Hi,

Anyone shooting a 6.5 WSM, I was reading about it and was wondering what kind of barrel life you would get with this wildcat?

How would a 30" 3 groove hold up?

Thanks
Frank D

This is one of my deviations from my handle here. I shoot a 6.5 WSM and it is scary how accurate it is.

My rifle is a customized Mod. 70 classic short action with a 24" Hart SS #4 barrel. One in eight twist.

I am using a load of 61 grains of Reloader 22 with 129 gr. Hornady's. Sub .5 MOA.

I would appreciate any literature you have on the matter likewise.

30, was your chamber cut with the 7mmWSM dimensions or based on the 270&300 case? Either way what are you necking down for brass and are you having to turn your necks?
Thanks,
Dave

Dave and SSCoyote-

I had Dave Kiff from Pacific Precision grind my reamer and that was before the .270 WSM or the 7mm WSM hit the market. For personal reasons I had Dave grind the neck to .296.

I am neck turning my brass. I am turning it to a wall thickness of .014. Thus, it is not a super tight neck.

I am starting with Winchester .30 WSM brass and I found it to have extremely consistent in weight.

I started with WW760 and found that my rig would not tolerate it; it tried to pressure up on me.

Herb Riley turned me onto to the 61g. of Reloader 22. I have not chronographed this load so my velocities are purely speculation. I would be dissapointed if they were below 3100 fps.

This rifle started it's life as a standard bolt face (i.e. .473) Model 70 Classic action. When converted to 6.5 WSM, the feed rails were altered. I have not had any feeding problems. Last fall, I had some Javalina's cross the sendero I was hunting on and was able to take three with as many shots and it was quick shooting. My point here is the action fed the shells perfectly. There are some on this board that would lead you to believe that the short fat magnums have feeding problems. I have experienced no feeding problems.

I am going to build a .30 WSM on a M1999 action.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

SSCoyote-

I never did answer your question on the 6.5/.284. Most of the loads that I am seeing for that rig is about 2900 fps!?!?

Thus, I would conclude the benefits of the 6.5 WSM would be about 200 fps and a short action.

I have been very curious about the 6.5 WSM. I am a little surprised if you only get 3100 fps with a 129gr Hornady. I figured 3200 would be well within reach.

FWIW, I get 3050 fps with 58gr of RL 22 and a 140gr SBT out of my 6.5 Gibbs which also has a 24" barrel.

I think my next 6.5 will be the WSM so I can build another lightweight sheep rifle on a short action. It sure is a neat cartridge and you gotta love those 6.5's.

Canuck

Thanks 30, But seeing as you didnt base the chamber on the longer shouldered 7mmWSM you can also use the 270 brass and perhaps get by without having to turn. For S&Gs you may consider giving one of the 4350s a try. Are you running mag or standard primers?

Canuck and Dave-

Thanks for your comments.

Canuck, I'd like to think I'm getting 3,200 fps but without a chrono who knows. I guess I was trying to be conservative.

Dave, I'm using Fed215M's as primers. I'm not sure I understand you comment on the longer shoulder. By necking .30 WSM Brass down to 6.5 aren't you by definition going to have a longer shoulder? I haven't compared the diagrams of the 6.5, .270 or 7mm WSM so I would not know if shoulder angles are the same of different.

Best regards,

If you searched you may have stumbled on some of my data, so I won't be too long. My rifle wears a 26 Lilja No. 3. I shoot 140's exclusively. Gun is currently back at the shop. I was getting real high ES. RL-25 has been the best powder so far. An average load with any of the powders has been 3120 or slighlty better. Also, from what I could scrounge up, my rifles max's are atleast 3-6 grains less than others. It has a .298 neck and I've used both 270 and 300 brass. Best loads are 64.5 Retumbo, 61 H1000, 60.5 RL-25. All use Fed 215GM

I was talking to my buddy and he suggested building the 6.5-300 WSM from a 700 Long action with the magnum bolt face. I see most of the guys are using the short action. I know it is based on a short action, so I am wondering why my buddy suggested the long action? He wasn't sure why he said someone told him.........Will it work???

Thanks
Frank D

30 CMF,
On the 270 and 300 case the shoulder starts @ 1.664" from the base. On the 7mm it sarts @ 1.701". This alteration was made supposedly after a gun writer chambered a 7mm WSM round in a rifle chamberd for the 270WSM and notified Win. that this might not be such a good idea. I just mentioned in case you were thinking about necking down other than the 300 brass. Check out these drawings over at shortmag...
http://www.shortmags.org/shortmags/ref_data/case_draw.htm

Frank, The long action was probably mentioned in order to take advantage of the longer magazine length. One could then seat their bullets out to gain a little powder space and chase the lands....as the throat eroded from burning that extra powder....

Thanks Dave,

How much life would you think a 3 groove Stainless Steel barrel will give me on a 6.5-300WSM?

Frank D