Varberger757, cartridge selection Ruger #1

@HARPERC, nice to hear from you again and the progress your rifle project made. Did you finally decide about the rifle's caliber?

It's shooting too good as a .30-06 right now! If it proves it can do it a little bit of time it might stay that way.

The thing with rifles that take a while, is sometimes components change as you go.

Bullets in particular. 6.5 bullets are coming in weights more interesting to me. Steve from Hammer is looking at a 160ish 6.5. If that one works-Rich Sherman looked at the 6.5x65R, and it can be formed into basically a rimmed Sherman. Probably could be left alone for lighter bullets, but a long 160 benefits from a bit more capacity, and the single shots lack of magazine.

I bought the rifle as a donor, but it's tough to chuck a perfectly good barrel, and a little work to shoot out a .30-06.

Glad to see your still out there!

Was the picture visible?

HARPERC said:

It's shooting too good as a .30-06 right now! If it proves it can do it a little bit of time it might stay that way.

The thing with rifles that take a while, is sometimes components change as you go.

Bullets in particular. 6.5 bullets are coming in weights more interesting to me. Steve from Hammer is looking at a 160ish 6.5. If that one works-Rich Sherman looked at the 6.5x65R, and it can be formed into basically a rimmed Sherman. Probably could be left alone for lighter bullets, but a long 160 benefits from a bit more capacity, and the single shots lack of magazine.

I bought the rifle as a donor, but it's tough to chuck a perfectly good barrel, and a little work to shoot out a .30-06.

Glad to see your still out there!

Was the picture visible?

Click to expand...

Hi again! Interesting to hear about your caliber choice. I've heard about the Sherman, but are of course much more familiar with the 6,5x65R. The 6,5x65 has a very good constructed throat/ "freebore" and is using a 1 : 8 twist. With its high velocity and a twist of 1 : 7,5 it won't be any problem to stabilize 160gr monomentals . Yes it's good to be in touch again. I shall follow your project closely. I myself have ordered an Austrian bolt action in 6,5x63 Messner Mag. Something that is very close in performance to the 26 Nosler, but using less powder and a standard case. No belt, but a extremely well constructed case with perfect geometry. Shoots like a dream. Perfect accuracy and recoil on niveau of a 270 Win. I'm going to pick it up in December or January.

HARPERC said:

It's shooting too good as a .30-06 right now! If it proves it can do it a little bit of time it might stay that way.

The thing with rifles that take a while, is sometimes components change as you go.

Bullets in particular. 6.5 bullets are coming in weights more interesting to me. Steve from Hammer is looking at a 160ish 6.5. If that one works-Rich Sherman looked at the 6.5x65R, and it can be formed into basically a rimmed Sherman. Probably could be left alone for lighter bullets, but a long 160 benefits from a bit more capacity, and the single shots lack of magazine.

I bought the rifle as a donor, but it's tough to chuck a perfectly good barrel, and a little work to shoot out a .30-06.

Glad to see your still out there!

Was the picture visible?

Click to expand...

Sorry, but I couldn't see any pictures.

Varberger757 said:

...Sorry, but I couldn't see any pictures......

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll work on it!

@HARPERC, have you ever considered the .30R Blaser? Since you Americans are so in love with your .30 cals this one could be perfect. As you may see is it a rimmed cartridge which is widely used in break - actions in Europe. Provides a performance close to the 300WM. The only big minus with this cartridge is that is very unpleasant to shoot out of lightweights. The recoil reaches 8x68 S level, which means more than 300 Wby ... that due to its old fashioned form with too much taper ... For Rich Sherman it would be a piece of cake to give it less tapering and a bench rest shoulder. That could be become the ultimate modern rimmed cartridge. Better performance and lighter on the shoulder! RWS, Brenneke and Blaser are manufacturing both components and readily loaded ammo. There are some more manufactures of brass to find like Horneber etc. In the USA, RCC from Texas could do the job in a perfect manner IMHO.

Good looking cartridge I was completely unaware of. Lots of potential there.

Too much jolt for my aging joints I'm afraid.

About 160 grains is where I enjoy things more, and that's about where 6.5 performance has been legendary in my opinion. With a bullet taking advantage of the advances in technology I think it would do about anything one wishes.

Maintaining it as a .30-06 is just because it's tough to mess with what's working. I'll take inventory over the next month or so. Curiosity may trump practicality yet.

Thanks!