I have a 300 win mag that has a real short mag and is not that good a shooter. It's a Browning BR, one of the old ones with the round bolt.

A 6.5 Remington Magnum has the same case head dimensions and is about .45" shorter case length.

The loading data for the 6.5 Remington Magnum is not that impressive but it is probably because they are limiting the pressure to 53,000 cup to fit Model 600 and 600 carbines. A modern chamber should be able to handle higher pressures and get more performance.

Anyone out there who has one and can tell me if it's worth it?

How about the 350 Remington Magnum?

Why not just go with the 264 Win Mag? Better performance, easier to find brass that will work (7Mag, necked down). Or for that matter, the 7 Mag would be a good option, too. IMO you might as well use the magazine space that you have.

One of the limiting factors for the 6.5 Mag was that you couldn't effectively use the heavier bullets, your rifle would overcome that with the longer magazine and bolt allowing you to seat bullets further out and use heavies to boot. The .350 would be a nice upgrade too.

Don't confuse CUP and PSI, 53K CUP is as high as just about any other modern cartridge.

quote:

Originally posted by olarmy:
Why not just go with the 264 Win Mag? Better performance, easier to find brass that will work (7Mag, necked down). Or for that matter, the 7 Mag would be a good option, too. IMO you might as well use the magazine space that you have.

I thought about the 264, 7 mag or 338, but I would only gain .12" in OAL rather than .45". In a custom barrel I would be able to set the headspace so that those would work. Have a 338 and 7 mag though. Had a 264 and didn't like it much, seemed hard to load for.

Snellstrom, you're thinking like I am about the heavier bullets.

I guess the 6.5 Rem Mag is a thing of the past and is gonna disappear.

woods: FWIW, I just got back from the range with my 264. Wanted to try the new 130gr Accubond. Using IMR7828, 64gr=0.94", 65gr= 0.61"; 66gr= 0.75". My old load using 7828 and a 125Partition consitently goes between 3/4" and 1", velocity is 3300fps. All of which is to say that, at least THIS 264, has not been hard to load for. YMMV

Thanks olarmy.

Don't want to spend an arm and a leg so what do you think about a Pac-Nor 1 in 8 twist 5 groove 26" CM or a Douglass XX #4 contour 26" CM?

Hart only makes a SS barrel and the action I have is CM, Krieger and Lilja are expensive.

Looks like I could get a Super Match Grade 26" barrel installed on the action (including lapping and truing action) at Pac-Nor for about $480.00 ++. The barrel would only be $230.00++, but a local gunsmith would charge the other $250.00 even for a prefitted barrel.

woods: never had a PacNor or Douglas, but they sure have a first rate reputation. Doubt you could go wrong either way. I agree with your choice of 26" bbl, at least for a 264.

One other thought. You mentioned that the gun is not a particularly good shooter now. Could there be a bedding (or other) problem that perhaps you should get fixed while you are at it?

quote:

Originally posted by woods:
...How about the 350 Remington Magnum?

Hey Woods, Since you already have a "few" longer range rifles, this would seem to make an excellent choice. If you do go this route, DO NOT go below 22" on the barrel and 24" would be even better, the muzzle blast will skin a cat.

Ear protection is required at ALL times, including inside the woods/swamps. A 200gr Hornady SP is simply amazing for this velocity envelope.

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.

HC, thanks for the recommendation. Really not too thrilled about another shoulder thumper or heavy hitter.

Bounty Hunter and I been talking about 6.5's for a while now. He's leaning toward a 6.5x284 and I've been watching for a good deal on a 260 lately.

This 6.5 Rem Mag seems like it's right in line with the case capacity of the 6.5x284. It might be neat to have a "belted mini-mag"

Just want to shoot the 130 gr Accubond at about 3000 fps.

That being the situation, it might do well for you.

Back when it was first released, Hornady made a lot of 2-diameter bullets. That is one of the best Bullet Designs that any Engineer ever came up with. But, there was a problem using them in the 6.5RemMag. By the time you Seated them deep enough to feed in those M600/660 actions, the cannelure would be on down in the Case Neck a bit. Then when people went to apply a slight Roll Crimp, the end of the Case Neck was over the "Bore Diameter Section" of those 140gr and longer Bullets.

How long is the magazine well in your Browning?

One nice thing about your thought to do a rebarrel on the Browning is you can try Seating a few Bullets in some 6.5RemMag cases before you commit lots of money to the project. That way if it works, you can have them chamber the Barrel just the way you want it. Or if it doesn't work, you are just out a few Cases.

Best of luck to you on the project.

Dear Woods,
You shouldn`t [?] have too much trouble getting 3000 + with the 130 gr bullets or those in that class. I built one for a guy here locally and he loves it. He shoots the 129 Hornadys and nothing is safe. Recoils not enough to talk about and accuracy seems to be great. We used a Douglas XX from Midway. I know he used the 120 Sierras on Antelope last year and said it was like lightening when he hit the little goats. The 6.5 Rem Mag was hampered greatly by the mag length of the 600s as well as bullet selection and throating. Long throat your chamber to allow you to seat those beautiful 130s out where they belong.

Aloha, Mark