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6.5 x 55
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 Posted: Fri Nov 21st, 2008 01:24 PM
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DesertMarine
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From my input of 19 November: "I inherited a M96, barrel not too great.  Shot it the other day at 500 yds using reloads.  PMC cases, Winchester LR primer, 38 gr IMR 4064, 140 Gr Sierra Spitzer, OAL 3.050" with cases trimmed to 2.155".   Hit a 3" gong with the first shot with iron sights.  Had a friend with me who confirmed the shot." 

The gong is 3' diameter vs 3".  Would love to shoot that good and have a rifle capable of doing it. 

 

 



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 Posted: Sat Nov 22nd, 2008 02:00 AM
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BigBill
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I think that http://www.samcoglobal.com had 6,5mm M96 swede barrels at onetime but i haven't looked lately. Even a good used barrel will go right in with the headspace good.  I just did it with an 8mm mauser barrel.  Since the tolarences are held pretty tight when they machine it the barrels are very close to each other and the headspace should be ok.

Last edited on Sat Nov 22nd, 2008 02:04 AM by BigBill



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 Posted: Sat Nov 22nd, 2008 04:58 AM
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DesertMarine
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I looked at SAMCO today.  They have some Swede sniper rifles and I believe some barreled actions.



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 Posted: Tue Dec 9th, 2008 01:18 AM
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BigBill
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I did purchase some swede barreled actions a few years back and got the stocks with the metal from numrich gun parts and assembled the mausers.  This was a time when none were to be found. At least the bolt numbers, trigger guard, mag door numbers all matched.  Most of the swede rifles i have seen the numbers weren't all matching anyway.  Finding an all matching numbered swede rifle it rare but i still stay looking.  

The swiss K31 is suppose to be another good accurate rifle too.  The swiss GP11 ammo is of match grade quality too. :thumbs:

Last edited on Tue Dec 9th, 2008 01:19 AM by BigBill



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 Posted: Thu Dec 25th, 2008 09:52 PM
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Archangele
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Hi,

 I have two Swedish Mausers chambered in the original 6.5x55.  Personally, I like the 6.5mm caliber. I also shoot the type 38 Arisaka and the .260 Remington. The 6.5X55 is an excellent round. Very accurate. But don't expect to find a Swedish Mauser in good to excellent condition for under $400.00 anymore. You will hear the war stories of how they were going for $50.00 or some other ultra low price. Yes, that may have been true when cars still had tail fins. But, today, the prices are much higher. I too live in North Florida, and although I saw a couple Swedes in the gun shows in Lake City and Ocala, the prices were around $600 or so and they were not as nice as the ones I have. I bought my 1908 Carl Gustafs, which is a long rifle version, and has a nice barrel with sharp rifling and a very clean bore for just under $300.00 at a local gun store three years ago. The "Swede" is an easy caliber to reload for. It seems to work well with bullets from 107 gr upt o 140 gr. I have been using slow powders like IMR 4831. In fact I use the same powder charge in my Swede that I use in my .260 Remington cartridges. That's how similar they are in performance. You can't go wrong with a Swedish Mauser and the 6.5x55 cartridge. You can also occasionally find Norwegian Krags which are chambered in the 6.5x55. The Krag in this caliber is a real nice rifle. Ultra smooth action just like the Springfield 30-40 Krags.



 Posted: Fri Dec 26th, 2008 04:32 PM
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6.5.shooter
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Hi  All,

I have several Swede M96 rifles. I love this round I am a 6.5 cal nut shooter!!The 260 Rem and the 6.5X55 are close in ballistics.I like takeing the old Swedes out to the range and shooting them out 500 to 600 yard steel "gongs" with iron sites.This round has little recoil and is very accurate when i do my part!!!!:cool: shooter



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 Posted: Sat Dec 27th, 2008 01:54 AM
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Archangele
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6.5.shooter wrote: Hi  All,

I have several Swede M96 rifles. I love this round I am a 6.5 cal nut shooter!!The 260 Rem and the 6.5X55 are close in ballistics.I like takeing the old Swedes out to the range and shooting them out 500 to 600 yard steel "gongs" with iron sites.This round has little recoil and is very accurate when i do my part!!!!:cool: shooter

  Hi Shooter,

     Man, you have my kind of taste in cartridges. You don't shoot 6.5 Jap in an Arisaka do you?   Anyway, I picked up an all original 1908 Swede and when I first shot it  I was struck by the mild recoil and very good accuracy. The battle sight  on these rifles has a lowest setting of 300 yards, which requires a bit of getting used to so as to not shoot a head high at 100 and 200 yards. But, my initial groups, although high, were very small. Much smaller then with any other iron sighted rifle with the exception of my Persian Mauser. (I LOVE that Persian Mauser!  Brno rules!) Do you handload the 6.5x55?  What is your pet load? I've been using the exact same load as in my .260 of 44 gr of IMR 4831 behind a 140 gr Sierra HPBT Match. I also have a sporterized Husquevarna but, it does not shoot this load as well. This rifle is a shorter barrel version and I noticed it favors 120 gr bullets and lighter. I am still working on that one. Someone put on a Timminey (sp?) trigger which is horrible.  Either it adjusts that the rifle fires as soon as you close the bolt, or  it won't let you pull the bolt back without holding the trigger.  It has a scope on it and I have planted under 1" groups at 100 yards with it. It's a work in progress. I would never have sporterized it myself, but since it was already done, I figured why not make it right and go all the way.  I think the issue with that gun is that with the short barrel, it can not properly stabilize the 140 gr bullet for maximum accuracy. I ran into this in a carbine length rifle once before. Drove myself nuts trying to work up a load only to find that going to a lighter bullet turned a dog into a tack driver. Do you know if there is some difference between the Husquevarna and Carl Gustafs Swedes that one should consider when reloading for the two versions of the Swedish Mauser? I'm wondering if the twist rate for the barrels might be different.
                 



 Posted: Tue Dec 30th, 2008 01:13 AM
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DesertMarine
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I thought my 6.5x55 was a 96 but after looking at several sites think I have a 96/38.  The receiver is marked Carl Gustav with a date of 1915.  The barrel is marked, CAI ST Alb. VT (who I guess is the importer) and M38 Sweden 6.5x55 and is around 23" long.  Receiver, bolt and butt plate are marked alike.  Muzzle is threaded.

The rear sight is different from others that I have seen online.  It is marked "Metallverken Vasteras sv patent 90944.  Hope someone can identify it. 

Could not get my camera to focus as close as I needed.  Hope I did the browse right to get all pictures in.

Attachment: DSC00012.JPG (Downloaded 85 times)



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 Posted: Tue Dec 30th, 2008 01:19 AM
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DesertMarine
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Did not get all the images I wanted.  One more.  Using the browse button but will only allow one image.

Attachment: DSC00009.JPG (Downloaded 85 times)



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 Posted: Tue Dec 30th, 2008 01:38 AM
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BigBill
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I heard a story once from an internet dealer who said back then when there was no 6,5mm ammo available for these rifles they were selling them for $20 and couldn't give them away too.   When the ammo finally became available the rest is history right?  At around the sametime SOG had the unissued French MAS Commando 49/56 Rifles in 7.5 mm french that were refurbished in '92 still NIB for $189.  I managed to get two when the ammo became available before the supply ran out.  Samco still has the barreled M96 receivers (fair condition) for $169 and Numrich gun parts has the stocks with the metal for $52 the last time i looked.  I did assemble some of my swede mausers from these parts(2). But the receiver numbers do match the bolts and trigger housing/foreplate. :thumbs:  I have a complete swede m96 stock with the metal and handguard sitting here.  All i need is another barreled action.

I guess that most of us got into the C&R stuff at the right time because the prices won't be cheap for too much longer.

While shooting my very first swede 1907 CG M96 mauser using new Sellier & Bellot 139gr ammo benchrested I was shooting around 1 1/2" groups.  When a guy walked over to me and asked what gun was i shooting these groups with.  I guess during a target change "they" saw my groups and my gun with no scope.  Then he said they are a SWAT team and some of there scoped rifles don't shoot that good.  I told him its a 100yo swede mauser.  He just shook his head with disbelief and walked away. I have a few swede mausers but its always the 1907 that goes to the range with me.  I guess i should have a swede day and shoot the others too.

Last edited on Tue Dec 30th, 2008 01:40 AM by BigBill



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 Posted: Tue Dec 30th, 2008 05:08 PM
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6.5.shooter
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Hi Arch,

I dont have any 6.5 jap guns.My favorite 1904 m96 Swede all orignal all numbers matching.I took it out the wood stock to put it in a syn stock reason i did that is to not to put any more dings and scratches in the wood stock!!The iron sites takes little to get use to. Starting from 300 meters to 2000 meters! My pet load for shooting at 100yds with my 1904 is

6.5x55

IMR-4064   39.0grs

Sierra-100gr HP

Rem  91/2 primers

Win brass

Around 2825fps

This load works great in my 1904 Swede at 100yds on 6'' ''gongs'' I got to aim at bottom of gong!!:thumbs:

The shorter barrel Swedes I have not shot any myself mine all 29.5'' barrels with 1-7.5 twist:cool:

My gues on your short barrel Swede from 29.5'' cut to a shorter length will change twist rate to stablelize the heavy bullets?

My 18.5'' 1-7.5 twist barrel ar-260 will handle bullets up to 160gr:thumbs:Shooter



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 Posted: Tue Dec 30th, 2008 11:42 PM
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Archangele
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My gues on your short barrel Swede from 29.5'' cut to a shorter length will change twist rate to stablelize the heavy bullets?

My 18.5'' 1-7.5 twist barrel ar-260 will handle bullets up to 160gr:thumbs:Shooter
Hi,    My old Swede is a 1908 Carl Gustafs with all matching numbers. Acording to it's metal disk, it was from a mountain division. It has the older style metal disk which only shows the gun number, regiment and such. No record of what was done in an armory like the newer disks which show barrel condition and such. It has a straight bolt handle and all matching numbers. The barrel is shiny and the rifling is really good. Every piece is numbered and even the magazine follower has a small crown symbol stamped on it. on the under side of the barrel, about 2" from the end, there is an importer mark from Miami Florida.  This one shoots around 6" high at  100 yards and with iron sights, will plant 10 rounds in 4".  The limiting factor here is the condition of my eyes.      My .260 is a Savage model 10 Tactical. It has planted 1.5" groups at 600 yards. But most of the times, I get around 4" groups at that range. I have been told that I might do better if I were to move to bench rest primers, But I believe the limiting factor is the gun. I don't think the stock Savage is going to do much better. The only ones at the range who best that rifle are the dedicated bench rest guys who shoot custom built rifles with high end barrels. That's kind of out of my price range. The 6.5mm seems to be a real accurate caliber. The next step seems to be .338. I've seen some .338 Lapua and .338 Remington Ultra Mags shot some real tight groups at over 500 yards.  I'm just not into the shoulder abuse of those babies. They are not bad for around 10 rounds, but shoot around 80 in a morning and things begin to ache.



 Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 11:04 PM
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I have a friend who shoots 900 yards in the UK using 46g of RL-22 and the 139g Lapua bullet. I think he cut ceter six out of ten shots with the 6.5X55.

 

Half way down the page he has an artical he wrote about the 6.5X55.

 

http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/

 

It took me some time to find one like his but I sure like it. Now I would like a Savage 110FP style in 6.5X55.



 

Cheers

..MJ..



 Posted: Sat Jul 4th, 2009 05:26 PM
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ottsixx
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Hands down one of the most accurate rifles I ever owned was a mauser 96 swedish 6.5x55 set in a sporter stock with the barrel cut down to 22" and target crowned and the original 7.87:1 twist rate shootin the norma 156 RN or 140 SP at 100 yards this rifle would produse lil ragged 1 hole 5 shot groups,it was just nuttin but a butt stompin awesome rifle........................



 Posted: Sun Aug 2nd, 2009 04:51 AM
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I too love the old 6.5x55 Swed.  I bought my son a Model 38 Sporter years ago for his 16th B'day.  Damned thing would shoot 139 or 140gr factory ammo into 1/2" or less at 100yards consistently.  I bought the Remington Classic in 6.5x55 the year they produced it....... wouldn't do 2" at 100!!!   Had it rechambered for the 6.5x284 Norma and it is deadly further than I can see.

Since then I have a bought Norwegian Krag in 6.5x55, load that one a little light, SMOOTH bolt action.  Also have a Model 38 for my self.......  it too does less than an inch at 100 yards.   That 6.5 slug has been deadly on game for both myself and my son.:troll: 



 Posted: Wed Sep 9th, 2009 04:09 PM
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.300SAUM  Where did you get the stock for your Mauser? I like that stock and would like to have one for my Swedish Mauser. I have just got some dies for it and will start reloading for it soon, I have a shoulder injury now and can not test the rounds yet.

Last edited on Wed Sep 9th, 2009 04:18 PM by grandman



 Posted: Fri Sep 11th, 2009 07:44 PM
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MJ  VERY nice 6.5 with the AJAX scope.  Hell,  you can use that for hunting just the way it is....:thumbs:



 Posted: Tue Sep 22nd, 2009 01:52 AM
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I just rambled on endlessly about my 6.5 Swedes in another thread that I found here...lol. I think it was in the load area and i was out of line and off topic, but they got me going on my M96 CG's..... Love em, wish I had the money for a couple of more. Guy



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 Posted: Fri Oct 9th, 2009 07:33 AM
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nail driver
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i have a chance to buy a 6.5x55 sa for $500 comes with 5 boxes of shells does anyone know if that is a fair price?



 Posted: Fri Oct 9th, 2009 03:37 PM
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fryboy
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alot will depend on the manufacture, the date of manufacture,the exact model ( variant ) as well as the condition but then again no matter what all the above says if u like it - yes , here is one of the best sources for info that i am aware of

http://dutchman.rebooty.com/index.html



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