If anyone has any good hunting loads for this cartridge please share them.
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If anyone has any good hunting loads for this cartridge please share them.
I'm in the process of building one now. I'll post on it when I begin working up loads, if I can get it away from my daughter long enough as I'm building it for her. The reason I chose it is a bit involved, but it makes a good story.
I have an old Greek milsurp in 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer, a slightly smaller case with about the same capacity as the Carcano. An old friend's dad brought it home from WWII and it sat in various closets for over 50 years. He doesn't shoot, and he said one day that he had an old 6.5, did I want it. Of course I did. ;) I assumed it was an old Swede Mauser (and ordered brass, dies and bullets for it sight unseen) until I saw the split bridge. Then I had to figure out what 6.5 it was because an unloaded case would not fit. I got even more excited and started researching. It's maybe 200fps slower than the Swede, but the cases are close enough in length that I can use a Swede collet die to neck size, and for all practical purposes, field performance of the two rounds is virtually the same. People laugh when they see it as it looks like it spent WWI & II getting run over by tanks, and perhaps it did. I wasn't expecting anything until I ran a few patches through the bore. It looked like it was almost new. So, I spent weeks carefully removing exterior rust and getting the rotary magazine working again. Nothing will EVER make it pretty, but I got it working. Finding brass for it took a while until I discovered some at Graff's, and I had to order the dies direct from RCBS (they weren't special order, but no one stocked them).
I started with Sierra 140 SBT GK's and 3031 and loaded up ten rounds of each inncrement to test them. With the ancient battle sights, I fired five shots at 100yds and couldn't see any of them on the paper with the spotting scope. I was disgusted. All that effort and expense down the drain.... It wasn't until I got within ten feet of the target that I could see what happened. There were five holes in the black, very slightly off center, all overlapping. The worst group was just under an inch, the best just under a half inch. I've never bothered to test a second powder.
With that (and your question) in mind, a buddy got himself an old Swede in trade and came asking. He ordered himself the same Sierra bullets (#1730) and I dug out the 3031 and we loaded some up. The best 5shot group was about 3/4" and the worst right around 2". Results with 4895 and 4064 were comparable, with the 4064 giving a significant edge in velocity. RL22 is also supposed to work well, but I didn't have any on hand and did not try it. He was happy, kept the rifle, and hunts with a 4064 load.
As much as I like the old M/S round, it has and odd smaller head size, so building a custom in that chambering was not a simple matter of swapping barrels. Brass for the Swede is much easier to come by and the Swede does have a bit of a performance edge, along with decent accuracy and minimal recoil necessary for a young girl with a very slight frame. You may notice that I almost never post charge weights. It makes no sense to me because each rifle has it's own opinion of how much works best, even if it agrees with others on the powder choice.
My dads grampa handed down an old swedeish mauser when he passed away and it is in great condition for being made in 1915! It has a craig action and it is chambered for the 6.5x55. Two words extremly accurate!
Rob you got it..... I mean to say if it is extremly accurate? You already have a good load. 6.5 120 gr. accurately placed will do the job on any deer sized game.