B & R Photography

The 6.5×55 Swedish is a fantastic cartridge that I own and love using to this day. It also goes by the names 6.5x55mm, 6.5×55 SE, 6.5×55 SKAN, and 6.5×55 Swede. Designed back in 1891 This cartridge has a very long history. (Some Unofficial names it also goes by are 6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser, 6.5×55 Mauser, 6.5×55 Krag, 6.5×55 Norwegian Krag and 6.5×55 Norway & Sweden.)

Originally the 6.5×55 was designed as a military use cartridge when the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway wanted to get new service rifles. The 6.5mm bore diameter was smaller than most service rifle cartridges at the time and provided a lower free recoil allowing the shooter better control.

The cartridge was officially adopted in 1894 by Norway who selected the Krag-Jorgensen Rifle and Sweden adopted it in 1896 when they selected the Mauser rifle. Both service rifles where chambered in 6.5×55. The cartridge saw service use till about 1995. At that point allot of countries had switched to using NATO cartridges to help standardize arms to allow for better trading amongst the NATO countries.

The cartridge itself has been extremely popular in European countries and still is one of the most used cartridges. Due to the design of the case being quite long and designed for longer/heavier projectiles it makes a fantastic hunting round and when loaded with modern powders in a modern rifle it can compete or outdo modern cartridges like the 6.5 Creedmoor or the 6.5x47mm Lapua. It has been used for long range shooting, full-bore biathlon, Metallic silhouette, F-class and Benchrest.

Most European rifle manufactures chamber rifles in this cartridge. It does have a following in North America however few manufactures seem to offer it. According to Wikipedia only 4 offer rifles chambered in the cartridge. (Thompson Center, Barrett Firearms, Remington and Ruger.)

As far as trajectory goes if we use factory Hornady Data for the 140gr SST you get a muzzle velocity of 2735 fps and a muzzle energy of 2325 Ft-Lb. Using the data provided we get the following drops when the rifle is zeroed at 100 yards:

200 Yards: 3.8 inches of drop.

500 Yards: 55.4 inches of drop.

1000 Yards: 353.7 inches of drop.

(Please note the above trajectory information was pulled from https://www.hornady.com/team-hornady/ballistic-calculators/#!/standard )

The 6.5×55 Swedish is one of my personal cartridges that I use as a target rifle. I enjoy every second if it at the range. It was also the first rifle cartridge barrel combo to give me consistent .5/.6 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards. I run a Tikka t3x Varmint Stainless barrel.

Short Notes.

Official Name: 6.5×55 Swedish. (Many others mentioned above.)

Year Designed: 1891

Designed by: Swedish-Norwegian Rifle Commission.

Parent Case: N/A

Rifling Twist Rate: 1 in 9” or 1 in 8.66”.

Maximum Point-Blank Range: 260 Yards with a 140gr projectile travelling at 2645 fps.

I hope you enjoyed this brief overview of the 6.5×55 Swedish and will return next week for our Cartridge of the Week series.

Please remember to always practice safe muzzle control when dealing with firearms and happy shooting.

B