I'm building my first rifle . it's going to be a 6.5x55 on a m24/47 action . what barrell, lenth and twist rate ?

My own personal preference is something like a 23.6" bbl with a fast twist to utilize the longer bullets. Depends though on what you want to use it for? Close quarters brush or longer more open territory?

My 6.5 X 55 is built on a VZ-24 with a Douglas #1 contour in 1-9" twist and I cut it to 21" but it could easily finish at 22".

I'm a short barrel fan but even so the 120 grain bullets I'm shooting are exiting at 3,045'/sec from the 21" barrel and there is no signs of pressure anywhere.

This is 25-06 big game performance from a shorter case.....It's among my finest big game rifles for animals up to 400 pounds.

A Lothar Walter barrel would be a great choice.

Mine is a Lothar 5130 pattern with 25 inch length and a 1:7.5" twist.

I really like Shilen barrels. I just haven't had a bad one. I think a 22" #2 contour barrel would be ideal for the 6.5x55. I don't know enough about twist rates to make a recommendation. I do know that a 140grain 6.5 bullet is one of the deadliest out there. It is also very long.

Since bullet weight can vary from 85 to 160 grains for this round, perhaps a bit more info on what you plan to use it for would help.

quote:

Originally posted by z1r:
My own personal preference is something like a 23.6" bbl

How did you come up with such a specific preference in length? Is 23.6" really any different that 23.5" or 23" or 24"?

Thanks.

That is nominally 600 millimeters, Chisana; a pretty standard European barrel length. 550 mm is another.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
That is nominally 600 millimeters, Chisana; a pretty standard European barrel length. 550 mm is another.

I know, I was just ball busting a little. My Brno 21H has one of those 23.6" barrels.

quote:

Originally posted by Chisana:

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
That is nominally 600 millimeters, Chisana; a pretty standard European barrel length. 550 mm is another.

I know, I was just ball busting a little. My Brno 21H has one of those 23.6" barrels.

Well, the 23.6" gets 2 fps better than the 23.5".

quote:

Originally posted by Chisana:

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
That is nominally 600 millimeters, Chisana; a pretty standard European barrel length. 550 mm is another.

I know, I was just ball busting a little. My Brno 21H has one of those 23.6" barrels.

My bad!

And I really notice the .4" less compared to a 24" when going through the brush!

quote:

Originally posted by Chisana:
And I really notice the .4" less compared to a 24" when going through the brush!

And I thought I was the only one!

Seriously, for a general purpose rifle anything from 22" to 24" would be great. The difference in performance practically negligible. I just happen to like longer barrels. Balance and how the rifle hangs when shooting offhand are far more important to me than 50 fps.

My 6.5 X 55 is built on a 93 action with a 21 inch barrel. The stock is currently at Bill Soverns being checkered