What have you 6.5x55 Swede fans been doing lately?

I have a older110 long action stagger feed that I changed to a single shot, milled out a alum. floorplate and dovetailed it into the mag well dovetails. I trued the action and nut, and put on a Douglass Bull barrel 6.5 swede that I bought off a board member with neck die and 200 brass. Also put on .250 SSS lug. I have a Burris 6x18x40 on it and a rifle basix trigger, bedded in a duramax stock. I cleaned it good, loaded my pet loads and went to the range today, no wind, to hellp a buddy zero 2 rifles. I settled into the bull bags and zeroed with 3 shots after having it out of the stock, then shot5 shots of my 85gr. Sierra Varmint bullets, they went into a nice .450 cluster, shot the last 2 had with me and last shot opened the group to .600 , my fault, bumped the trigger too hard. I then held the same point of aim and first shot landed 1/2 inch under first group. I shot 4 more and this group came in at .277!! I shot another 3 shot, fingers were getting numb, and they went into .248! I had it zeroed 2 and 1/2 inches high with the 85 grain varmint load, and that left it 2 inches high with my 120gr. deer load. On the way home stopped at a neighbors field where we saw a yote trotting along, had his back to us out at about 300 even. I held on his tail and at the report he just folded up, his hips split apart and the bullet blew out his chest and neck, using the 120grain Sierra Sp. Man I love this caliber, been shooting it for over 25 years in other custom rifles I have built and my own personal rifles. Just thought I would share.

If your barrel twist rate allows it, keep going up in bullet weight and distance. When you get to the 140 Amax, it is like they have their own built in guidance and propulsion system....even in the wind.

High BC bullets with a little weight in them is rather phenomenal in the amount of knockdown power.

Here is what I have done.

http://savageshooters.com/SavageForu...html#msg260737

I also have 500 140 grain amax bullets ready to be loaded as well as 100 142 SMK's.

I already have several 140-142 grain bullet loads worked up, they will shoot as good at 200yds as most loads do at 100! I have several boxes of older Hornady 140 bthp, match bullets, that I dug out my old loads from 20 years ago, loaded up 20. At a measured 200yds, I shot a 3 shot group, my buddy thought the last 2 missed, they were a really tight cluster that measured .277, center to center. For here in Ky, yotes, groundhogs, crows and whitetails, the 85 adn 120 is all I need. I have taken deer out to 450 with the 120 and it is devastating.

I finally completed my first Savage project this weekend after much reading and waiting for a job (funds) to arrive. I've learned a bunch from the posts on this forum and it really helped me through some tough times.

I put together a Stevens LA, boyds thumbhole, Shilen select ss 6.5x55 26" 8 twist with a recoil lug (and nut wrench) from Northlander (great), a SSS competition trigger, EGW 20 degree base and trigger guard, Burris signature Z rings and a Zeiss Conquest 3x9 to top it off.

I've loaded some 140gr. Amax with Reloader 22 and am hoping to get out soon and warm up that barrel. [img width=600 height=450]http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l509/pinetree5280/P1000908.jpg[/img]