Looking for hunting stories from those who use the Swede for Elk size animals. what load and bullet, performance on raking shoots or similar, penetration, bullet appearance, distance , kill ability, number of shots or what ever fills out the story. Post evaluation ! roger

I suspect we'll have a lot of Swedes posting on this!

What about a Norwegian?

I only use my 6,5 for Roe-deer, but I reload it for my Moose hunting buddy.

Best results so far with the 140 A-frame and the 140 Woodleigh PP.

The Swift was loaded with 43,5 grs of N160. He shot a bull at 80 meters last season, the animal went about 30 meters before he fell over. Weigth ret was 98% !

The woodleigh opens up a bit more, and keeps typically 80-85% of it's weight.


M

Does it need to be true?



SSR

I've pointed my Remington Model 700 Classic, chambered in 6.5x55 Swedish at a number of cow elk over the years. Most the time I was hunting the late season and was looking for a pile of elk steaks, roasts and burger so I headed out to the sagebrush flats around Craig, Colorado.

On each of these instances, after belly crawling within range and taking a solid rest over my daypack, I clicked the safety off and took careful aim approximately 1/3 the way up the chest just behind the front shoulder. After settling into the shot, I gently squeezed the trigger and sent a 6.5mm bullet toward the aforementioned elk.

After taking the bullet one of two things always happened. Either they just went down in a big tan heap, or they took off on a very short wobble legged run. But the ultimate outcome was always the same. I got the skinning knife ready and set to work taking care of that year's meat supply.

THE END.

Flags,

Your post makes me hungry !!!! Those elk cows steaks must be great !!

I onle ate elk once in my life and it was great. It was at the Buckhorn restaurant in Colorado.

Back to the 6,5..... What a great "little" cartdrige

L

quote:

I onle ate elk once in my life and it was great.

Elk is great.....moose is even better!

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

I onle ate elk once in my life and it was great.

Elk is great.....moose is even better!

Not to my taste budds. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

I onle ate elk once in my life and it was great.

Elk is great.....moose is even better!

Not to my taste budds. roger

I'll send you some!

Vapo -

I sure agree with you on that one. The best venison out there, as far as I am concerned, is moose meat. Second best for my tastes is sun-dried caribou ribs.

I have used my 6,5x55 Norwegian on moose and reindeer with great success. Today the minimum bullet weight for big game is 9g, but because of the effective performance of the 6,5x55 here in Norway, the cartrigde will probably be exempted from this rule from next year, with a minimum bullet weight of 7,4g.

Bullets are better now but i dont think a 7,4g would by proper for bear and moose but fallow deer, seal and wolfhunting would benefit from a lighter bullet. Hope they make some changes in Sweden to. Finland has a caliber class with 6mm 100gr min. for deer.

Dimensions - The American 6.5x55 case is smaller based on the .473" diameter case .Are the American chambers made to .473" or .479" ?? Anyone know howmuch accuracy is lost using .473" ammo in a .479" chamber ?

I've got a 6.5x55 in CZ 550. Since it's made in yurup I figured the chamber was CIP. I've used Lapua and Norma brass and an assortment of US made ammo. The tests were not extensive, and I was mostly having fun. As part of that, I looked for issues or problems, and saw none with any of the loads or brass. They all extracted fine, and produced adequate accuracy.

I had a Husqvarna at the same time, and it wouldn't extract brass unless it was Lapua or Norma. Correction: it would extract the US made brass, but would not eject it properly.

The CZ not only is trouble free, but it shoots nice groups with a variety of factory loads and handloads. Since then I sold the Husqvarna.

Once, just for the heck of it, I had at the range with me several different loads, but all had 140 gr bullets. As I recall, I had Winchester, Remington, Federal, and PMC, and two handloads all with 140 gr bullets. They were all shooting good groups, so I shot a couple of rounds each at the same place on the target. The group was about 2" to 3". I've not tried that with any other rifle, for one reason I've never had ammo that close alike at the range for any other chambering. I thought it was interesting. Of course any one of the loads would produce a smaller group, but collectively shooting that close together impressed me.

KB

quote:

Kabluewy

Kabluewy, How does your 6.5x55s perform on game ? roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:

quote:

Kabluewy

Kabluewy, How does your 6.5x55s perform on game ? roger

I didn't mention that Roger, because I haven't hunted with it yet. I'll have to remedy that soon. I have a few rifles now that I havent hunted with - those with walnut stocks and blued metal. In this climate, I pull them out of their gun cases about once a month, and wipe them down and run an oily patch through the bore. I figure they can rust just sitting in the case, but it's probably my imagination.

I would like to take the 6.5x55 to Texas next time, and try it on some deer and hogs.

KB

My 6.5x55 was used as my deer rifle for 25 years .With rare exception 1 shot ,1 deer.

Finn Aagaard called it the perfect deer cartridge ! I agree.
I always used the 140 , for pigs I think I'd use a 140 premium like all copper or Nosler Partition

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
Dimensions - The American 6.5x55 case is smaller based on the .473" diameter case .Are the American chambers made to .473" or .479" ?? Anyone know howmuch accuracy is lost using .473" ammo in a .479" chamber ?

I use the .473 cases in a .479 chamber with no loss of anything of value.....it works just great

quote:

Originally posted by mete:

Finn Aagaard called it the perfect deer cartridge ! I agree.

This is a statement that is very hard to argue with. If it's not the best then I'd be hard pressed to prove something better.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Originally posted by mete:

Finn Aagaard called it the perfect deer cartridge ! I agree.

This is a statement that is very hard to argue with. If it's not the best then I'd be hard pressed to prove something better.

In an article Finn also praised the .280 as the best designed cartridge for the lower 48 plus. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Originally posted by mete:

Finn Aagaard called it the perfect deer cartridge ! I agree.

This is a statement that is very hard to argue with. If it's not the best then I'd be hard pressed to prove something better.

In an article Finn also praised the .280 as the best designed cartridge for the lower 48 plus. roger

and once again.....this is hard to argue with.

Dimensions: I have reloaded some Federal 6,5x55 Nickel plated cases for pratice without any issues, no bulges so far. (The Federal premium load with Trophy Boneded bullet is popular even in these part of the woods..)
However the Norma and Lapua cases with the (correct) .479 head will normally not fit a standard size shellholder.

The 6,5x55 is very popular in Norway, very long traditions in the Arctic both with blackpowder and smokeless, jacked and lead bullets. A famous norwegian trapper and hunter: Henry Rudi in his old days often spoke about his trusty 6,5x55 Krag Jørgensen. It never let him down. They called him "Isbjørn-kongen" (Polarbear-king) after his long "career" up in the North.

Yo, Flags
Are you in Moffat county ?