6.5 ackley Wildcat

[benchracer]

I see. Thanks for the heads up. I havent looked at the 264WM and didnt know the ballistics where similar. How does the 257 Weatherby stack up against the 264WM?

I don't have any personal experience with the .257 Roy. I know that the .257 Roy is faster than the .264WM. However, it is my understanding that the .264WM and the higher bc 6.5mm bullets will outperform the .257 Roy past 500 yards if it is loaded to its potential (3150+ w/140g bullets from a 26" barrel).

The .264WM is available in the Winchester Model 70. I have one in the Sporter model with a 26" barrel. It is a very nice rifle and a joy to shoot.

The .257 Roy (Weatherby) is available in the Weatherby Vanguard, which is a great value.

Though factory ammo can be had for both, I would advise handloading to do these cartridges justice.

 

[fisherman983]

I have both a 264wm and a 257 roy in fact I have 3 264 wm's and I love them all...they are both great rifles and push little bullets very fast. ive killed a couple buzzards a yote and a bear at 475 yds with my roy and ive killed a pile of blacktails, couple bears a muley and some lopes with my 264's. either caliber would be a great choice but if your wanting to stretch her out a long ways go with the 264wm and load up with some of the new 129gr LRAB's...that would some serious *** whoopin on anything. the only reason I havnt taken an elk with my rifles yet is I bow hunt for elk, but I would have no hesitation to use either caliber on them

 

[benchracer]

And what about using a 300 Norma Mag as a parent, necked to 6.5?

~WS

Are you talking about the .308 Norma Mag or a cartridge based on the .338 Norma case?

What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish?

I don't know much about either cartridge. The .308 Norma Mag is similar to the .300 Win Mag, so you will just end up with the .264 Win Mag.

The .338 Norma Mag case is a beltless case that is just a bit shorter than the .338 Lapua case and has a bit less case capacity.

Keep in mind that the real performance limitation with big cased 6.5's is the lack of powders with the correct burn rate to get optimum performance from their overbore capacity. The .264WM generally tends to do its best work with Retumbo, which is one of the slowest powders around. RL-33 may prove to be better yet. When you step up in case capacity from here, there isn't another class of suitable powders to step up to, which really limits the velocity gain from the increase in case capacity.

You could step up to a 6.5 Shooting Times Westerner and gain some velocity or accomplish pretty much the same thing with a 6.5/.375 Ruger. Over and above that, you are going to gain very little vs the powder you are burning.

 

[WisconSniper]

I was talking about the 338 Norma mag case necked to 6.5. I suppose i should look around a bit more. I'm just trying to make a 6.5 with the best 1000+ yard ballistics as possible.

~Ethan

 

[bigngreen]

I was talking about the 338 Norma mag case necked to 6.5. I suppose i should look around a bit more. I'm just trying to make a 6.5 with the best 1000+ yard ballistics as possible.

~Ethan

The issue with what your trying to do is once your at the 6.5 WSM level you right on the edge of the very best bullets start coming apart so you have to go to heavy bonded or copper bullets, you loose more BC so you have to drive them harder to make up for poorer ballistics, the harder you drive them the more finicky things become, the more shooting and tuning you have to do and you'll find yourself at a level that at 300 rounds of barrel life you don't know the ballistics of the round because you haven't had a repeatable load.

The 300 Norma would a poor choice, it so massively over bore you will have significant powder bridging issues, the RUM class case has seen a 6.5 but I think that ended in only a couple hundred rounds and while it had some brief moments it could not maintain anything.

The STW capacity seems to be the top end of what the bullets and barrels can handle, 6.5-300 Win mag is also up there, a guy could blow the shoulder out and improve it as well.

IMO thee best 1000+ yard ballistics comes from bullet development, by a 1000 yards velocity starts playing less of a role and bullet BC takes over.

 

[WisconSniper]

Can the 6.5WSM be improved (sharper shoulder) and gain and significant speed/accuracy/performance advantage?

~WS

 

[MontanaRifleman]

The 338 Norma mag would be hugely over bore. To give you an idea, the 300 RUM overbore index is about 1440 and the 7 Rum is about 1690 and the 6.5/338 Norma Mag is 1900. RL50 would even be a fast powder in that I'm thinking. Kirby could tell you better because his 6.5 AM is based on an improved 338 RUM which would be just a few grains more capacity than the 338 Norma.

The 140 Hybrid would probably hold up to those velocities but that will be one barrel eating cartridge.

The 6.5 WSM and 264 WM are almost identical in case capacity and only about 3 gr less than the 7 RM. IMO, not worth the effort unless you step up to the 6.5/300 WM or STW, in which case I would use the Dakota case.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Can the 6.5WSM be improved (sharper shoulder) and gain and significant speed/accuracy/performance advantage?

~WS

It already has a very straight taper and 35* shoulder.... not worth it

 

[MudRunner2005]

I know you're interested in the 6.5's, but if you want to shoot heavies for hunting at LR, I suggest just going with a 7mm STW. You can shoot lightweight bullets or really heavy high BC bullets for LR.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

It has been my experience that short barrel life takes the fun out of building a new rifle. . And an accurate rifle and the ability to hit well and repeatably with it makes a factory round or an established wildcat more than worthwhile in that the money can be used on components. There is no substitute for lots of shooting.

 

[WisconSniper]

The only reason the 6.5 is being focus on is because I already have a 6.5 bartlien barrel lying around.

 

[MudRunner2005]

The only reason the 6.5 is being focus on is because I already have a 6.5 bartlien barrel lying around.

I'd find me a short-action and build a 6.5-284 Norma.

Then for your current long action receiver, I'd buy a 7mm blank ream it out to 7mm STW for long range shooting.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

What twist is it

 

[bigngreen]

I'd find me a short-action and build a 6.5-284 Norma.

Then for your current long action receiver, I'd buy a 7mm blank ream it out to 7mm STW for long range shooting.

A well set up 6.5x284 will not fit a short action very well, it works very nice on a long action though.

Congratulation though only took three pages before it turned into a 7 STW thread