6.5 X 55 mm

[Hawk]

Unique has always bee my go to powder for midrange loads.

 

[KHornet]

I like those 2" pasters. I got some orange at 1 1/2 that I will be trying. I use them on sheets of white butcher paper, and they stand out well enough for my old eyes to see with issue sights at 50 yds.

 

[9.3X62AL]

Oh, you can believe it, Ben. RUSTY. LAME. SLOW. I did manage to assemble 100 of 38-55 with cast bullets, though. Nothing blew up or fell over (yet).

The 6.5 x 55 Swede is a great caliber. My example is a little different--not a milsurp, but a Ruger 77R. It will do 3/4" five-shotters with ANY jacketed 140 grain bullet, run them at 2700 FPS in the bargain. Lyman #266469 @ .265" stays well inside 2" at 100 yards, closer to 1.5" actually. Throat is a few tenths larger than groove (EXACTLY .264", very un-Ruger-esque) and lands span .256". 6 rights @ 1 turn/9.5". Per Speer #13.

 

[KHornet]

Would like a Ruger in 6.5x55, but cant justify another rifle at this stage in life. They are fine rifles however, have fired a few rounds thru one that was a tack driver.

 

[Klaus]

Hi Ben

very good report

the Swede is the most accurate i have shoot with jacketed or cast

50 m distance
Battlesight raised up to 500m
10,5 grs Lovex Do36 Lyman Bullet ,Bens Red GC

14 grs Lovex D060

same as above

fortunately they will group with the same settings on 100m distance also

very happy

Klaus

 

[Ben]

Klaus,

A great report. Good Shooting with your Swede 6.5 ! !
What is your Lovex DO 36 powder similar to in burn rate to our available powders here in the USA ?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Klaus]

Hi Ben , Lovex is like Accurate Powder
Do36 is Acc No. 5 and Do60 is XMP 5744
Lovex proceed for Accurate in Europe so fa i was informed.

By the way one question : i have load some rounds 8x57 have done a light Tapercrimp
may should this be dangerous
normally i do not crimp in any way

Klaus

 

[Ben]

Your taper crimp won't harm anything ( unless it is actually changing the bullet diameter of your cast bullet inside the case ) .
However, it may not help anything either.

Ben

 

[9.3X62AL]

Welcome to the site, Klaus.

Taper crimping at a reasonable strength should cause no safety issues in and of itself. I have taper-crimped untold thousands of cast-bullet autopistol rounds over the years without incident. The only problems I can discern with taper-crimping would occur via excessive application of the crimp effort, which has the potential to reduce bullet diameter and thereby affect accuracy. Extending that thought along, lead alloys are kind of a "dead" metal--they have little to no "spring-back" after compression. 70/30 cartridge brass, on the other hand, has some level of spring-back. The potential exists when excessively applying a taper crimp to compress the bullet and have its surrounding case mouth spring back after die contact, reducing or destroying neck tension holding the bullet. Cartridges like the 9mm Luger and 40 S&W in this condition can "telescope" bullets during feedramp contact while cycling, and deeper-seated bullets can result in elevated pressures. There has been some language in past Speer Reloading Manuals in their 9mm Luger section to this effect, which see for details. (I don't have the current 14th Edition on hand).

 

[KHornet]

One should be careful of to much taper crimp on ctgs like 380, 9mm, 40, 45acp etc. To much taper crimp may/will allow the ctg which headspaces on the front rim to be driven forward enough to cause the fireing pin to fail to fully engage the primer. I know from experience.

 

[KHornet]

Shot about 150 rds. of 6.5x55 cast today, most of which I had loaded 7-8 years ago. As I needed brass, and having two rifles, I now have an ample supply of empties to start loading some of the loads that Ben has recommended. I shot about 40 rds of the 17i0 Cruze Missle, over about 3 different powders. 50 yds for all shooting. With the 1909 rifle as issue, they all went into about 3" or so, and I was just trying to get them shot, so didn't think that was all bad. T'was about 40 degrees, but a fair amount of wind made it seem a lot colder. All that I shot were lubed with either Lar's Can Red, or 45-45-10 alox lube, and Can Red is not known to shoot so pretty good at temps much under 50 degrees, and I did not run even a patch down between loads. The 266469 shot very well over 15 gr of 2400, but started opening up a bit at 15.5 and 16.0 gr. One box was 469 over 11 gr of Unique and ii shot tolerably well, with 12 or more rounds going into 3"+/- a bit. Loads were with a bunch of different brass, RP/Win/Norma/PMC etc. Groups with the 2.5 scoped 1906 rifle shot far better than the groups I shot with the as issue 1909. Consider temp, wind etc. it was a fairly decent morning. Brad and I both shot at 100 on a metal target about 16-17". Brad with 44M Marlin, me with scoped Swed. Both of us hit consistently. Me with 16 gr load of 2400 under 496, Brad shooting 265 gr in the Marlin over I think, 20 gr. of 2400. Now to start sizeing, cleaning, trimming, priming etc brass so I can start loading what I shot today. Anxious to try the 135 gr. NOE PB. with Ben's load of Unique.

 

[Ben]

I'm also anxious, right along with you ! !