6.5 bolt gun for youth

[Varminterror]

Just as a wager, a person could probably find a few more .243 stocks that could be cut to fit the youth in question (since that stock is going to need to grow a bit in a year or so).

This would be a bad bet. The stocks are the same for all of the cartridges considered above.

The 243win, 260, 6.5x47, and 6.5 creedmoor all use the same short action, same bolt face, so if you can find a stock for the 243win, it's the exact same stock as the others.

Might could fins Swede mauser stocks, too. But, that's just a guess.

Bad guess here too. The 6.5x55 Swede Mauser, in a true mauser or clone, is NOT so fortunate, as it's a mid-length action with relatively poor aftermarket support. Aftermarket support used to be much better for the midlength mauser actions, 20yrs ago or so, but it's really not what it used to be. In non-mauser actions, the 6.5x55 swede must be chambered in a long action, which while there is "a lot" of aftermarket support for long actions, there are not nearly as many options for long actions as there are for short actions - for example, there's about 3:1 or more bottom metals and DBM systems available for short actions vs. long.

Brass is and will remain to be as available for the 6.5 Creedmoor as it will be for the .260rem, and both can be formed from brass which forever will be readily available (.22-250, 243win, 308win, etc). Frankly, you can make either of them from 30-06 or 308win, so brass availability is largely moot. The 6.5x47L is one I might steer away from in terms of brass supply, as is the Grendel and the x55 Swede - I know enough to expect to be flamed for saying it, but it's a reality, grendel, x47, and mauser brass are NOT as plentiful as 308win/30-06 based cases (admitting here, 7.62x39mm brass is plentiful, but GOOD QUALITY brass isn't as readily available).

Any of the 243win, 6.5creed, 6.5x47L, 260rem, 7-08rem, and a handful of others are all "right answers" to the same question (light recoiling, whitetail capable cartridges). The Grendel is a good choice for shorter ranges, but it's definitely not in the same class as the rest above, especially when you're talking short barreled youth-friendly models.

Personally, 243win, 260rem, 6.5creed, or 7-08 would be the entirety of my list. In general, I favor the 7-08rem off of that list, with a close second place to the 243win, which I consider to be the most efficiently effective whitetail deer hunting cartridge on the market.

 

[SHOOT1SAM]

When my oldest daughter turned 10, I bought her a Ruger youth model in .260 Rem. I called the ballisticians at Speer & they gave me a load of 10 grs. of Unique with an 85 gr. bullet; the recoil is like a .22.

I don't think you can do this with any of the other 6.5 cartridges that have been mentioned.

Sam

 

[jmorris]

The energy will be a lot closer to the .22 as well.

You can load reduced loads in just about any caliber. Trailboss is generally the powder of choice for this because of its bulk.

When I was suggesting reduced loads though, I was talking about taking the faster 6.5 rounds and toning them down 500 fps or so so they are the equivalent of the ones known for less recoil but still usable energy levels.

 

[Chuck R.]

The energy will be a lot closer to the .22 as well.

You can load reduced loads in just about any caliber. Trailboss is generally the powder of choice for this because of its bulk.

When I was suggesting reduced loads though, I was talking about taking the faster 6.5 rounds and toning them down 500 fps or so so they are the equivalent of the ones known for less recoil but still usable energy levels.

This was the approach I took initially. I loaded down my son's .260 to be effectively a .243 @ 200 yds coming out of the muzzle. For our deer blind (max range of 100yds) it was about a 300 yd impact velocity. Made for great practice rounds, and he took his 1st deer with this load. Now that he's older (larger) he's up to full power loads.

Chuck

 

[Olympus]

H4895 is probably the most common powder used for reduced recoil loads in rifles

 

[viking499]

When my oldest daughter turned 10, I bought her a Ruger youth model in .260 Rem. I called the ballisticians at Speer & they gave me a load of 10 grs. of Unique with an 85 gr. bullet; the recoil is like a .22.

I don't think you can do this with any of the other 6.5 cartridges that have been mentioned.

Sam

Why could you not down load some of the other 6.5 rounds?

 

[horsey300]

Why could you not down load some of the other 6.5 rounds?

You can, hodgdon usually offers a trail boss load for plinking shooting and as Olympus said, the H4895 is used quite a bit, I believe the rule is reduce no more than 65% from Max on that one. So if there's a load for h4895, you can reduce it, this would work on any cartridge (though reduced loads in a Grendel might only be called a powder saver anyway as it's already fairly tame)
ETA that unique load would probably work on the creedmoor too if adjusted properly as I believe the .260 has just the slightest of extra case capacity but otherwise similar. I wouldn't see a reason for this, we have .17s .22lr .22wm .223, not gonna waste the big bullets on .22 performance, if we wanna shoot cans at 50yds we have better options. The perk of the 6.5 is the downrange performance, if it needs to be weaker than a .223, just load reduced .243s....... but hey sometimes because you "can."

 

[jmorris]

H4895 is probably the most common powder used for reduced recoil loads in rifles

That still retain decent velocities. Most of the people loading "very" reduced loads are using pistol powders.

H4895 would be a good choice for what I was suggesting though.
https://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/H4895 Reduced Rifle Loads.pdf

Where a "normal" 6.5 creedmore load would push a 120gn around 3000 fps, around 30gn of H4895 would put the bullet in the 2500 fps area and would feel a lot closer to what you would get with a factory 6.5 Grendel round.

 

[SHOOT1SAM]

"Where a "normal" 6.5 creedmore load would push a 120gn around 3000 fps, around 30gn of H4895 would put the bullet in the 2500 fps area and would feel a lot closer to what you would get with a factory 6.5 Grendel round."

This is what I was referring to when I stated I didn't think you could load some of the other 6.5's so far down like I was able to do with my 10 y/o daughter's .260. Even the lowest reduced loads in the manuals were too much for her.

Sam

 

[horsey300]

"Where a "normal" 6.5 creedmore load would push a 120gn around 3000 fps, around 30gn of H4895 would put the bullet in the 2500 fps area and would feel a lot closer to what you would get with a factory 6.5 Grendel round."

This is what I was referring to when I stated I didn't think you could load some of the other 6.5's so far down like I was able to do with my 10 y/o daughter's .260. Even the lowest reduced loads in the manuals were too much for her.

Sam

The .260 only has 2 gr more capacity than the creed so loading either one into an oversized .22 would be similarly pressurized, a person might reduce the charge just a touch but I'm not sure I'd try it on a Swede or larger.