I picked up my rifle today. It sure is prety ! Its a short box 98 mauser action most likly a yugo.
26 inch most likly a douglas barrel. (my smith bought it from an estate from an old customer and is not sure if he barreld it or not)
It is infact,as far as I can tell the standard 6.5X57 mauser ,and I got a bunch of stamped RWS brass and the dies.
I loaded up a few 129 grain hornady ssts and it apears to be a prety long throat.
I was hoping Roger or someone else might have a recipie for a 120 and or a 125 grain bullets. Certainly I could use the same powder charge I used for the 129 grain bullet, but I would like to try another powder. I used IMR-4350 for the 1st load.
Any data would be apreciated...tj3006
By the way, I piced up a new Digi cam today too and as soon as I figure out how to work the software better I will post a pic...tj3006

Any thing from 260 or 6.5 x 55 load data, or the 6.5 Japanese, or the Carcano, or the Mannlicher Greek 6.5 x 54, will all work...and give pretty much the same performance as listed for those calibers...

you can work the 6.5 x 57 up a little more...but there isn't a need to hot rod it into a 270 standard, which you easily can... but 6.5 bullets are normally designed to open at lower velocities and there construction and sectional density make them deep penetrators.. without the need for the higher velocity...

drive the barnes x swift and north forks as fast as you want...

http://www.swiftbullets.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Scre...ategory_Code=SC6_5mm

the b.c. is their best...571!!! its a hunting bullet too which makes it so great...the bc of a berger match bullet and you can hunt too!

You can't go wrong if you start with 6.5x55 data and load to a COL that's 2 mm longer(=0.08inch). The 6.5x57 max loads needs some 2 grains extra of powder.
Don't worry about the long throat. My most accurate 6.5x57 load is with a 85 grains Sierra HP and a reduced charge of H4227.
For loads with 120-140 grains I use Viht N160.