I've been hoarding a box of Northfork .264 120 grain hollowpoints and finally took time off from house building to try them. Deer season coming up and possibly some pronghorns as well and just wanted to be ready.

I chose IMR-4350 powder mostly as the best velocities seemed to favor that powder and I had a lot of it.

I used new 6.5 X 55 WIN brass and CCI #200 LR primers.

I started working up from 42 grains and went all the way to 48 by 1.0 grain increments.

The chrony read 3045 when I stopped adding powder and I stopped not because of pressure signs but because my 3,000'/sec threshhold had been met. There was no pressure signs of any kind and I truly suspect I could have milked another 100'/sec but 3,000'/sec with the 120 grain Northfork in a very light 21" barrel seemed like the place to stop and I did!

Accuracy was fully acceptable for deer hunting as the last three shot group I shot was totally covered with a quarter and the range was 100 yards.

I'm posting this for those that might like to try the Northforks in the Swede. Noone seems to use those bullets in the smaller calibers but I just had to try them.

If I kill a bambi or two this fall I'll post a performance report as well.

Rifle used is a home made VZ-24 and here's a few photos of it.

Very nice looking rifle. I assume the VZ-24 is a mauser? Sure looks like one. Did you do all the work on it?

Yes, it's a Mauser and I hired the checkering done at Ahlman's in southern Minnesota. Carol did a very fine job!

What does a rig like that costs to build?