I'm more than a little disappointed with Winchester Featherweight 6.5x55 and I'm looking for suggestion as to what to do with it.

It started last year when the company who owns our deer lease cut and logged some of the property, so now I could take the occasional 200-250 yard shot and this year they've logged even more. Well I miss 2 deer at that range, one of them twice, last year. At the time I wrote it off and thought it was me, but now I'm not so sure. This is why, this summer I bought a chronograph because I wanted to start working with the Hornady SSTs and to get ready for my Wyoming Antelope hunt. Well to my suprise the load that Nosler list a 2750fps was only doing 2445fps out of my rifle!! And with the 129gr SSTs all I could get out of it was 2625fps, this with a load above the Hornady book max. So now your thinking the chronograph is off, so did I, but not that I can tell. I got with a friend who also has a chronograph and we checked them side by side. Then I let another friend take my rifle and shoot it through his chronograph and all the numbers compare. Then 2 weeks ago we were working up loads in my wives 6.5x55 and using the same powders, same loads she was getting 130fps to 90fps more than I am in my Winchester. Then theres last weekend I'm on my Antelope hunt with my 6.5x55 and I miss an Antelope at 320 yards.

I do have another rifle I can use but this has been my deer rifle for several years now. So with deer season starting in 6 weeks, now with new cut-overs to hunt, a Mule Deer and Caribou hunt in the works I'm looking at making a change. If I wasn't on a budget I'd have it rebarreled with a 24" Lothar-Walter barrel in 6.5x55 but that would set me back $400-$500 and thats 1/4 the cost of a hunting trip. I could have it rechambered maybe in 6.5-06 or 6.5-284, I think. Although I like the 6.5-284 idea, I'd be left with a wildcat. So now I'm thinking of just selling it and starting over. I'm starting to think I'm trying to make the 6.5x55 something its not, a long range rifle, at least this ones not. What I'm looking for is something that will push a 130-140gr bullet at least 2800fps with less than 20# of recoil and will shoot responsiblely flat out to 300yds.

I'm thinking 270wsm or maybe a 270 Weatherby, but the brass for the Weatherby is expensive. How about it 270wsm owners would you buy another one? Would you recommend one to a friend? Have you taken any game with one? I've read a few stories about feeding problems, have you had any? How well does yours shoot? Thanks for your help.

[ 10-21-2002, 04:26: Message edited by: mark65x55 ]

I hunt a big Ranch which seems to have more open country shots than timber shots. Average shots tend to be in the 300 yd range. Much of it is very flat and the deer/elk use this to their advantage, lounging in the absolute center of these big fields all the time. Yet you occasionally have a 100-150 yd shot too.

After several years of this situation I went through all sorts of rifles, from .270's to .300 mags,a pair of .25-06's all the way to .338's and a .375 H&H. My personal favorite when its all said and done? A pair of .280 Remingtons, one a 26" M700 the other a lightweight Wby. Both push 150 partitions or ballistic tips to near 3000 fps, or you can use 160's or 175's for penetration on the bigger stuff. Either load shoots reasonably flat enough for 300 yd shots.

A VERY close #2 would be either of the .300 H&H's one a Rem 700 Classic the other a Sako. Both push 180's to 3000+ fps or 165's at 3100+. So basically they perform about like a slow .300 Wby or a Win Mag. A 180 at 3000 has NEVER failed to get ANY elks attention out to 400 yds.

If recoil was a factor I would look at 270's either the standard Win or the WSM. The regular old .270 Win is a heck of a deer/antelope round.
Or if 7mm is your cup of tea look at the .280 Rem or get nutty like I did and converted one of mine to the .280 Ackley Improved version for an additional 125 fps over the std .280 Rem. Or 7mm WSM?? Lots of options here.

Bullets are so good right now you could even go to .257" or 6.5mm/.264" for deer/antelope too. LOTS of options.

Rem 700's are easy to make shoot. Easy to bed, good accurate beanfield rifles. or for your situation a "clearcut" rifle.

My wife has a 20" 7mm-08 that has such a "slow" barrel that I can relate to your equally SLOW 6.5x55. It happens sometimes. Tough to beat with some guns,especially with short barrels.

FN in MT

Mark 65;
Using Data I got from Sierra, you can push a 130gr boatail bullet 3200fps using 62.7 grains IMR4350 or 3000fps using 58.7 grains IMR4350.
60.5 grains Reloader19= 3000fps
67.4 grains Reloader19= 3300fps

For the 140 boatail;
56.6 grains IMR4350= 2900fps
61 grains IMR4350 = 3100fps
These speeds have held pretty darn close to the mark through my M70 Coyote 270wsm with 24" barrel.
Hope this helps in your decision making!
I've only just begun to experiment working up loads but so far, everything I've shot is groupnig pretty close to the same just a matter of how fast I want to push it.
MARSHMULE

Well I hunt quite a bit with a .6.5 x 55. while its better suited to a 24 inch barrel a 22 is ok. You are getting enought Velocity. 2600 is plenty. Try zeroing your rifle spot on at 200 yards. You could then hold on fur and make good killing hits further that you think. The swede dose not give up a whole lot trajectory wise to a 270. They don't call the swede a pocket 270 for nothing.

I really like my .270WSM. I am still testing it, but have been impresed so far. Velocity has been pretty good, and it shoots plenty flat. If you saw the hunt report Texas PO posted about our New Mexico Pronghorn hunt, you will see that I cleanly took a nice Pronghorn at 450 yards with it. I am going to test it out a bunch this Whitetail season, but I am impressed so far. It shoots fairly well for a factory gun (around 1-1.25 inches), and feeds fine, as most of the newer ones seem to do.

With that being said, for deer-sized game, your 6.5 should be fine. You have to actually shoot your gun at all the ranges you might use it, from 25 yards out to as far as you feel comfortable. Actual trajectory varies, often greatly, from what is printed on the box. The only way to know is to try it on the range. I have taken quite a bit of game at long range, but I know what my gun will do from frequent practice. Most of my long range animals were shot with a 165 gr. Trophy Bonded out of a .308, so I wasn't shooting some kind of super mag.

I guess the bottom line is, if you want to buy a new gun, the .270 WSM would be my pick. If you don't really want to switch, the 6.5 should be fine with a little more practice. Good luck.

Mark, I have a 7mm-08 mdl 700 classic has a 24" barrel. I shoot 130 grain speer flat base over 3000 fps with 46.5 grains of IMR4064. very accurate but I have not had a shot on deer yet just paper. You could trade or sell your featherweight.....I sold mine. I also have a custom 6.5-284 in a mauser action i haven't even started to test yet. So many guns so little time

I like my .270wsm just fine-shoots very well although the trigger was like a ton of bricks out of the box-turned on the adjustment screw and brought it down to about four pounds. Two coils cut off the trigger spring brought it down to about 2 3/4 pounds which suits me fine for hunting. It is a browning a bolt with a 23 inch barrel. I like the weight and feel of this rifle-I was lacking in the lightweight rifle department and this fits the bill.
I loaded 130 grain scirocco's with 66.0 grains of h4831 and got groups of 1-1.5 inches at 3080fps. 130 barnes-X boattails shot the best with groups of .5-3/4 inches with the same charge of h4831 at 3070 fps.
No kills yet with this but will keep you informed.

Had a Ruger No.1 turned into a 270WSM. Has a 26 inch SS Pac-Nor barrel and a 3.5X10 Kahles and it shoot really great. I get consistant three shot groups under 3/4 inch. It is truly a pleasure to shoot. Some of the groups are under 1/4 inch!
130 Nosler BT
73gr Reloder 25 (start at 69gr)
Fed 210 primer
2.90 OAL

Marshmule,did Sierra recommend a specific primer?I'v been meaning to call them as I was given a couple boxs of their 130 gr boattails.Are those their min- max loads?I'm getting slightly over 3300 with 130 gr Sciroccos and 67.5 gr RL19.Seems since the Sciroccos have considerably more bearing surface the Sierras could be loaded a little hotter? Famous last words!Also getting excellant accuracy with the RL19 from min to max loads.
Willie B,what kind of velocities are you getting with the 26 in bbl?
Jeff

Haven't clocked it yet, too busy at the gun-shop.
I'll probably get around to checking speeds after the first of the year.

Thanks Willie,just curious.Since I forgot to answer any of Marks questions...I bought a Featherweight in 270WSM a couple weeks ago,I would recommend it to anybody.It fed a little rough to begin with,but as others have stated it is loosening up nicely,only had a couple problems the first 15-20 rounds run through it.I did'nt get my dies until a couple days after picking up the rifle,so I bought a box of Win 130 gr silvertips to try it out with.A very disheartening experience! All over the paper.I kept thinking"oh no'I'v got one of those rifles"!I decided to clock 3 of them,ended with 1 at 3286,1 at 3211,and one at 3246.About that time my brother in law showed up and tried them in his rifle the laminated version and got the same results.I tried some of his handrolled 140 gr Failsafes and had no problem keeping them sub moa.Got the dies that night and loaded up some 130 gr Sciroccos,which can be a little finicky.Every load I'v tried with them in the WSM has shot under an inch at any velocity I'v tried them.The recoil according to the scale on my chronograph tells me the recoil varies from 20.5 to slightly under 24 with the heavier bullets.Under the recoil pad on the Featherweight is a cutout in the butt about the size of a deck of cards,which you could pack some lead shot into to damp that down some.It would make it balance a little better also.Besides the price of the Weatherby brass the rifle is twice the price of the Wins,the brownings run a little more.I'm more than happy with it,hope i can say something about game taken with it soon as my deer seasons down to two more weeks,I'll be using it for elk also.
Jeff

JSR:
I didn't ask about primers used, but what I've loaded so far has held pretty close to their specs using WLRM primers.
Check your mail
I sent the data to you in an E-mail
Good luck
MarshMule

Heres the update of my 6.5x55 problems. Like I said I was more than a little disappointed that I couldn't get 2750fps out of this rifle and as much as I like the 6.5x55 caliber I didn't want to spend $400-$500 to barrel it. After talking to the local gunsmith I was going to sell it and buy 1. a new 270wsm;, 2. a Howa 6.5x55 and sort of go with the Terry Blauwkamp line of thought ie spend less on guns and more on hunting, or 3. just spend the money on another hunting trip. So I let the local smith take it to a gun show to sell, well it didn't sell and the more I looked a the 270wsm the less I wanted one, I already have one mag. a 300H&H.

So I took a looong hard look at what I wanted to do. First of all I want to go hunting, out west, Canada, and Africa, so I can't see putting $400 to $700 into this or another rifle. I mean that a 1/4 or 1/3 of a hunting trip. No. 2 with an wildcat, odd ball or out of date caliber its going to be hard to find ammo in most places. I think it would have been hard to find 6.5x55 ammo in Casper Wyoming. No.3 I want something I could go to the range and enjoy shooting 40-50 times and to me that don't spell a mag. No.4 my Winchester and I have been on some good hunts together, I've taken my biggest deer with it and an Antelope with it. Plus it wears a Pacific Research Rimrock stock that I truly love, well as much as I can love a plastic stock, and I guess I need one wet weather rifle for maybe a Caribou hunt. Also I've had a lot of work done on the action and triger.

So while talking this over with a friend he stated he had a new factory Winchester LT Sporter 24" Barrel I could have. As it turned out a guy at work had some dies and brass he was no longer useing and the gunsmith said we could pull this off cheap! I ended up with $100 in this project and still have my old friend.

I took it to the range yesterday, useing Hornady SSTs, 10 shoots avg. 2972fps and the first group with 47.5gr of imr4064 = a 3/4 group, the worst was 1-1/8". The recoil was not bad at all and I can find ammo at any country store.

The caliber? Take a guess. Now its time to eat a little crow. Its the one caliber I thought I'd NEVER own.

Get a .270 win, or get a 7mm rem mag. 300yd shot's are easy with either one.

Its a boring old, plain vanilla, non magnum, 270 Win.

Mark

Mark 6.5;
Nothing boring about a .270 Winchester!
Sounds like you got a heck of a deal, way to go!
Won't be long and you'll be asking yourself why didn't I do this sooner. I think you got a real good buddy for your Old Friend!
Those SST's you were shooting, what weight?
130's or 140's

[/QUOTE]3100fps is easy with 140's and .270win in a 24" barrel[/QB][/QUOTE]
Yep you sure can, with enough powder you can get 3200+fps too!==Very sticky bolt and the primers, well if there's one left, just fall right out like a itty-bitty charcoal briquet as a friend of mine found out when tried to push'em that fast.
I personally stopped at just under 3100fps, fast enough for me and deadly accurate. I don't think the Deer can tell the difference. Also the data I posted was from Sierra and you know they have that 10% saftey factor (Liability) calculated into it. I doubt very much if you can find "Published" manufacturer data showing where you can push a .270 "Winchester" with a 140 grain bullet 3100fps.

MARSH MULE
The SSTs are 130gr, 2970fps over 47.5grs of IMR4064. Best 3 shot group so far 3/8"!!!!

Mark;
Outstanding!
So, do you think you have a new friend there?
I've never had much luck with the faster powder such as you're using. I've always leaned toward the slower stuff like IMR 4350 & 4831 and R-19 & R-22.I guess the "Harmonics" of my rifles just dosen't do well with the fast stuff. Sure sounds like you have found a winner load combination.