Which Rifle?

MJR

Well-Known Member
I have been stalking for a while and have been succesfully using a Tikka 595 in .243. I now have permission for a 6.5 x 55 and would welcome views on different makes of rifle. It has to be available in left handed and I would prefer a rifle that allows unloading with the safety on, this being the only niggle I have with the Tikka. Also plan on fiting a sound moderator. Any advice :confused:
 
MJR said:
I have been stalking for a while and have been succesfully using a Tikka 595 in .243. I now have permission for a 6.5 x 55 and would welcome views on different makes of rifle. It has to be available in left handed and I would prefer a rifle that allows unloading with the safety on, this being the only niggle I have with the Tikka. Also plan on fiting a sound moderator. Any advice :confused:

I shoot a 6.5x55 Sako 75 S/S moderated. It has the safety feature you seek and as far as I am aware they produced them in left hand versions. Some dealers are still selling new ones despite the introduction of the Sako 85.

Any problems with accuracy have been operator error :oops: and it will shoot tight groups at 100 yards although I zero at 150 so I don't have to worry about bullet drop at anything upto 200 yards.

I started off by using 156 grn Norma Oryx. However, I found them hard to group. So I moved to Norma 140grn Noslers. These were a revelation. Not only do they group consistantly (NB check out the review of the Sako 85 6.5 x 55 in the Shooting Times early December which said the same thing) but if you put the bullet in the right place it will knock down cleanly any species of deer you can stalk in the UK with no noticeable meat damage.

I have also shot 140grn Fedrals through it and also various home loads of a similar weight. I have to say I don't find the home loads any more accurate than the Norma Noslers.

6.5 x 55 ammo tends to have a muzzel velocity of about 2500 - 2750 fps. So recoil is low un moderated and with the tin can on its like firing an air rifle. As some of the land I shoot roe is on an estate that borders a village on one side I shoot moderated

Finally, I have shot 6.5s from Remmington (at least the stock was) , Tika, Shultz & Larsen, Steyr and some custom built ones. Can't say I was unhappy with any of them, and their owners seem pleased with them, although I am happy to stick with what I've got.

Hope the above is helpful.

Regards

MacNab
 
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