The Quest begins

[beekeeper]

Yesterday at the range I bought a Hisquvarna 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser.
After reading up on it on other web sites and wanting to shoot it with cast I am beginning to wonder if I made the right decision!
It comes with dies and a boatload of brass, bullets and loaded ammo so I am safe for a while ( I hope)

Does anyone have any data on a good cast load for this rifle?

I am considering breaking my ban on another website to ask a person I trust for data.

Any help appreciated


beekeeper

[62chevy]

Wish I could help you out beekeeper but I just don't have a clue.

[Maximumbob54]

There is always the usual cast bullet load of 16 gr of 2400. That's good in most any case around the size of a .308 Win to .30-06 or so. I'm not sure what mold would be good for bullets in that cartridge.

[Crumb Castle]

http://www.loaddata.com/members/search_ ... licID=5799

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthr ... 5x55-Swede

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306394

http://www.shootersforum.com/bullet-cas ... loads.html

[Crumb Castle]

First link I posted is a subscription site, but bullets & powders are listed to give you an idea.

[dromia]

The problem with the Swedes and cast boolits is the fast twist and long skinny bullets easily deformed before they get fully into the rifling and supported.

So long as you keep your velocities to under 1800 fps you should be allright, you will just need to see what velocity works in your gun before accuracy dissapears.

Also getting good boolit fit to the freebore is a sound approach and an impact cast will help you there.

Getting a mould that drops a good sized boolit used to be a challenge although in my Swedes the Lyman 266455, 266469 and 266673 moulds all shoot well in my Swedes dropping at .266 which is undersize for my rifles but then I'm only driving them at 1600 fps.

NOE have some good 269 designs that work well for me as do my now discontinued BRP 6.5 moulds.

NOE have a GB discussion on their forum for a version of the 266469 which should be going live in the not too distant future. So plenty of good moulds to choose from there.

For these velocities I use VV N10, VV N120, Ramshot Enforcer or any other powder with a similar burning rate, as always use published data and work up you loads for your guns.

[beekeeper]

After several range trips with this rifle .
One with cast bullets from a friend I have decided to use it with jacketed only.
The cast I shot was the same as my friend uses in his Swede and after slugging my barrel it should have worked quite well.
I did not get a complete shotgun pattern but close to it.
There was no leading of the barrel and I loaded the ammo so that the bullet was 15 thousanths off of the lands.
34 grains of 4064 should have been a good load.

I am not a normal jacketed shooter but I think this particular rifle is going to only be good with jacketed.


beekeeper

[mikld]

Don't give up so quickly. Every gun needs a load worked up to preform at it's best. I only shoot cast in my handguns and have started shooting cast in my rifles. None of my loads worked perfectly without some tweeking...

[beekeeper]

The problem partly lies in the cost.
For (and I can only speak for me) it costs on average about $450 a caliber to set up for cast.
Buying several molds just to find the right one isn't figured in on the above costs.
I can buy a boatload of jacketed bullets for that price and be assured I will get coffee cup size groups at 465 yards.
More that good enough to kill anything I want.


beekeeper

[RBHarter]

Wow . Bee I must be a serious tight wad. $400 to get a new caliber running ? I don't think I have that in 2 7mm wildcat cartridges, even with buying a lot of brass for the un known 7x64 AI (best description) 7x57 and a 7x6.8 Rem. I did buy 4 moulds ,2 sizers, 3 die sets and a shell holder , but that's still barely $420 that's just $147 each. I generally don't spend that but the inexpensive moulds weren't available in 277 an 7mm so I had to step up. I feed 6 30s w 4 boolits 3 moulds 3 die sets and a spare sizer and 2 boolit sizers, only about 240 in those 6 or $40 each. Forgetting that a buddy just added a 300WSM to that.