ve just returned from the field with my two M96's, and I have good news to report for folks who want to duplicate the prickskytte Swede military 6.5 x 55 (M41) round.
Folks with the M96 Swedes who want to use the iron sight settings (300 meters to 2000 meters) may have success with the recipe I've identified here.
This military round was made by Norma and Hirtenberger, according to my sources, and used 46.3 grains of a powder called NC1220. The bullet was a 143 grain bullet, and NOT a 139 grain bullet as is often misreported. Weighing the pulled bullets from the very accurate Swedish military ammo showed bullet weight variations as much as .7 grains! But it shoots very well, nonetheless...
I examined some NC1220, and found it looked very much like Alliant's Reloder 22. Both the NC 1220 and the Reloader 22 were/are supposedly made by Bofors in Sweden. I burned some of each, and they smell the same. Volume tests of 46.3 grains of each powder (I obtained the NC1220 from disassembled M41 rounds) were the same as well.
I checked my reloading manuals, and found that 46.3 grains of RL22 is safe with the 142 grain Sierra Matchking in this chambering.
An aside: Please note that I am not introducing an unknown powder into a handload. That would be foolish. What I've done is to make some comparisons of an unknown powder with a known, existing powder.
I shot prone, from sandbags at 300 yards, and was of course using the M96's iron sights. (I don't "bubbadize" Swedes!) I fired two of the Swedish M41 prickskytte rounds at the target, and charted their impacts. The first was from an oiled barrel, and it hit about 4 inches low and 2 inches left. The second hit about where I expected it to, around 6 inches high (zero would be 300 meters, not yards).
I then fired five shots of the 142 grain Sierra Matchking pushed by 46.3 grains of RL22, and these came right in with the second M41 round, in a group that was just a shade over 4 inches (courtesy of one of those shots). Vertically, however, these rounds were all within 2 inches. The 4 inch spread was certainly due to whipping and reversing winds.
The wind subsided, and I fired three more of the 142 SMK/46.3 RL22 load, and two more of the M41 loads. All of these were MOA with the exception of one of the M41's, which went high enough to open the vertical group size up to a little over 4.5 inches. That could have been me, since lighting was getting tricky.
I smelled the fired cases of the M41's and the RL22 load, and the burned powder smelled the same...
I have tentatively concluded that 46.3 grains of RL22 and Sierra's 142 grain Matchking is the equivalent of the M41 prickskytte round. The Matchking is certainly a better bullet, and probably has the BC advantage since it is a hollow point. For this reason, the Sierra Matchking may hit a bit higher than the Swede's sight settings at ranges beyond about 600 meters.
One more thing worth mentioning. Four of the 142 grain Sierra Matchking rounds formed a vertical line, 1.75" in length, in the center of the target. Two more were within an inch of this group, one on each side. This gave me a near 2/3 MOA six shot group at 300 yards. Of course the rest of the shots opened this all up well beyond MOA if all dozen were counted. But all 12 shots, including wind blown shots and the M41 rounds, were well under 6 inches...
Under the right conditions, I would expect this to be a reliable MOA recipe, or perhaps better than that in a scoped rifle...
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