Tikka T3x in 6.5 Swede

[Poper]

I don't care for DBM's either. I really wish CZ still made the American. I like the stock too.

I see a lot of people say this. Personally, I prefer the detachable box magazine. Especially for hunting where reloading can be done in an instant. The Tikka's magazine is all polymer, including the follower. Rounds feed like they come off greased glass. The magazine has a very positive lock/latch system with a recessed release that would make accidentally losing a magazine almost impossible. I guess it all boils down to personal preference. And that is ok and why we have such a wide variety of type, action and models to choose from! So many guns, too little time!

 

[Hokkmike]

I wouldn't do that unless you're using a hellacious hand load, the moose hunting you hear about in Scandinavia with the 6.5x55 is after smaller moose than we have, at under 100 yards.

I have taken a couple cow elk with mine, I guess they're not deer size. Would not go after a bull with that caliber.

How about those 165 grain Norma's?

 

[someguy2800]

I don't have an issue with the tikka magazine either, its well executed and a better solution to me than dumping a handful of rounds out a floorplate when its time to unload. The only minor complaint I have of the T3 is I wish the ejection port was larger like on the M685

 

[eastbank]

a good many years ago i fished in upper canada and at the camp we stayed at there were a good many quite large moose horns and i ask what guns they used and was told 30-30 and 303 british. both shells used were factory, 170gr RN at 2200 fps for the 30-30 and 180gr RN at 2300 fps for the 303 british. why do you think a 6.5x55 loaded with 154-160grb bullets at a modest 2400-2500 fps would not kill a large moose? as all three cartiges have very close energy out to 300 yards at those speeds. eastbank.

 

[Paul7]

I've kind killed elk and nilgai with a .270, nilgai with a 6.5x55. I'd hunt elk and moose with a 6.5x55.

Scandinavian moose aren't as big as Yukon moose but I do believe they are as large as most moose in the lower 48.

The King Ranch doesn't allow anything under .300 Win Mag for Nilgai bulls.

Scandinavian moose are generally shot at under 100 yards.

 

[Paul7]

a good many years ago i fished in upper canada and at the camp we stayed at there were a good many quite large moose horns and i ask what guns they used and was told 30-30 and 303 british. both shells used were factory, 170gr RN at 2200 fps for the 30-30 and 180gr RN at 2300 fps for the 303 british. why do you think a 6.5x55 loaded with 154-160grb bullets at a modest 2400-2500 fps would not kill a large moose? as all three cartiges have very close energy out to 300 yards at those speeds. eastbank.

I didn't say it wouldn't kill a moose, moose and grizzlys have been killed with .22s. Out of respect for the animal, I want more margin for error. You don't always have a perfect broadside shot at short to medium range. Last December I shot a 400 lb.+ cow elk with my .30-'06 at just short of 300 yards, and even with that round it took a while to go down. Had I used my 6.5x55, it would have had 33% less energy at that range and more bullet drop.

 

[eastbank]

i would shoot any moose in the world with my cz 550 in 6.5x55 with a 24" barrel at 300 yards with a good 140gr bullet(nosler partion) at close to 3000fps, that load carries close to 2400 fps with close 1800 fpe with a drop of-7.2 at 300 yards with a 200yard zero. agreed you can,t shoot them in the guts or arse. but with any shot taken on game the bullet has to go the right place. the cape buffalo i shot i used a 9.3x63-260gr bullet at 2400 fps. eastbank.

 

[Andrew Leigh]

Without waxing lyrical here, the cartridge in my opinion is inherently accurate, never seen many people ever complain of accuracy issues. I have the CZ550 in this chambering but I do not like the dropped Mannlicher stock. We did not get the American model here at the time of purchasing. I get 0.6MOA with 120, 130 and 140gr. bullets and I am hardly a great shot.

Although I am a huge fan boy I do think at times that fan boys overestimated the punching power. Although the calibre hits hard it is not a death ray.

If you like a shorter stroke then the .260 or other offerings may well suit you better.

For me, a great chambering.

 

[Newtosavage]

The King Ranch doesn't allow anything under .300 Win Mag for Nilgai bulls.

That's because it's Texas.

 

[Paul7]

That's because it's Texas.

Or it could be from experience. Similarly, the hog ranch I go to won't allow anything under .243, even though many have been killed with a 5.56. Gemsbok guides here in NM won't allow anything under .30 cal.

 

[Paul7]

i would shoot any moose in the world with my cz 550 in 6.5x55 with a 24" barrel at 300 yards with a good 140gr bullet(nosler partion) at close to 3000fps, that load carries close to 2400 fps with close 1800 fpe with a drop of-7.2 at 300 yards with a 200yard zero.

If you're reloading (I don't) a hot load, maybe.

agreed you can,t shoot them in the guts or arse. but with any shot taken on game the bullet has to go the right place. the cape buffalo i shot i used a 9.3x63-260gr bullet at 2400 fps. eastbank.

That's a perfect round for Cape Buffalo. I doubt any guide would allow hunting that animal with a 6.5x55.

I once had a 6.5x55 round completely fragment on a 35 lb. hog. It killed it, but still......

 

[eastbank]

wrong bullet. eastbank.

 

[cdb1]

The King Ranch doesn't allow anything under .300 Win Mag for Nilgai bulls.

Scandinavian moose are generally shot at under 100 yards.

I guess it's a good thing I hunt on private land in Brooks county outside of Falfurrias. I could care less what the King Ranch mandates. I've also never taken a shot over 330 yards during my 58 years on this earth.

 

[cdb1]

The King Ranch doesn't allow anything under .300 Win Mag for Nilgai bulls.

Scandinavian moose are generally shot at under 100 yards.

How many Nilgai and Scandinavian moose have you shot?

I've talked to several hunters from Sweden, they all use .308's and

 

[Paul7]

wrong bullet. eastbank.

Very possible, it was PPU ammo.

 

[cdb1]

From talking with people that actually live and hunt in Scandinavia, 6.5 Swede is not the cartridge of choice for big game hunting and hasn't been for quite a while.

330 yards because I'm not going to take a shot on an elk, moose, nilgai, etc. that is beyond the range of my 6.5x55.

Just because the King Ranch has a minumum cartridge rule means nothing to me. I'm not going to be taking 600 yard shots where a .300 WM makes a lot of sense.

 

[Paul7]

From talking with people that actually live and hunt in Scandinavia, 6.5 Swede is not the cartridge of choice for big game hunting and hasn't been for quite a while.

Agreed, so why bring it up?

330 yards because I'm not going to take a shot on an elk, moose, nilgai, etc. that is beyond the range of my 6.5x55.

Just because the King Ranch has a minumum cartridge rule means nothing to me. I'm not going to be taking 600 yard shots where a .300 WM makes a lot of sense.

I wouldn't either, and doubt King Ranch encourages shots beyond normal ranges that a hunter is comfortable with. At 200 yds., a .300 Win. Mag. has 70% more energy than the Swede.

 

[Newtosavage]

I guess it's a good thing I hunt on private land in Brooks county outside of Falfurrias. I could care less what the King Ranch mandates. I've also never taken a shot over 330 yards during my 58 years on this earth.

What I was thinking. As if Nilgai are bulletproof. LOL The King Ranch may have experience with bad marksmen.

 

[Water-Man]

a good many years ago i fished in upper canada and at the camp we stayed at there were a good many quite large moose horns and i ask what guns they used and was told 30-30 and 303 british. both shells used were factory, 170gr RN at 2200 fps for the 30-30 and 180gr RN at 2300 fps for the 303 british. why do you think a 6.5x55 loaded with 154-160grb bullets at a modest 2400-2500 fps would not kill a large moose? as all three cartiges have very close energy out to 300 yards at those speeds. eastbank.

Because they really don't know what it's capable of doing.

 

[Newtosavage]

What's always so amusing to me about these conversations is that nobody ever talks about DISTANCE. I mean, at some point, a 30-30, 303 British, 30-06 and .300 Win Mag are all delivering basically the same bullet with the same energy - only at different distances. For whatever reason, that always seems to be forgotten or ignored.

So yea, if the longest shot one could expect on a moose is 100 yards, then a .303 is more than enough gun. Likewise if the King Ranch is allowing their clients to shoot Nilgai at 400 yards, the I could understand the .300 Win Mag.

 

[CoalTrain49]

Because they really don't know what it's capable of doing.

6.5x55 never has been a center stage cartridge in the US. Most people just look at energy and ballistic tables and make a declaration that this or that cartridge isn't adequate for this or that game. All cartridges have their limitations due to bullet weight or velocity or both. I would say that if people were using those cartridges to take game, as in the case of moose being shot with 30-30's and 303, then they had the limitations dialed in.

I think there is a serious misconception these days about older military cartridges like the 303, 6.5 x 55 and 7x57. There was even a thread here somewhere about the 30-06 being obsolete. Most people that declare these cartridges inefficient probably have never hunted with one because they read in some gun rag that it wasn't a good idea.

I shot my first mule deer with model 95 Win (30-40 Krag) at about 100 yards. The trajectory of that cartridge was a challenge past about 150 yards but with a 220 bullet and 2000 fps it was good for just about anything inside that range.

From the outset, the .30-40 cartridge proved popular for hunting, and was chambered in a variety of firearms. In 1899, a Krag in .30-40 caliber was used to shoot the world-record Rocky Mountain elk. The record stood until the latter half of the 20th century. Wiki.

Those old cartridges work just fine if you know how to use them. If you happen to be one of these folks that feels a need to take a 300 yd (or longer) shot, one of those old military cartridges probably isn't for you. That doesn't mean however that they can't get the job done.

 

[Pilot]

You can also load the older cartridges to higher pressures for MODERN rifles. 6.5x55, 7x57, etc are excellent cartridges equal to, or marginally better than .260 Remington, and 7mmx08 respectively.

 

[Llama Bob]

Lots of people hunt them with bows. Now are you saying that a 6.5 x 55 or 7 x 57 isn't adequate for that animal? I think you may have drank the King Ranch professional guide kool aid. 300 win mag for a large antelope the size of a small horse. Seriously?

There's definitely some koolaid coming out of those folks. Nilgai are a big antelope, no different than the plains game species of similar weight such as greater kudu. It's fine to address them with any 7mm or .30 cartridge used for plains game, or with .270 and 6.5 cartridges with careful bullet selection.

 

[Llama Bob]

Incidentally, if you want a load for going after big stuff with the 6.5x55, try a Woodleigh 160gr protected point semi-spitzer over IMR 7828 SSC driven to 2650 in a 24" gun. That is a full pressure CIP load, higher than SAAMI max. I might drop it to 2600 in a M96 for extra safety margin.

The operating window on that bullet is from 3000 ft/s down to 2000 ft/s. At sea level it will stay in that window out to about 375 yards and should give you pass through performance on large game.

 

[eastbank]

i have shot a lot of the plains animals in africa from dikker to cape buffalo useing rifles from .243 to .375 H&H in four hunting trip and i am going next month for my fifth and i,m not a expert on hunting there. but i have seen lots of animals shot at different ranges with different calibers and while a heavy caliber rifle may be desired, the bullet must also be directed to the proper spot to produce a quick kill or short track. i have noted the african animals have a very strong will to live and don,t give it up very easy. eastbank.