bullets for it.

George
 
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