Is anyone shooting a 5.6 X57 or some close wildcat? What kind of performance are you getting?

How does it handle the heavy or light for caliber bullets? Data would be nice. roger

I have a 5,6x57 RWS, its not a wildcat and RWS makes brass and ammo for it.

Its good performance ,but its a little finicky to load, as the neck is thick and it must have good laods to seal the gas pressure when its fired.

The RWS KS bullets goes out with 3410 fps,and thats factory load!

It is very fiento use heavy bullets for and im trying out som 75 grain Sciroccos and such.

but according to the RWS maunual , it can also be used with lighter bullet and other powders to duplicate lighter cartridges .

Go for the 22-6mm Remington, they are practically the same cartridge and easier to get brass from . But the 5.6x57 can be found in great rifles at a great price, such as Heym ,Krico,
Steyr Mannlichers, ansd perhaps a shultz&Larsen....

But a m 70 or a 700 is a super way to get a good rifle from

I asked about this cartridge once and was told the same thing that mr rigby said. Great cartridge - just a little tricky to get the neck to seal (as it is a little thick to accomodate .22 rimfire adapter units that were popular in Europe at the time of the it's introduction). I have always wanted to play with this cartridge and eventually hope to. Good luck.

Hello: I shoot a .22 Newton which is a 7x57 case necked down to .228. It was intended to shoot 90 gr., .228 bullets. Will overtake the .22-250 at long range due to the bullets "missile like" character, long, skinny (sectional density)...was intended for medium game like Antelope, Deer, Wolves...not a varmint cartridge. Performs well if suitable heavy jacketed game bullets are used. The bugaboo is the .228" bore...Andy Hill of Hawk Bullets has promised to make some...still waiting...
My P.O. Ackley barrel is chambered for the 90 gr. bullets, and even 70 gr. bullets are too short & have too much bullet jump to the rifling...as Mr. Rigby says...can be finicky...due to a big overbore type cartridge.
Great performance due to the extreme missile type bullet, very long, heavy, great sectional density...will overtake a .22-250 at long range due to the better bullet momentum...Old Chas Newton came out with it in about 1912...maybe 12 factory rifles were made, then he switched to the .256 Newton. But the concept is still good.
A heavy .22 for game...but the experimenters found that it needed a .228 bore for the heavy bullets...Ackley, Gebby, etc. Problem nowdays is finding heavy .228 bullets, please Mr Hill come through! Light bullets would exceed the .220 Swift...figure it out...the .220 Swift was based on the 6mm Lee-Navy with the rim changed, etc...( I used to have a fine original)...the .22 Newton is based on the larger 7x57 case...bigger case, more oomph. The Germans saw a good thing & just copied it.
Aloha,
Tom

The 5,6x57 uses 224 diameter bullets for the 223 Rem and such. I prefer Norma 204 powders as they are more even than Vihtavuori and stable. But its a nice cartridge and it should have been used more than it thas been . there is a rimmed edtion of it also and it has the velocity as its rimless brother .

it likes good quality bullets like the Barnes TSX ithink will be very nice on that one and also Nosler 60 grain partition and Trophy bonded. If the NP and TBBC had been ca 65-70 grains ,that would have been a almost perfect bullet for it.

It was designed for roebuck and Chamois, gemse as the Germans call it and fox hunting.

Over here it was also used for sealhunting as hunters got custombuild rifles with stainless barrels on them and they liked them very good.

The energy demand for the 5,6 was in Germany set on 200 meters instead of 100 meters as we have so they needed a cartridge with spike .
Plus its very flatshooting . I shot on 100 meters first and was rewarded a group on half a inch, on three hundred meters it was 3/4 inch group with 60 grain partition bullet.

Its some of the most flatshooting i have encountered, through the years i have hunted andused guns and im not 30 yet,so there is a good cartridge ,but not for the amateur to use. You guys has the 270 WCF, that is a great cartridge if youre not a relaoder.

mr rigby: The Americans of yesteryear, P.O. Ackley, Gebby, Neidner...renowned experts had problems with the .224 bullets of heavier weights than say 60 gr...and the .228 bore was used instead of .224...just that small difference was important.
So, the .228 bullet diameter was used for the heavier bullets...I was thinking the 5.6x57 was the same .228 bullet...probably confused it with the only other one, the .22 Savage High Power which is the 5.6x52R. I have heard very good reports of the 5.6x57 being very effective.
Thanks for the correction to me.
Best Regards,
Tom

bartsche,
The closest Americanised version of this cartridge would be the 224Clark. With your Stevens200's ... it would be easy enough to find a fast-twist Savage take-off 223Rem barrel (26"), rechamber and fit to a standard length receiver. Having read some stuff on the 22-243Middlestead ... I think these large capacity .224's only really come alive with the heavy projectiles ... at which point they start to challenge the 243Win for its "all-rounder" title on varmints and medium sized game.
Cheers...
Con

It was designed ca 1964 , think it was ,so the whole line goes from 22-423 caliber in the 57 case.

if it had been designed earlier , before WW2 i think that it wouldnt have had the thicker neck ,but it looks like a smaller version of the 8x68S or the 6,5x68 .

That shows that the Germans are clever when they design a cartridge, and it has also been put in the Mauser 66 rifle,so there is some on the market .

I`m starting to imagine if it had even eralier than that if the 220 Swift would have been designed then and if it had those bulletsweights ,the smaller caliber saga could have been different.

Perhaps Ruark wouldnt have sworn so much over his .220 Swid\ft if he had the 5,6x57 ?

Or Bel would have had an even better deer cartridge on his estate in Scotland? He wrote that the 220 Swift was one of the best smaller cartridges he`D encountered , that was loaded with a 48 grain bullet,

What if he had used the 5,6x57 with 74 grain bullet?

Thanks for the reply White Bison, it makes me see that the hours spend behind the loadingbech and on the range hasnt been wasted.

hello mr. rigby...I've been to Norway when young as a Merchant Ship's Navigator...a small place called
"Namsos" on the East Coast, near the Arctic Circle.We delivered a load of Diesel Oil there from Copenhagen. A Norwegian Friend lives in Fjordlinna, near Oslo, I think. Where is Trysil?
If you ever find anyone who makes heavy (85-90gr),
.228 bullets, please let me know!
Med Vennlig Hilsen,
Tom

Namsos is in Trøndelag, Trysil is 180 kms north of Oslo, easily accesible from the Airport on Gardermoen ,just grab a expressbus and 3 hours later, youre there.

http://www.performancebullet.no/

These guys makes different bullets from pure copper and they have different weights that will suit the rifles.

Doesnt woodleigh make a bullet weight in that diameter?

I Like måte

Per

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
Is anyone shooting a 5.6 X57 or some close wildcat? What kind of performance are you getting?

How does it handle the heavy or light for caliber bullets? Data would be nice. roger

Bartsche,

I recently had Sharp Shooters Supply rechamber the barrel on my Savage 112 from 22-250 to 22-243AI. This barrel is 14 inch twist, and it would not stabilize the Hornady 60 gr V-max at 3600 fps as a 22-250.

The rifle is now shooting the 60 gr V-max to less than moa at 3800 fps using 50 gr of H4831.

I would consider the volumetric capacity of the 22-243AI very comparable to the 5.6 X 57.

RCBS Load 2.88 shows 50.3 gr water capacity to the bottom of the neck for the 243AI and 50.4 gr water capacity to the bottom of the neck for the 5.6 X 57.

So far, I have only experimented with 60 gr bullets. I use 45.5 gr of H4350 behind the 60 gr spitzer as a fireforming load and it produces 3620 fps.

All loads were developed with CCI 200 primers and the Lock Stock and Barrel Blemish 60 gr Spitzer bullet in 224 cal. Virgin R-P 243 cases were necked down and used for all load work.

In a previously formed case, 45 gr of H414 produces 3640 fps.

47 gr of RL 19 produces 3570 fps
48 gr of RL 19 produces 3670 fps
49 gr of RL 19 produces 3780 fps
50 gr of RL 19 produces 3840 fps. This single case was taken back and reloaded at 50 gr five times. The primer pocket had become quite loose after the sixth firing (including the fire forming load) indicating to me that pressure is a bit excessive, so I have started developing loads with slower powders.

50.0 gr of H4831 produces 3800 fps
51.0 gr of H4831 produces 3870 fps

I currently have some test loads with H1000 made up, but have not had a chance to shoot them over the Chronograph.

My goal is to find a powder which will produce 3800 to 3850 fps with the 60 gr bullet and allow ten reloads with out excessive loosening of the primer pocket.

When developing loads for the 5.6 X 57, I would suggest powders with a burn rate like H4831, RL 22, H1000, and IMR7828 with bullets of 60 gr or heavier.

H4350, H414, IMR4350, and RL 19 should work well with 50 gr or 55 gr bullets.

i was lokking on the new 223 WSSM, when it came out , and its nothing than a version of the 5,6x57.

Mr. Rigby is right on the money about the 22-6mm Rem. No fire forming is required and it will shoot 69 grain bullets in the 3,900 to 4,100 fps range. One of its popular names is .22 Coyote...on which it does a great job. It is also used for light to medium game with good results.

It is not a factory cartridge, but is certainly is a standard by which others are judged.

quote:

No fire forming is required and it will shoot 69 grain bullets in the 3,900 to 4,100 fps range.

I sure wuld like to see pressure trace data from the rifle and load that runs that fast with a 69.

I ran one 60 gr bullet up to 4100 fps in my 22-243AI with RL19 and expanded the case head enough with one shot that it dropped the primer and the case would not fit into the shell holder on the reloading press. My rifle has a slow 14 inch twist barrel. I would assume that if one is shooting 69's he is using a faster twist barrel. And that is not conducive to lowering of pressure levels.

My case, the 22-6mm, and the 5.6x57 all have nearly identical sized combustion chambers. What can be done with one can be done with any of the others

I've been shooting a 22/6mm with a fast 1:7 twist Broughton barrel. My bullets of choice are the 74.5gr RWS and Hornady 75gr A Max. I am running these bullets out at 3600 with H4831SC.
I had this gun built for Pronghorn and coyote hunting. Great long range shooter.

In a few days i will have tested Swift Scirocco 2 , Sierra 69 grain MK, PBP a norwegian custom bullet that was modeled after Sierra 69 grain MK, and that weighs 57 grain btw , and Nosler BTHP 77 grain in the 5,6x57 RWS cartridge.