6.5x55 swede barrel life

[Hasgun Willtravel]

I shoot two 6.5x55 Swedes. I love them. One is a Ruger M77, the other is a real deal, older than dirt, accurate as hell Swedish mauser target rifle, with god only knows how many rounds down the tube. They both shoot great, Ruger has about 500 rounds, and like I said, no clue about the CG.

I am serioiusly considering a custom rifle, a Pierce Engineering repeater. He is local, does phenomenal work, and if I go custom, it will be his action, so lets not get into the action debate.

My question is, how many FClass shooters, or Palma shooters, or any other target shooters have shot out a 6.5x55 barrel? Round Count? Barrel length. I was considering between 26", and I may just make a cannon out of it, and go 30". What was the load you were running with velocity results? I understand barrel life is good, and guessing about 3000-5000 rounds, or more, if not hot rodded. i would like to see 142SMK go 2750-2850fps.

Speculation can be read all over the internet, so lets not guess, I can do that.

I know guys are shooting them, so really would like to hear their experiances. I just got off the 6.5x284 train, loved the round, but with velocities I was shooting at, I think the same thing could be done with the Swede.

Info please!

Thanks

 

[Hasgun Willtravel]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: crumpmd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">My .308 barrel is 16 years old and has MAYBE 3000 rounds down it. Most of the time it has been a deer hunter, sight it in and kill 4 or 5 deer and put it back up.
The last 3 years I have shot it a lot and have seen what a factory barrel(remington) is capable of(or not). I bought a Surgeon Scalpel in 6.5X47L and have already put over a thousand rounds through it (in less than a year) and it is so much better it is ridiculous. Preston told me the barrel should last up to 10K rounds or even more.
So I am rebarreling my .308 with a Rock creek 5R and I expect I will not live or shoot long enough to burn it out.</div></div>

I found this in another thread about barrel life, will the 6.5x47 really go 10K??

 

[alien319]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

I don't know much about the 6.5x47 but the 6.5x55 Swede should last a good while. It is a very mild round to shoot and that should mean good barrel life. Less powder usually equals longer barrel life but I am by no means an expert on this issue but I would imagine it would last at least 5000 rounds of normal firing.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

The Swede loaded to commercial levels is a very different animal from the same casing loaded to modern action pressure levels.

The commercial loads are designed to be safe in some older actions which are not all that durable, but a modern rifle action and barrel should be able to handle chamber pressures comparable to the .308 and .30-'06, which are considerably higher than commercial Swede loadings.

I would rate the 6.5x55's bore/throat life, at modern loading levels, as very similar to .260 Rem numbers. My best guess is that 2500 rounds is a very conservative life expectancy; and that this will vary with load specs. I tend to stay a fair bit below max.

There is absolutely no utterly compelling need to use the more modern pressures. The commercial loads are quite adequate for hunting and other applications that do not require stretching the envelope to reach well beyond 1Kyd. At commercial pressure levels, I think it's quite reasonable to expect the 5000 round lifespan quoted above.

Greg

 

[Hasgun Willtravel]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

Thanks Greg. The sole purpose of this rifle will be 1k shooting.

 

[haldir]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

Any more new information. I am hardly shooting mine because I don't want to shoot out the barrel, thanks.

 

[TorF]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

In Norway people are still shooting the old Krag match rifles for fun. The Krag action will not handle extended use of the commercial rounds made for swedish Mausers. The loads for the Krag has to be reduced even further. A typical Krag match load is the 142grSMK@2500fps. One of the best powders is VV N160 that works well at low pressure in the Krag. Most important, barrellife is 6-7000 rounds in the old Krags.

In the Sauer STR/SSG3000 normal barrellife is 3500-4000 with a 142grSMK@2750fps

 

[haldir]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

Thank you Torf!

 

[Advokaten]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

TorF is right for the Sauer STR the barrels are junked after shooting 3-4000 rounds,

however a large portion of those loads are borderline insane loads for fieldshots were the cases are not reloaded after they been shot for comps.

So in short if one is more moderate 5000+ rounds if loaded to same levels as a 6,5-284 not so many,

and yes there have been attempts at doing that.

Best regards Chris

 

[haldir]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

Ok, it's just I don't have the money, or nor do I have the desire to rebarrel my custom rifle, which is no longer being made, and it's more accurate than any other rifle I have seen, except my 300 WSM.

 

[Shooter McGavin]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

I have a Tac Ops 6.5x55 Swede. The two ammunitions I have been using are HSM 142gr SMK with MV of 2700 and Norma 130gr SMK with a MV of 2723. I am not sure about bbl life.

I do know this that the LA SEB has Tac OPs Tango 51s (.308) rifles with over 13,000 rounds through them and are still shooting .25 MOA. I have heard different stories on the .308 bbl life and the numbers are 5000 to 8000 rounds. I would guess to say the same thing would be true for the Swede as far as the different numbers that you will hear.

I would say a custom bbl would out last a factory bbl every time with the same loads. I think I will be extremely happy if I get 8000 rounds out of my Tac Ops Delta 55. Right now I have total of 251 rounds through it and hope to put some more down range this friday.

Jamie

 

[Bookdad]

Re: 6.5x55 swede barrel life

I have a Tac Ops 6.5x55 Swede. The two ammunitions I have been using are HSM 142gr SMK with MV of 2700 and Norma 130gr SMK with a MV of 2723. I am not sure about bbl life.

I do know this that the LA SEB has Tac OPs Tango 51s (.308) rifles with over 13,000 rounds through them and are still shooting .25 MOA. I have heard different stories on the .308 bbl life and the numbers are 5000 to 8000 rounds. I would guess to say the same thing would be true for the Swede as far as the different numbers that you will hear.

I would say a custom bbl would out last a factory bbl every time with the same loads. I think I will be extremely happy if I get 8000 rounds out of my Tac Ops Delta 55. Right now I have total of 251 rounds through it and hope to put some more down range this friday.

Jamie

I know this is an older post but I have an 1896 Gust Swedish 6.5 that my uncle sporterized for deer hunting. I believe the barrel is the original. I see your photo above and am wondering what scope you are using. Id like to put on a new barrel and use this for 1k. I make my own loads. Do you have any recommendations?