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I read this on EABCO website and pasted it below. What do you guys think, truth, or BS? Influences of the Swedish Mauser. With velocities less than a 30-06, the mild recoiling 6.5X55 Swedish Mauser has been used widely to take game from varmints to deer to reindeer, caribou, and moose. Some say it was even used to kill elephants in Africa! Americans who've hunted with the Swede experience drop-where-they-stand effectiveness on game. The "magic" of this cartridge has garnered an almost cult following among it's fans. Why it works so well has been attributed to the "Sectional Density" of the 6.5mm bullet, but that's only half of the formula. The fact is, there are 7mm and .30 caliber (and lot of other) bullets with the same or very similar sectional density. Why don't they have the same magic reputation of the 6.5mm? Well, the only other factor in the mix is the medium velocity of the Swede. The original 6.5X55 Swedish Mauser load throws a 140 gr. bullet about 2300-2500 fps depending on barrel length. Most 7mm and .30 caliber cartridges shoot 2700-2900 fps and faster with bullet weights of the same sectional density... It is my belief that 7mm and .30 caliber bullets with the same sectional density as the 6.5mm will give the same effectiveness on game... if launched at the same 2300-2500 fps "medium" velocity. Bullet Weight, Velocity, Sectional Density. If a baby squirrel falls out of a tree from 20 ft up, it doesn't get injured. But if a man falls that far, he'll break bones. The distance and speed (velocity) of the fall are the same but, the man weighs more and this gives him a lot more momentum than the baby squirrel. Now, take the man's weight and shape it into a long, skinny rod falling end first (kind of like a bullet). The end of that rod exerts the full bone crushing momentum of the man into a much smaller "section" of ground... driving it deep into the ground. The "Sectional Density" of the rod is much more than that of the man, even though their weight is the same. From the chart above, you can see that in bullets: The larger the impact area (caliber) the greater the bullet weight needs to be to maintain the same sectional density as the Swedish Mauser. Why Medium Velocity is More Effective. Here's a simple illustration: If you shoot an aluminum pop can with a high velocity "magnum" pellet rifle, the pellet will zip right through the metal without disturbing the can. Now, if you shoot the can with a medium velocity pellet, it will also go through the can but, it will bend-in the aluminum on its way through, knock the can over and throw it back a foot or so. The slower velocity imparts more "hang time" of the bullet momentum on the target. Silhouette competitors are quite familiar with the concept of "Hang Time"... a bullet that holds its full weight and momentum on the steel silhouette target rather than losing it all to over-energized fragmentation or high speed penetration. The medium-velocity (2400 fps) achieved by the Swedish Mauser works in the same way to produce more "Hang Time" as it passes through animal tissue. Momentum vs. Energy. Momentum is what drives a bullet through muscle, bone, sinew, and cartilage. Energy is what causes a bullet to expand or fragment. Energy is also what causes shock damage to living tissue. You can't really have too much momentum, but you CAN have too much energy... witness the explosive meat damage that occurs when a 30-06 passes through the shoulder of a deer. One object of the Medium Velocity, Heavy Bullet Approach is to Maximize Momentum without over-energizing the bullet. The Myth of "Reliable" Bullet Expansion. The purpose of bullet expansion could be looked at as adding "hang-time" to a bullet that is moving too fast (like the pop can example above). But, bullets expand differently depending on what they strike and how fast they're moving. A bullet that expands well on soft tissue can fragment without penetration when it hits something harder. A bullet that holds together on bone at high velocity will zip right through soft tissue. Is high velocity needed? I've seen 7mm rifle bullets expanded completely flat after hitting 200 meter handgun silhouette targets and having had a muzzle velocity of only 1,800 fps. Into this you have to figure that the bullet loses velocity the further it travels... it may expand well on game at 100 yards but not 200 yards... or vice versa. Non-Fragmenting Bullet Expansion is good if it happens, BUT... the Bench Rest Magnum approach is to go with inherent "Hang Time" and Penetration you can count on... whether the bullet expands or not. Modern Bullets that Work Well for Hunting. P.O. Ackley, in his Handbook for Shooters and Reloaders, wrote about how the 22-250 came to be banned from big game hunting because of bullet failure... bullets that fragmented and didn't penetrate due to extreme velocity at impact. He went on to talk about hunting guides who's clients shooting 300 Winchester Magnum had similar problems: Bullets blowing a big surface wound without penetrating. He went on to write about some solid copper "Controlled Expansion" bullets he designed that solved a lot of these problems. The modern Barnes X-Bullet is a direct descendent of this bullet and an excellent design. However, being solid metal, it behaves differently as it is squeezed through the rifle barrel. I have had mixed success in achieving accuracy with the Barnes X, though I know others have had excellent results with it. It definitely holds together on game. Nosler has taken a different approach with their "Partition" bullets. Encasing the rear portion of the lead core keeps it intact and assures good penetration. I've achieved excellent accuracy with the Nosler Partition and taken several heads of big game with one-shot kills. However, I had one occasion where the bullet did a lot of entry damage and popped out the back side of the animal making only a pencil sized hole. I concluded that the core in the nose had separated and the bullet tumbled and popped out backwards... I may be wrong on this conclusion. Until then, I had absolute confidence in the Partition bullet. Since then others have reported similar failures. Jacket Separation... The Cause of Most Bullet Failures: Modern rifle bullets feature a lead core with a swaged copper jacket. While the copper holds together fairly well, it is thin and light. The core on the other hand is heavy but soft... it breaks up easy. In typical bullet failure, the jacket and core separate, fragment, and become a bunch of much less heavy projectiles that don't penetrate. Core Bonding... The Solution to Jacket Separation: Molecular bonding of the lead core with the copper jacket produces much better terminal performance in hunting bullets. I'm not an expert on the process but essentially the lead core is welded to the copper bullet jacket so it can't peel away. It's an expensive process and "Bonded" bullets aren't cheap. But instead of jacket separation and fragmentation, Bonded bullets hold together, retain their weight well, and penetrate deep. Controlled Expansion WITH Bonding: By making the copper jacket taper from thin at the tip to thick at the base, the expansion becomes stiffer as it progresses. Combining this with a bonded core results in the Scirocco bullet from Swift Bullet Company. It gives good expansion over a wide range of velocities (1,440-2700+ fps) while it holds together and delivers great penetration. Encasing WITH Bonding: If you take the Nosler partition approach and add core bonding, you get the Swift A-Frame bullet. The nose section expands without separating or fragmenting and the rear section holds its full weight together to drive the bullet through whatever tissue and bone it encounters. An extreme terminal performance bullet, the A-Frame has gained a solid reputation killing dangerous game. A.P.E... How Good Do Your Hunting Bullets Have to Be? A fellow named Odell Register told me about his A.P.E. acronym. It's the priority and criteria for hunting bullets: Accuracy is the first requirement. Penetration is the second. Energy is last on the list... all the energy in the world is useless if you miss or don't penetrate. The point is: When your shot of a lifetime comes along, the first thing you have to do is be able to hit the vitals. That means your bullet has to be accurate. The second thing you have to do is penetrate through the vitals. This means your bullet has to be heavy enough and hold together as momentum drives it into tissue and bone. Expansion will help... But only if the bullet holds together. A few dollars invested in a premium hunting bullet like the Barnes X, Nosler Partition, or Swift Scirocco and A-Frame is cheap insurance when everything is riding on your one good shot! | ||
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I think there's a lot of truth in the post. I wish he'd mentioned the very long 160 grain round nose of the 6.5 X 55 as this bullet is what I understand the Norskies shoot moose with and it's weight and penetration is known to be excellent. Jack O'Connor wrote that he noticed his wife's 7 X 57 penetrated better (on elk) than his 7MM Magnum when the ranges was short...under 200 yards... I have seen slower rounds penetrate better on several occasions and have posted those here. All in all the article is fairly accurate IMO...he's hitting the nail as close as I've heard it. Someplace, somewhere we need to alter the thinking for larger animals where the main killing force is not related to shock but to pure penetration. I'm convinced a lot of whitetail and pronghorns are killed by as much the shock of a violently erupting projectile as the damage the bullet does to internal organs.....where as Moose and other animals of such size are killed more by penetration to the vitals. It's well known that "premium bullets" are not at all necessary for smaller big game.....but many of us would recommend them for elk, moose and surely animals like Cape Buffalo. If you have shot a cape buffalo and had it drop dead in it's tracks please post this.....I'd be surprised that it happens often except for brain or spine shots. I think a lot of us have seen whitetails drop dead in their tracks whan whacked with a high velocity bullet that manages to enter the body even 3-4 inches!!! Interesting post.....I buy it almost totally. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | |||
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How about facts, for years the factory Norma load was 140 @ 2788 and that's where it's reputation came from , not the whimpy loads of today. The accuracy, effectiveness, penetration, low recoil, low muzzle blast all make a combination that caused Finn Aagard to call it the perfect deer cartridge !!! | |||
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I love the way the article begins touting the effectivness of the sweede over the years and then uses that to slide into a shameless plug for "premium" bullets. The Sweede gained its reputation largley with plain vanilla leaded core bullets. "What a good hunting bullet has to be" is well matched to the game and velocity, and that can be accomplished in a number of ways. One thing the military touts the 223 for is its ability to wound as opposed to killing the enemy. But you can bet your boots that those fmj slugs will go in one end and out the other of a person. Bottom line, penetration is indeed important, but it isnt everything. And those slow plain vanilla 6.5 bullets expend most of their energy "inside" the animal. Not on the surface or not on a rock on the far side. Its all about making mush of the vitals. | |||
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Just about any decent cup/core bullet will perform well if impact vel. is between 2000 & 2500fps. Below 2000fps exp. gets iffy, but penetration is still there. Above 2500fps & bullets start to tear apart. I think there has always been an argument for premiums, as started by the Nosler partition, for magnum rounds or bullets impacting above 2600fps. Myabe that's what the article is trying to say. ![]() LIFE IS NOT A SPECTATOR'S SPORT! | |||
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