A friend has offered me a Dutch 95 action, and I am tempted to have a light sporter built on it, in the original 6.5 X 53 R. Love to hear from those in the AR gang who have and shoot rifles in this great old caliber.

I shoot several carbines and one rifle in that caliber. Those made by Steyr exhibit the same workmanship as the Mannlicher-Schoenauer.
I love the workmanship and the appearance of the old rifles but I do find them frustrating since I can no longer shoot iron sights well - especially on a short barreled carbine.
The Mannlicher 95 with the packet clip defies scope mounting and aperture sights.
However they are still a great fun to play with and I enjoyed dealing with the "joy" of finding technical information, loading data, dies, making brass and all of that.
If you decide to mess with one I can provide a few pointer about dies, brass, loading data and the actual dimensional differences between the 6.5X53R and the 6.5X54 MS round.
If you decide not to take the Dutch 95 let me know if the owner is interested in selling it. I cannot seem to find another one to play with.

These 6.5mm in either 6.5x54 or 6.5x53R used to be the "classic" British hill deer stalking rifle...in other words Scotland and red deer!

All usually with the heavy, pencil like, 160 grain bullet...just like the one that Hornady still offer to re-loaders.

It had authority, yet light recoil, such that you didn't loose your (iron usually) sight picture.

And, I am tld, to hear it strike was something else, if it was a good hit it was like a sound of a fist giving a body punch.

Yet little meat damage.

Sadly a deer welfare society here in Britain called the British Deer Society were allowed to gain a legitimacy for their nonsensical posturings..

So in the 1960s this organistaion lobbied our lawmakers for a minimum velocity for use on deer in Scotland. set at 2.450 fps....the old 303 174 grain bullet's velocity.

This effectively made the 6.5x54 and 6.5x53R overnight illegal!

A friend had a superb, he says, I never saw it, Webley boxlock double rifle in 6.5x53R. He said that it would put the two bullets side by side 1" apart at 100 yards and killed like Thor's hammer.

It is, with that 160 grain bullet (see Hornady) an EXCELLENT round...even better in the old fashioned long 26" barrels that some of the 6.5x53R rifles were made in.

Good luck. If, and that's the "biggie" if the bore is OK and not hugely oversize it's good.

My advice? See if you can slug the bore with a lead buckshot for size before finally committing..

FOR "SR"....'scope mounts...oh yes they can...


Steyr at Holt's Auctioneers


And another sold just last month too...

And two classic Steyrs with none..

Steyr

Another Steyr

Fellas, my benefactor says the bore is a mess, so I am looking at rebarreling with a spanking new 1:8 twist .264 barrel, and you can bet it will be 26 inches long. I have seen a couple of approaches to receiver sights for the 95 -- the classic Lyman on the cocking piece, and a side-mounted Lyman. I can't shoot conventional irons anymore either, and am thinking of skipping the traditional standing leaf rear altogether. I know, heresy.

I have a sporterized 1908 Greek Mannlicher in 6.5x54 that was a very fun and relatively low cost project. High quality rifle when I need a respite from Mausers. Great on whitetails, hogs, coyotes from a blind in the river bottom.

I wouldn't write off the boe until you've shot it TWICE at least. I've known really bad bores shoot very well. And that long bullet at least, if it is going to get gripped by the rifling, gives it every chance...

I'm wearing a piece of one of those Dutch 95's in my arm right now!
Not the rifles fault, but, best we can tell old brass. The case let go at the head, blew the reciever ring to hell, including a chunk into my right forearm. The bolt stayed intact, stock blew out and numbed my left hand so bad I thought my fingers were gone. Anyway, neat little rifles, use new brass!

Enfieldspares - You made my point exactly about the subject rifle - the Dutch M95. The Dutch M95 uses a packet clip and will not take a centrally mounted scope unless you modify the action like a Gew 88/05 or use it as a single shot.

For Bill to think about - the recievers of the Gew 88 is nearly identical to the Dutch M95. If the magazine of the M95 is modified like the Gew 88/05 version the rifle could be chambered for many different rounds and could have a centrally moounted scope.

quote:

Originally posted by enfieldspares:
FOR "SR"....'scope mounts...oh yes they can...


Steyr at Holt's Auctioneers


And another sold just last month too...

And two classic Steyrs with none..

Steyr

Another Steyr

Were you shooting old military ammo that is what was the source of your ammo/brass?

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
I'm wearing a piece of one of those Dutch 95's in my arm right now!
Not the rifles fault, but, best we can tell old brass. The case let go at the head, blew the reciever ring to hell, including a chunk into my right forearm. The bolt stayed intact, stock blew out and numbed my left hand so bad I thought my fingers were gone. Anyway, neat little rifles, use new brass!

Mount a aimpoint 2x on it.

Here is a wonderful and inspiring page on this fine caliber:

http://www.rathcoombe.net/sci-...ssic_mannlicher.html

The rifle at the end of the page is for sale in Gunbroker at a ridiculous price.

Well, strictly speaking I don't shoot a .256 Mannilicher. But I do shoot a Model 1903 in 6.5x54MS. Is that close enough?

Here is a pic of mine after a little outing:



I use a handloaded 160 gr Hornady round nose and 4831SC powder. My load is a little over 2050 fps and is deadly accurate in my rifle. It is a joy to carry in the field and does a great job on deer sized game. My wife has kind of latched onto it so I don't get to use "her" rifle as much as I would like to.

Pirate, that rifle of yours is an international classic. Seems like Ross Seyfried took one to Alaska some years ago, or maybe it was Layne Simpson.