6.5 Day Special: The Story of 6.5mm Rifle Cartridges
Happy 6.5 Day! This video is debuting on June 5 – “6/5” – so what better day for Brownells Gun Tech™ Keith Ford to share his love for 6.5mm rifle cartridges? He has seven Six-Fives to show us, starting with the 6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser, adopted by the Swedish military in 1893. The 6.5 Swede’s strong points are the sectional density, velocity, and ballistic coefficient of its bullet, which make it very accurate over long ranges AND give it a lot of knock-down power. The 6.5 Swede with a 140 grain hollow-point is still a popular hunting round in Europe.
Steyr debuted the 6.5x54mm Mannlicher-Schönauer in 1900, and it quickly became popular in Africa as a hunting round. The famous Scottish big game hunter W.D.M. “Karamojo” Bell took approximately 300 elephants with the 6.5×54. The most infamous 6.5 cartridge is the Italian 6.5mm Carcano used by Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. It was not a great cartridge by any means, but it did change the course of history.
In the mid-1990s, Remington and a company called A-Square were both developing 6.5mm cartridges based on the .308 Winchester case. When the SAAMI approval process finished, the .260 Remington beat out the 6.5mm-08 A-Square and was introduced in 1996. It’s an excellent round that never really took off. The 6.5×284 Norma, based on the .284 Winchester, debuted in 1999 and proved not only an outstanding benchrest cartridge but a great hunting round, too.
The 6.5mm Grendel came along in 2003 as an intermediate AR-15 round to fill the gap between the 5.56 NATO / .223 Remington and the .308 Winchester. You can easily convert a standard AR-15 to 6.5 Grendel. Don’t be deceived by the small size: at 1,000 yards the 6.5 Grendel is still smokin’ along at 1,200 fps.
Introduced in 2007, the 6.5 Creedmoor delivers ALMOST the same performance (about 100 fps less) as the 6.5x55mm Swedish. In 130 years we’ve come full circle! But the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge is shorter, so it fits nicely into the AR-308 platform. For over a century, 6.5mm cartridges have served militaries, target shooters, and hunters – and there’s probably a new 6.5 being developed right now!
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Lets not forget 6.5 carcano.
Did this man really just say Lee Harvey Oswald "supposedly" assassinated JFK?
Thanks Keith, I've been using the 260 remington since 1998 and it has been deadly on whitetail deer.
6.5 PRC?
The 6.5 PRC could have been included.
So a 270 would be the same as a 7mm rem?
Is the 243 harsh on barrels?
Grendel is the goat AR cartridge
Crazy thought…ar or ak chambered in .17 hmr
Why is there the love it or hate it for the 6.5 Creedmoor??
Alot of Americans hate on the carcano as much as the creedmoor for obvious and understandable reasons. But it's an enjoyable round to shoot and to reload accurately given the .268 bullet size.
“Supposedly killed JFK..” 😂
6.5 Grendel fanboy here
6.5 Grindel is lovely little round. 🐝
Good video really enjoy it. Love the Creedmoor although the 270 is a winner also.
I love my Grendel
I've had fun with my Creedmoor 6.5
I can't wait for 6.8 day! 😎
No 6.5 PRC? One of the flattest shooting 6.5 of them all. #1 is the 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum. #5 is the Weatherby 6.5 RPM. 6.5 PRC was listed as #8, on Backfires "Flattest-Shooting Cartridge Ever" Video on you tube. Oh well. Maybe next year 🙂
Them first three rounds look nasty, good video fellas!
But 6.5mm is just a bullet diameter. There are many 6.5mm bullets, and some are better than others. 6.5 Grendel is pretty much limited to bullets under 130gr. Although perhaps, there is an argument that 6.5 Swede is better than 8mm Mauser or .30-06 in some aspects, or 6.5mm Creedmore is better than .308/7.62NATO in terms of felt recoil and long range ballistics, I don't believe there is any inherent MAGIC in the 6.5mm bullet diameter.
I have had several military rifles that shoot the 6.5X55 Swedish round and have enjoyed them all. So when I ran across a Steyr Mannlicher Mountain Rifle in that round I snatched it up without hesitation. That is by far the most accurate Rifle I have ever owned. I love it!
THANKS
Thanks for the overview
The 6.5×55 Swede is my favorite hands down.
My only displeasure is that this Italian version… (6.5 x 52mm) assassinated a US President…But it is good caliber…
You left out the 6.5 PRC.
It's pronounced like "Grendle", not "Gren-dell"
Sorry to be that guy, but how can a "story of the 6.5mm rifle cartridges" not start with the first one? The first 6.5 to be adopted had been the 6.5X52 Carcano, adopted Apr. 18 1890. Then the 6.5X53r, pretty much a straight copy, changed just enough (rimmed) to avoid patent infringment issues. The 6.5X54 M.S. is, again, a rimless 6.5X53r, so another derivate of the 6.5X52 Carcano.
Wish he would’ve covered the .264 WinMag, I believe that’s the cartridge that brought/made the 6.5mm popular in the US