Seating the long 140's in 6.5x55 and the Tikka t3 mag

V

Vern Kowalski

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Hi everyone, can anyone tell me if there will be any issues when handloading the long 140 gr bullets with the Tikka t3 chambered in the 6.5x55 swede? Is Tikka's factory detachable mag long enough for the cartridges to fit and will there be any issues with cycling the bolt and feeding to the chamber? I appreciate your feedback.

Thanks,
Vern.
 
My son shoots a 6.5x55 T3 mostly with 140gr Partitions seated out to 3.016" ............140gr Hornady at 3.014"...............140gr BT Sierra at 3.00" OAL Make a dummy round [no powder/no primer ,mark all the bullet that sticks out of the case with a black sharpie.Close the bolt and you will feel the bullet engaging the throat /rifling and it will be marked.Slowly seat the bullet a little deeper each time [recoloring with the sharpie]until it comes out unmarked.Then see if it still fits the mag,you must leave a little wiggle room for the reserve bullets to stack.......some sacrifice a case and split the neck crossways with a Dremel or hacksaw......this allows the bullet when chambered to self adjust.Then seat a little deeper as to not make contact with the rifling and still fit the mag......bullets like Berger and Barnes X will need to be seated deeper as they have no lead core and are longer in profile...the ogive also becomes a factor.Harold
 
I load the 142gr Matchking to 3.10" and they fit fine in the magazine. If you try and use a COL any longer, there won't be enough bullet shank in the case neck for proper neck tension.
 
If you're interested, I use method of determining throat length and seating depth that is pretty straight forward.

First, I soft seat a flat base bullet upside down in an unprimed case, and chamber it gently into the the rifle. Care must be taken to ensure the bullet is not partially withdrawn on extraction, so repeating the process several times might be in order. The lead will push the bullet back into the case providing a mirror image of the bolt face to lead length.

The next step is to take the bullet I intend to load, press it firmly into the muzzle if the rifle, then turn it to scribe a line around its circumference. If you seat this bullet in a case so that the circumscribed line matches the length of the dummy round with the inverted bullet, you have seated it to kiss the lands.

From this point you can choose to decrease the seating depth to create a degree of jam, or if you prefer, increase it to create a bit of jump. If the magazine length is too short for the bullet being seated into the lands, you'll have to live with some jump, but 6.5X55s aren't normally known to be poor shooters. Just as a point of comparison, Nosler factory ammo Trophy Grade 6.5X55 with 140 gr AccuBond has an OAL of 2.885".
 
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Mike,

i have a box of 6.5x55se with nosler custom in 140 grains accubond and my COAL is 3.008.5
in the same token the Sellier and Bellot regular 140 grains SP is 2.961.5

they all fitted in a Tikka T3 magazine and chamber Vern if it can helps ...
 
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