JEBruns
Member
Not knocking the Swede. I'm sure it's a great rifle round and I know it's got a long history. But I'm talking about in today's world. I doubt you could even buy a 6.5 Swede at most major retailers without special ordering it, at best.
Favorite 6.5mm?
- Thread starter 1948CJ2A
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1948CJ2A
Member
No argument here. The poll is based on popularity by the members of this forum. A lot of us including myself remember a world before "Creedmoor". I don't think any of us can say they remember a world without the Swede.
Regardless of what you can and can't get easily today in clown world, you gotta think about all those rifles that were made since the late 19th century. Those rifles didn't just disappear.
Stevenvalleyky
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Im not sure as Ive never even seen a factory 6.5x57 case. Im assuming they are pretty close.
Chuck R.
Member
I load for 6.5x57 for my FIL gun in Austria.
From what I've read, the difference is that the 6.5x57 was formed from the 8x57, while the 257R was formed from the 7x57. The 8x57 has about .030" longer case to the shoulder and about 3-4grn more powder capacity over the 7x57. So the 6.5x57 has a little more capacity.
The 6.57 also has a different shoulder angle.
6.5x57
horsemen61
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My Favorite 6.5 is the 6.5 Creedmoor why it’s very simple 6.5 Creedmoor is the cartridge I fell in love with and made me fall in love with rifle shooting accurate rifle shooting that is not just turning money into noise with some friends that simple savage model FCP-SR was what started it all now I can’t imagine not having a 6.5 heck I’m converting most of my rifles to 6.5 of some flavor it’s also the rifle that Got me into buying Nicer glass and suppressors before that 6.5 Creedmoor which is an amazing cartridge it does a lot of things well btw I wouldn’t spend anymore than I ultimately had to on scopes or rings or scope mounts Fast forward to today I try to buy the best scopes and rings I can afford I have many 6.5 caliber rifles I love the .264 bullet diameter I think it is as close to perfect as I’ve ever seen I am a total 6.5 Junkie and am not ashamed to admit it so yes for me the 6.5 Creedmoor is the way to go
someguy2800
Member
Searching gunbroker for NEW bolt action rifles in 6.5x55 I see Tikka, Sako, Steyr, and Blaser. I knew Tikka and Sako still made them but I have never seen one in real life.
Litetrigger
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A couple of interesting 6.5's are the 6.5 Leopard (above) and .264 CHeetah. The Leopard is the short and dumpy .300 WSM case necked down to 6.5 (I use .270 WSM brass.) and the CHeetah is from .243 Win brass with body and shoulder blown out and neck shortened to increase capacity. Both were built on Remington M-700 actions and have HS precisian stocks with aluminum drop-in bedding and slight alterations. The Leopard is one of two I had made with one shown made for 1000 yd benchrest competitions and its twin for pressure testing and load development, thus saving the other's barrel for competition. The CHeetah was also made mainly for testing with the wiring you see in pic insert being attached to a strain gauge for measuring and recording chamber pressures. Which is valuable information for anyone tinkering with high pressure calibers and wishes to keep his fingers and other parts intact. Which is another good reason to make rifles of this type on Remington 700 actions. Scope on the Leopard in a 20X Redfield 6400, (Which was discontinued about four decades ago and I now buy all I can find because of their reliable target type adjustments and crisp focusing.) mounted on angled base to get crosshairs on distant targets. Scope on CHeetah is a rugged 20X Leupold. Attached ammo pic is CHeetah(left) and Leopard.
scope
scope
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Old Dog
Member
No, we're not a bunch of oddballs. And our world is the real world. Probably most of us voted for the cartridge we grew up with, as did our dads and grandads. The Swede is proven in the real world, all over the world, does the job and is just classy. And classic. I bet we have a lot more experienced riflemen on this board than the typical average buyer of the 6.5 CM (especially the new buyers who don't hunt or engage in PRS).
We may be an eclectic group, and not so susceptible to marketing as all the Millenials and Gen Zers... Also, many of us don't need to get into yet another caliber/cartridge when what we already have works for us. For example, why would someone like me, who owns bolt and lever-action rifles in eight different calibers (.223/5.56, .243, .270, .308, .30-30, .30-06, 6.5x55, .300 Win Mag) when all of my rifles are working rifles, not range toys, not into precision rifle shooting, need to get into yet another cartridge?
I'm sure that's the bottom line for most of us. And for those of us who've been around for a while, we can easily recall the introductions of many "new" miracle cartridges over the years that were widely hailed as the "best ever" that a lot of the younger folk here have likely never heard of...
My hair is probably long enough now for a man-bun, but it's not gonna happen and I decided against buying a new rifle in 6.5 CM.
Legionnaire
Contributing Member
You have hair?
Old Dog
Member
Heh, heh... yeah, my kids encouraged me to grow it out after I retired when they noticed all the guys my age (and many quite younger) at our church, in our family's circle of friends, co-workers and acquaintances, were mostly all bald.You have hair?
The wife calls me her "silver fox" but it's gettin' annoying so it's probably gonna get cut real soon.
In all seriousness, I have seen some awfully nice rifles offered in 6.5 Creedmoor, and came very close to picking up either a Tikka (3X) or Winchester 70 Featherweight (my favorite rifle) last year, and that itch might just get scratched this year. It would have to be one of the "just because" purchases that I can in no way justify other than simply trying the cartridge out to see if I fall in love with it (probably like internet dating).
If you pick a Tikka up this month, you can take advantage of a $75 rebate. I don't need another Tikka right now, but I would hate to waste a good rebate.....
Currently have 3 of the T3/T3x's in that caliber and love every one of them.
Old Dog
Member
Well now, that's gotta be a consideration...
What could be better than a Finn rifle in the Swede caliber?
JEBruns
Member
Oddballs, eclectic, whichever. I don't want to derail this thread anymore, so I'll just say I meant no insult. It was just an observation.
small town life
Member
I resemble those remarks with the exemption of hair. My dad 1st rifle buy (as far as I know) was the 264wm mod70 pre64. Other than that he had a rem in 270win (I didn't care for it) and some 22 rimfires (not counting shotguns). I used to hunt till '78, but now only p-dogs, yotes and piggies (not a prs person). 26cal is my favorite caliber, but the creed cartridge isn't my favorite compared to the 260rem (bought after the creed). I have plenty of various cartridges for my 6 kids (not goats) to decide for themselves.
MacAR
Member
I went for the 260, though I don't own anything in 6.5 at the moment. But one day, I'd like to try a 260 for a deer rifle. It'd hit a little harder than the 6mm and kick less than my '06, so it'd have to be hard to beat. A close second would be the 6.5x55 Swede; again, what's not to love? Not interested in the 6.5 ManBun when these two are tried, tested, and proven already.
Mac
Mac
OP
OP
1948CJ2A
Member
I like my Swede and I like my 260 Rem (both similar ballistics) but for different reasons. The Swede can't fit in a short action without limiting the COAL and the 6.5x55 really shines with those bullets seating out longer IMO. The 260 Rem is a short action cartridge and does well with light-medium weight 6.5 projectiles in my experiences with my Remington model 7. I hand-load pretty much all of my centerfire bolt and lever rifles. I think I'm using 140gr in my Swede and 120gr in my 260.
My model 7 is lightweight and works great as a little carry rifle in the field. My Swede is a heavier, but prettier rig in a CZ 550 FS (Mannlicher stock).
Varminterror
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A LOT of folks, even high performing folks within the shooting sports and competition industries have never held a 6.5x55 swede rifle or cartridge.
I’d venture that we’ve reached a point in time that more living Americans have held a 6.5 Creed than have a Swede. If we haven’t reached it already, I’d almost guarantee that parity occurs in the next decade.
Old Dog
Member
That's likely true - in the USA. But the Swede has long been a favorite among the knowledgeable, discerning riflemen and is still quite popular in Europe. To me, the 6.5x55 is a lot like the .243 - once you've shot it a bit, it just feels right.
The 6.5 Creedmoor did have the distinct advantage of being developed and released with a huge amount of hype and marketing with today's instant information availability through social media and the internet.
Dave Petzal, one of the more knowledgeable rifle writers, did a fairly balanced take on the "Creed vs. Swede" debate a while back:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/story/guns/6-5-creedmoor-vs-the-6-5-55-swedish/
Varminterror
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I can say with certainty, this is absolutely impossible to be true.
By forum statistics provided here, there are less than 1/4 million registered users here at THR, and acknowledging that a goodly portion of these are NOT experienced riflemen by any definition, or even riflemen at all.
Comparatively, there were over 1 million Ruger Precision Rifles sold between their release in July 2015 and ~Aug 2022, with a slight majority of those having been chambered for 6.5 Creedmoor over any other cartridge offered. Even considering the same average pace (acknowledging production and sales standstills for covid during ~1yr of those 7yrs), in the year and a half since that announcement was made, Ruger has sold ALMOST as many Precision Rifles as we have members here (215k rifles vs. 233k members)…
Considering that there are a LOT of other models on the market than just the Ruger Precision Rifle, and considering there are around 20 million guns sold in the US every year, and handgun sales being about 3x that of rifles, and rifles about 2x that of shotguns, that’s around 3.3 MILLION rifles being sold every year, with the RPR only making up ~143k of those…
It’s a pretty safe bet that THR does not represent the pinnacle nor majority of American “experienced riflemen,” and certainly more of these marksmen exist outside of THR membership, with a great number of them even owning 6.5 Creedmoor’s…
It’s probably accurate to modify the claim, however, to state that there are far more folks on THR who think themselves to be “experienced riflemen,” than there actually are.
This sure sounds cute, but there are over 5x guns owned in the US than in the entire EU, with 4-5x more gun owners in the US than the EU, despite almost 100m MORE people living in the EU. The US runs the world in a lot of games - soccer might not be one of them, but when it comes to music/movies, guns, and technology development and industrialization, there’s nobody else in the world which comes close. The EU boasts only ~15 firearms owned per 100 people, whereas in the US, we have around 125 firearms owned per 100 people… we sell more NEW guns every 4 years than the entire EU has in their sub-continent…
As a perspective on scaling - redistributing the firearms in the EU would only put a gun in the hands of about 1 in every 6 people. Doing the same in the US would put a gun in the hands of EVERY American, and still have around 100 million more guns left over to put in the empty hands of those EU folks - which is 20 million more than the EU had to begin with!!! So saying 6.5 Swede is popular in the EU is kinda like describing which triathlon bicycle is popular at fat camp - EU opinions as a demographic really aren’t substantial…
Buzznrose
Member
Personal insecurities should be confronted by seeking professional help….LOL!
Buzznrose
Member
I think he was referring to those folks actively buying and using rifles today.
It’s not even debatable.
Varminterror
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Why did you buy a 308, a 30-06, and a 300wm? Even including there, why the 270 or 6.5x55 if you had any one of those others? Or why a 270 AND a 6.5x55 swede? Among those 5 cartridges, for "working rifles," the differential in functional performance in the field for any one of these is largely duplicated by the other 4 in almost all applications I could ever envision as "work" for those rifles, let alone applications which doesn't involve precision and doesn't happen on a shooting range.
In other words, the answer to why you would get into yet another cartridge, such as a 6.5 creedmoor, would be the same answer to the same question when you bought any of these other rifles with nearly identical functional performance.
Buzznrose
Member
If you go to the Cabelas/BPS website right now, you would see they have 343 center fire rifle options available for sale.
148 are offered in 6.5CM (largest cartridge option by far.
161 is the total for .308, 30.06, and 300WM combined (90 for 30.06)
This includes all rifles, not just bolt rifles.
148 are offered in 6.5CM (largest cartridge option by far.
161 is the total for .308, 30.06, and 300WM combined (90 for 30.06)
This includes all rifles, not just bolt rifles.
Old Dog
Member
Wasn't saying that. While I know personally folks on this forum who I consider "experienced riflemen" and I am allowed to compare them to the sort of folks I see buying rifles in 6.5 CM at my LGS, my local Bi-Mart, SW and Bass Pro (and those who are the subject of anecdotes from a friend who owns a busy gun shop). I don't compete in any rifle events, but I do spend a lot of time on my area ranges and network with a lot of hunters.
In any guess, since that's how you feel, I guess we should feel truly blessed to have such esteemed experts as yourself to gift us with your time and wisdom.
Well, as to the question of why, these were all either bought when young, inherited or picked up on a whim over the past 54 years (got my first centerfire rifle of my own at 13). As to the duplication in functional performance, as I said, was the reason I've not thus far invested in a 6.5 CM rifle.
The only point I was trying (apparently not very successfully) to make was the 6.5x55 is a worthy cartridge that does a lot of things well, works for me, is currently my favorite 6.5 (in answer to the OP) and I have not had occasion to take up another 6.5 that might offer only marginally better performance for my applications. I'm not disputing that the 6.5 CM is a very nice cartridge and has quickly become immensely popular. Not sure why y'all are expending so much effort to remind us about production statistics or comparing gun ownership numbers in the U.S. vs. Europe.
I know a lot of guys in a couple European countries, including family in Finland, who would dispute that. It's still a nice pithy analogy, though.
