Need 6.5x55 bullet recommendation

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the CCI BR-2 primers are fairly mild...

It would be interesting to see what you are obtaining for velocity.....

Another thought... is your chamber area oily? Or do you have case re-sizing lube on your cases ?? Either will cause your rifle to act like it has a head-space problem.

Maybe you should try another powder with a mild load.....

This is so weird.....
 
Chamber is clean. I just cleaned it before going out. Funny thing is that after I shot my two reloaded rounds I shot two 1986 Military surplus rounds and two hornady super performance rounds. No sign of excessive pressure. I was going to get my gun head spaced but none of the gun smiths around me have the tool for a 6.5x55.
 
We have explored a bunch of stuff, humour me on this one.

Headspace.
It would appear as if factory ammo is fine in your rifle, the current load you have is not excessive in my opinion so that leaves precious few avenues apart from the ones already discussed.

Before dropping the load or loading up anything else could you try this;
- Remove the firing pin from your bolt to reduce the camming pressure. This is important as the pressure required to cam the bolt will mask the pressure of possible other interferences.
- Chamber a factory round and slowly cam the bolt closed taking note of the pressure required.
- Now take a trimmed sized case, not fire-formed and blacken the shoulder area with a sharpie and repeat the exercise taking note of the pressure. Check the blackend area for signs of interference.
- If the pressure increases you are probably bringing the shoulder of the case to bear on the shoulder of the chamber which is not a good thing.
- If there is pressure then reset your sizing die and bump the shoulder back until there is no pressure on camming the bolt over. Do this in very small increments lest you buckle your case.
- Try your current load and look for sign of pressure.

You ideally want 0.001" between the case should and the chamber shoulder. To measure this accurately there are cheap devices to measure the headspace to the datum line on your cartridge case. They fasten to vernier calipers and allow you to measure and set up your die for the correct headspace.

Let us know how you progress.
 
I will have to try this. There is a gun smith near me that may have the tools to head space my gun. I will see if he can help as well.
 
It is something you are doing.....

1. Are you super sure that you are not bumping back your case shoulder ?

2. ALSO are you sure you did not goof and buy some bullets for the 6.5 Carcano... They are a little larger in diameter. They are .268 instead of .264.... I know it sounds weird but one guy accidently bought one box of those when he grabbed several other bullet boxes off the shelf....

3. How hard or easy is it for you to seat your primers? A loose primer pocket will let the primer blow out even at lower pressures and cause some bolt opening problems.

4. Undersized US made 6.5x55mm Brass will eventually stretch since the case head is undersized from the get-go. See the photo I added below the cartridge diagram... You can see the shiny spot where the Winchester brass is stretching. because it is so undersized it must move a long way to grab the sides of the chamber during firing.

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All it takes is for you to have a set of dies that are a little less deep than others and whammy, a shortened shoulder area that will act the same as an improper headspace.

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Xeon64, not being a wiseguy, but have you checked the zero on your powder scale? If factory ammo works well, then it's likely it's something that you're doing that is causing these issues. In my experience, a true 42gr charge of Rel-22 will give neither too high pressure, or too low pressure in a sound Swede Mauser.
Your description sounds like excessive pressures initially, but smoking down the case into the shoulder is a symptom of low pressure when the case fails to obdurate enough to the chamber to seal the case to the powder's ignition.
Flattened primers can be caused by different things, and doesn't always indicate a high pressure situation.


NCsmitty
 
I am using a digital Frankfort Arsenal Scale. I work in a lab. I brought my scale in and tested it against one of our very expensive lab scales. It was almost as good as the lab scale. Off by a a few thousandths here and there on the upper end of weight and dead on at the lower end.
 
M41, 1986 Military measurements. Fired and Unfired. Others to come soon.
 

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Primers are easy to seat but I am using a Lee Ram Prime. my bullets are .264.

One thing to note. When I resize my brass with the full length die they come out longer than when they went in. They go in a 2.165 and come out at 2.70. But when I trim the case they are at spec. Could this bump the shoulder back? I followed Lee's instruction for the die. They said to make sure that not light could be see between the bottom of the die and the bullet seat.
 
yeap, they stretch when they are resized... PARTICULARY undersized U.S. made brass. The only 6.5x55mm brass that is even more goofy is the PMC junk....
Notice how the military brass did not stretch much via firing but your Hornady loads really swelled up......

That is Why LAPUA or Norma brass will last 15 reloads and US made stuff will last 5.
Privi- brass will go 8 to 10 loads.


You missed a measurement for the top of the shoulder on one drawing.

I do not bottom out my dies. In this case, this may be your problem.....

Is the Hornady brass drawing one of your hand-loads or factory...?????

We need to see the measurements on your hand-loads before being fired....

My first guess would be to back off your dies a couple turns.
 
Primers are easy to seat but I am using a Lee Ram Prime. my bullets are .264.

One thing to note. When I resize my brass with the full length die they come out longer than when they went in. They go in a 2.165 and come out at 2.70. But when I trim the case they are at spec. Could this bump the shoulder back? I followed Lee's instruction for the die. They said to make sure that not light could be see between the bottom of the die and the bullet seat.

Do you lube the inside of your case neck to minimise stretch?

Any feed back on the chambering exercise with the firing pin removed.
 
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@ Float Point. The Hornady drawing is a factory load. Attached is drawing with the measurements of my reloaded measurements. @ Andrew. I only lube the outside of the case. I have not had a chance to try the chamber exercise yet.

I am starting to think that case length is the problem. All of the factory ammo I have measured for case length measured between 2.156 - 2.158 in including the military ammo. Fire formed and resized trimmed ammo all measure 2.165. That is almost one tenth difference in length. I am thinking that the 2.165 length is too tight for my chamber. I read that there is supposed to be a .001 gap between the shoulder of the case and the chamber. So if my cases are the same exact size as the reloaded ammo it might be too tight.

Would it be a good Idea to resize my brass to factory length of 2.156-2.158.
 

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Your trimmed length is TOO LONG. So the brass is trying to share chamber area with your bullet. Thus increasing the pressure. And giving crappy accuracy.

Most books show a trim-to length of 2.155 inches for previously shot brass.

If you reload some of your military brass, you will find that does not grow as much since it is the correct size.
 
Funny. My Nosler manual shows 2.165 as the trim length and my 6.5x55 trim gauge only allows me to trim down to 6.5x55. I am going to retry the 42 grains of RL 22, adjust my OAL, and cut the case down to 2.157 and see what happens.
 
2.165 is max length, 2.155 is trim length.
As Float Pilot mentioned, your brass may be running interference beyond the neck of the chamber, and that can cause high pressure because the case cannot release the bullet properly. Perhaps your chamber is to spec or a couple thousands under, but no harm will come if you run your cases a bit shorter, at 2.150-2.155. If you're crimping, though not necessary, then they all need to be the same length, of course.
I'm pretty sure that your M41 brass is berdan primed, and not reloadable without special tooling.


NCsmitty
 
I just picked up a stainless Howa 1500 in 6.5x55 with a 1 in 8" twist and 22" barrel. I'm going to use it for some of my deer hunting this year and was wondering what bullets y'all were having good luck with. I am looking for a slight edge toward accuracy and good performance on deer. Any pet loads would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Marty
129gr Hornady and IMR4350 (2770fps avg in my rifle)

I would mention the Sierra 160gr SMP loading w/ IMR7828 (2560fps avg)...but Sierra stopped making it (*flips both middle fingers @ Sierra). I have the Norma 156 Oryx's now. Havent work them up though.
 
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I'm pretty sure that your M41 brass is berdan primed, and not reloadable without special tooling.

I think that some of the m/41 ammo made by Norma has boxer primers. I have some around here someplace., But I have seen Berdan as well.

A friend of mine down the road made a jig for his drill press and has figured out how to drill out the Berdan stuff and pop in a boxer primer...
 
Funny. My Nosler manual shows 2.165 as the trim length and my 6.5x55 trim gauge only allows me to trim down to 6.5x55. I am going to retry the 42 grains of RL 22, adjust my OAL, and cut the case down to 2.157 and see what happens.
Ive always used 2.155
 
@ Float Point. The Hornady drawing is a factory load. Attached is drawing with the measurements of my reloaded measurements. @ Andrew. I only lube the outside of the case. I have not had a chance to try the chamber exercise yet.

I am starting to think that case length is the problem. All of the factory ammo I have measured for case length measured between 2.156 - 2.158 in including the military ammo. Fire formed and resized trimmed ammo all measure 2.165. That is almost one tenth difference in length. I am thinking that the 2.165 length is too tight for my chamber. I read that there is supposed to be a .001 gap between the shoulder of the case and the chamber. So if my cases are the same exact size as the reloaded ammo it might be too tight.

Would it be a good Idea to resize my brass to factory length of 2.156-2.158.
You should lube the inside of the neck, running it dry will pull back too hard on the brass and may be overextending it, it may also possibly accelerate the wear of the expander ball. Take a soft nylon brush of the correct caliber and use this to pass through the neck with a lick of lubricant. If you have Rockchucker then screw the brush into the hole used by the primer arm, this arrangement works a treat.

You will also find your upstroke more agreeable.
 
Ahh, reminds me of a Lass I met in Newcastle on Tyne..
:D:evil:

You can use dry graphite and I know a lot of people who do. I use the same lube as for the outside of the case, as I untrasonically clean afterwards so it makes no difference if the lube is wet or dry.

Are you an Englishman in Alaska?
 
Heavens No...
The Scots side of the family came here (Virginia and Barbados ) in the early 1600s. The direct line were mariners who sailed from part of London which was called Little Scotland back around 1605-1610. One of them was captured by the Spanish in 1611 and after four years of the inquisition he was traded back. The Old Virginia company paid off his family with land in the new world...
Over the next 400 years in North America they intermarried with other Scots, Welch and a few English. Plus a few Germans and Dutch (the Boer connection) ..
Uncle Sam and NATO sent me to Newcastle a couple times, plus 45 other countries over time.


I find that my use of Lapua brass helps reduce the brass being over-worked by the re-sizing process. Plus I toss my brass into a vibrating cleaner over night before I re-size.
After depriming and trimming, I soak them in Coca-Cola for a few hours. (It eats away the carbon) Then I rinse them with boiling water and let them dry in a metal strainer on top of my wood-stove overnight.

My lovely bride of many years finds the whole mess somewhat disconcerting...

I should really buy an ultra-sonic cleaner.

Well my Frau from Unterfranken " Bayern " is calling me to bed...As only a German can... Time to sign off....
 
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