6.5-06?

I have a customer with a factory howa 22/250. I ran the bore scope in the back and it is snake skinned as far as the scope will go in. I said you need a new barrel. I worked up a load with a tipped 50 sierra and he is killing prarie dogs at 300 so he is happy. Hard to figure. When I shot it at a hundred it was a 3/4 inch gun.
 
If you are ok with brass prep I'd go 6.5 Sherman. Mine with a top end load shoots 140 Berger at 3339 FPS. Only downside is brass prep takes awhile. But the performance is great.
 
Reading all the info on the 6.5/06 sounds very interesting to me. If you had a tikka action to start with would you be better with the 6.5/06, 6.5x280 improved, or 6.5x284, 260 ai. Obviously looking for the most performance with the 140 class bullets without a ton of headache dealing with brass. I have a 24" creedmoor that does 2900 with rl26 with a 143 eldx. Problem is no rl26. Is the gain worth it to rebarrel. my hunting includes deer and elk inside of 600 yds. I'd love to do a saum or wsm. prc but I don't have the mag bolt to accomplish that. Thanks for any and all advice
 
My hunting buddy had a 6.5-06 26" Shilen on a Rem 700 but I can't remember the twist. I would get an 8" if it were me. My buddies rifle was a tack driver even with his fireforming loads. He could easy get or surpass velocities you can get with 24" barreled 264 Win Mags. He shot mostly 140 Sierra Game Kings and he even hunted with some of his fire forming rounds because they were very accurate and were fine out to the 300 yards he was limited to in one section of the farm we hunted. I have seen him make some unreal shots on deer across big bean fields with that rifle and also a 25-06. He was a very good shot being a retired Marine. He never kept many rifles very long though. He liked to experiment and usually got one shooting really well and used it for a hunting season of which for 20 years he did crop damage control on the farm we hunted for 30 years. I helped take 1/3 or more of the 100 deer each year we had to take each year. I was only there for 2 weeks vacation time part of the first years then 3 weeks for the last 20. I have two rifles that my buddy had that are shooters. Both on Rem. 700 a 308 Win and a 264 Win mag with a 27 3/4" barrel that is a screamer. Buddy is now 85 and in bad health and had to quit hunting 2018 season. We sure had some good times. Oh! I would jump all over the good deal on that barrel.
 
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Bigjoe38922 said:
I'm debating clambering a barrel for a old mauser 98 I have in 6.5-06 and was wonderin if anyone had any experience with that cartridge they could share? Any thing would be appreciated mainly twist rate and a good barrel length I found a McGowan heavy barrel with a 1:8 twist 26in long for a really good deal haven't bit yet. Also wonderin if Ackley improved helps this one any
Click to expand...
I am in the process of re-barreling a Remington 270 to 6.5-06. Finding out all the process I have learned the following. Barrel twist ranges from 8 to 12. The heaver the bullet the tighter the twist. I have two 6.6X55 rifles. One 8 and one 9 twist. I load 85 gr to 120 gr in the 9 twist and find that up to 3000 feet per second muzzle velocity with no problem. I don't load much over 3000 FPS. The one in 8 inches twist I load 140 gr to o 147 grain ( I don't hunt with the need of a heaver bullet) but other hunters use up to 160 grain in Europe for moose with this twist.
I have also found that .270 Winchester brass of about any major brand is the best to resize for 6.5-06. I have not found a supplier yet for 26-06 brass. You have to cut about .040 off the neck but I have had the 30-06 brass wrinkle the solder when resize.
 
Bigjoe38922 said:
I'm debating clambering a barrel for a old mauser 98 I have in 6.5-06 and was wonderin if anyone had any experience with that cartridge they could share? Any thing would be appreciated mainly twist rate and a good barrel length I found a McGowan heavy barrel with a 1:8 twist 26in long for a really good deal haven't bit yet. Also wonderin if Ackley improved helps this one any
Click to expand...
 
I'm Still wondering why your trying to re invent the .270 Win??? A 30-06 case necked down; LR Primer ; 130 ;140 and 150 grn bullets. Lots of Brass, easy to load, Likes 4350 and 4831. I am just missing the point . Any way, have fun with the build, and I'm sure it will take deer nicely !!! Good luck Buddy
 
I neck up 25-06 brass for mine. Very little fire-forming involved. Nice shooting caliber in my 721 Rem, hardly any recoil. I can't remember what twist the barrel is but it shoots anything from 140 grain on down best. My favourite load for it is 95 grain Hornady's doing over 3300 fps. They shoot under and inch and are deadly on coyotes out to as far as I can hit them.
 
6.5-06 has been a workhorse for our group over the past few years. I would say it takes a little more effort to maintain an accurate load vs the 6.5-284/PRC so we moved to the PRC. If you have the small bolt face the 284 may be an option but nothing wrong with the 6.5-06. I used the Norma 270 brass but it will need to be trimmed. I also used an 8 twist 24" barrel and could move the 140gr class close to 3000 fps without much trouble; RL26 will get you there. I don't think I would go through the hassle of fire forming the AI unless you just want to (that is my justification most of the time). We took multiple deer and elk with the 6.5-06 (most 500+yards) using the 142 ABLR and it has a perfect track record. Great round
 
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