Jerry,

I was reading old posts and found you have a Browning 65 in .218 Bee and were reloading for it.

I just recently bought a 65 and am starting to reload. Have you found any loads that work well? Any tips for this round?

Thanks in advance for your time!

If no one else offers up some Bee wisdom, try with a 40 grain bullet; 13.5 grains of AA1680, and 13 even with a 45 grain bullet. The hornet bullets shoot well and perform well at these velocities. When loading for the Bee years ago, I used WW680, but did not try small pistol magnun primers. I now do use those in a hornet and get better consistancy. As always work up for your own rifle using establish techniques for saftey.

Henry:

The load I now am shooting is 14.1/4198/40 grain Hornet bullets. Vels are 2750 to 2800fps, and the groups are 1.5", at 50 yards. Almost all the group dispersion is verticle, which makes me think it is my shooting, rather than the load. The horizontal dispersion is under .5". I happened upon this load just by chance, as I had some 4198 I wanted to use up, works great! I also load 1680 as 308 Sako suggested, about the same charges as he.

The model 65 has been nothing but great fun.

Jerry

308Sako,

Thanks for responding with your experiences! Much appreciated.

Jerry,

Thank you for sharing your experience loading the Bee in the 65. I'm excited to start loading and shooting this round. Lots of gophers in my area of Montana.

I have a Winchester and a Browning 71. Francis Sell in an old book talks about the 65 .218 Bee as a great understudy rifle for the 71.

It should be as you say,"nothing but great fun!"

Henry:

You are welcome! Let us know how your 218 Bee works out, and what loads you settle upon.

Jerry