The Swedes ARE fine rifles. I had a pristine Model 96 example diring the mid-1990s for about a year, and sold it to a friend for what I had in it. I replaced it with a Ruger 77R within a year or so, and it took a deer for me in 2006 using a NosPart 140. It ran about 20 yards and dropped. The Ruger's bore is right on "spec"--.264" grooves and throat about 1/2 a thousandth larger. I had a .265" H&I sizer made up, and went to work using The Load (16.0 x 2400), stair-stepped from 13.0 to 16.0 grains under Lymans #266469 and #266673 (both borrowed for the test-drive). Using harshly-eyeballed castings and Hornady gas checks sized at .265", the Loverin out-shot the bore-rider significantly with all charge weights. The "673" fit the bore exactly--bore rider portion was a draggy slip fit at .256". But targets tell the tale--at 50 yards, it was close--but at 100 yards the Loverin was tighter-shooting. The Lyman mould I bought as a result of this outcome shoots just as well with its castings as the borrowed-mould's products did. Life is good.
The Ruger is like MAGIC with any 140 grain J-word. Run them from 2300-2700 FPS, and they go into 5/8"-7/8" at 100 yards--Hornady, Speer, Sierra, Nosler. Make doesn't matter. I have test series with varmint-weight bullets awaiting shoot-offs to assess this rifle's utility as a heavy varmint rig for long-range coyote strafing. Desert winds play hob with even 60 grainers from the 22-250, hoping the 6.5s reach out and dust off insolent song dogs.
