I've got a M38 6.5x55 that I want to use for varmint hunting. Primarilly coyote & bobcat. I've been shooting deer with 140 graners in this gun for years, but am now using a 30-06 BAR as my primary deer / bear gun.

What would you recommend as a good varment load (bullet / powder) for the 6.5x55? I was wandering if they maintained their excellent accuracy with the lighter weight bullets? I am considering the Hornady 95 V-Max which has a fairly decent BC of .365.

I reload for my 30-06 but have never reloaded for the 6.5x55. I've heard that you shouldn't load them to max per the loading manuals. How far below max do I need to stay?

Thanks
firstshot
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Make your first shot count!

Good question, as I have just begun to try to find a decent shooting varmint load for a Howa 1500 Lightning in 6.5x55. I tried some 100 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips with Varget powder at the range today and got patterns instead of groups at 100 yards. My particular rifle is not that accurate, but it seems like it should shoot the fairly long 100 gr Ballistic Tip bullet okay with the 1 in 9" twist. I plan on glass bedding the action to see if I can get the accuracy to improve, as even the 120 gr and 140 gr loads struggle to break the 2 inch mark for 3 shots at 100 yards from a benchrest. I have some Speer 90 gr TNT Hollowpoints on order from Midway and am anxious to see how they shoot. I think I will wait until after I bed the action before I start any load development, though. Don't want to waste any more components on 3+ inch groups. Appreciate any input from other 6.5x55 shooters regarding lightweight bullets. From the research I have done, it doesn't sound too good, espcially for the military surplus barrel with 1 in 8" or even faster twist rates and lots of free bore.

About the lightest bullet you're going to find for the 6.5x55 is the Sierra 85gr. HP. Fortunately it's a good one. My Remington 700 Classic in 6.5x55 will put 5 of them into .404" at 100 yards when pushed along by IMR4064 48.grs. That load moves at 3200fps. It's not a long bullet like most in this caliber. My OAL is 2.895" which is about as long as I can get and still hold the bullet in place. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Thanks for all the good posts. I have been seating my bullets out, but maybe I need to try them even longer! I believe I was seating them to the recommended COL as stated in several reloading manuals. Perhaps the reloading companies were using the only short throated 6.5x55 Swedes in existence. I also have some IMR-4895 powder to try, then I guess I will have to buckle down and try some of Seafire's recommended IMR-4064. I believe the Sierra manual also recommended 4064 as the most accurate with several of their bullets.
My bedding kit is due to arrive on Thursday, so I may as well remove my scope and get ready for the bedding project. I just hope I don't glue the action to the stock. I am hoping to get a buddy or two that have done it before to give me a hand. Or maybe I should try the extremely long seating first, just to make sure. Wish me luck.

I don't have the reloading experience some of the guys on my forum do. My experience was mostly with .45acp when I was a cop and shooting combat.
The guys who know have said you can seat the bullets out to where they just fit the mag and still not reach the rifling.
For some reason the jump the bullet makes does not affect the accuracy of the Swede rifles.
We have discussed this many times on the C&R forum, and no final reason was found, but the freebore doesn't seem to hurt, in military barrels on '96 actions using milsurp ammo. The milsurp ammo we all use is the Swede prickskytte made by Norma for the Swedish military. It was originally for their snipers, and was so accurate it replaced the earlier round nose bullet.
Reloading for modern actions- 98k receivers, makes higher pressure and velocity possible, but most use the Swede military barrels with the long throat and still have no problem.
I had always been taught to load out to just touching the rifling, so I don't know why it doesn't hurt the Swede.
On the flip side I have a Swiss K31 with a short throat in the military barrel. The ogive on the milsurp match grade ammo is very different from most other .308 bullets and bullet selection is tricky.
Jim

Thanks for all the replies and info guys, really appreciate it!!!

I picked up some 85 grain Sierra HPs today. Who knows if they wil shoot accurately in my gun, but figured I'd start with the lighter grn bullets and work my way up until I find one that shoots with acceptable accuracy.

Also ordered a set of 6.5x55 Redding reloading dies. Got the neck resizer type. I use a full length resizer for my BAR but I would think neck resizing only should be ok for the swede bolt action.

Also picked up some 125Grn Nosler Ballistic tip factory seconds from Shooters Pro Shop for my BAR. They were on sale for $6.95. 125Grn might be a little heavy for varmints but if they shoot good in the Odd6 it sure would be good to be able to priactice on varmints in the off season.

firstshot

You'll probably be ok with the M38 and the 24" bbl with the 85 gr sierra, "Maybe".
I ran the 85gr siera HP through my M96 and the 29.5" bbl,it comes out at around 3300fps, well,the rifling in swedish mausers is so course and deep, it really scores a bullet heavily, and the 1- 7.5" twist (or is that a thread) combined with the added velocity of the 29.5" bbl (model 96) was too much for the 85gr sierra to handle, while shooting, i noticed about 50-60% of the bullets were making it to the target,some were flying apart right after exiting the muzzle, i figure they're spinning at 316,800 RPM , my little 20gr V-max in my 1-9" .17remington spins at 350,000 RPM,the fastest spin i've ever encountered, but the little 20gr bullet can handle it, due to not being scored as heavily, and less centrifugal force due to the diameter.
The 100gr sierras worked fie in my model 96, i would think the 95gr V-max would be ideal,although i haven't tried those in mine as of yet,and probably won't as i don't use mine for varmiting anymore.