6.5x55 vs 7x57 Why?

You obviously bought that from Dig? He had that 6.5x57 Procter with him last year. Previously belonged to a well known stalker?

This years 7x57 Procter is seriously tasty, really nice stock. Scope mounts are soldered on which is a bugger.... These relatively modern English rifles by Procter, Lloyd and the like are pretty good value, you can get them at auction for less money than a new Sako.

Yes, bought from Ken (Ecoman) on this forum through Dig. I'd known the rifle for a long time before, but didn't have the cash. Great fellow, Dig, true gentleman and amazing the treasures he can get his hands on. One day an old hammer gun will be mine...one day.
 
Do you know Kiri? Friend of Dig's. Pal of mine also. Anyway I was over for a driven day in Sussex with Kiri and had a Irish mate along, plus a yank friend of ours. We travelled without shotguns as Kiri said Dig would bring a few along. He turned up with a boot full of really tasty stuff. My pal got to borrow a 1930's H&H Royal for the day. There was a pair of 16's and two or three other really nice old guns. I could not shoot any of them, they were all too short. Ended up shooting the day with Kiri's 20 Bore Browning OU while every other bugger there shot a vintage SxS. I really am a pleb.
 
Yes, I know Kiri; another really good fellow. Been fallow stalking on his patch on the Kent borders, but had to turn down a couple of invites to their vintage guns shoot days due to previous work commitments, which was deeply disappointing. If I told you about some of Dig's guns and double rifles I handled a week ago you'd cry!

Ken, Ecoman, has had several guests' 6.5x54 MS go through his paws on Applecross. Can't remember whether he got on with the cartridge or not.
 
Help! I'm getting confused....

6.5mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer = 6.5x54 aka Greek - rotary magazine

6.5mm Mannlicher = .256 Mannlicher = 6.5x53R aka Dutch/Romanian - box magazine

What is .257 Rigby?
 
The double 10 bore bar action hammer rifle is mine you *******s, stay away and you're not having it!

:banghead:

Amir, you sod! Right then, I'll just have to put up with the .303 double Holland & Holland :)

Dalua, I think you mean .275 Rigby. 7mm = .284" bore groove diameter, but .275" = bore diameter measured from rifling land to land not groove to groove. I think the old Brits preferred the land to land bore diameter rather than the conventional groove diameter. Hence why 7mm Mauser (7x57mm) is also known as .275 Rigby. Someone with a bit more sense than me can clarify all this.
 
Dalua, I think you mean .275 Rigby. 7mm = .284" bore groove diameter, but .275" = bore diameter measured from rifling land to land not groove to groove. I think the old Brits preferred the land to land bore diameter rather than the conventional groove diameter. Hence why 7mm Mauser (7x57mm) is also known as .275 Rigby. Someone with a bit more sense than me can clarify all this.

I'm sure you're right! That must be what I mean - I'm just too clapped out and witless to know what I'm talking about.

Oh! But hang on...;)
I'm pretty sure the Rigby 257 isn't the 6.5x55 Swede? Isn't that the same as the 6.5 Mannlicher? ~Muir
I knew there was something!
There is a .257 Roberts, I think, but the Rigby I haven't come across.

Any thoughts?
 
No such thing as far as I know, you called the two 6.5s ( the .256 Mannlicher and the .256 Rigby)

The .275 Rigby is the 7x57 and the .257 Roberts is a necked down version of that case Developed by a Mr. Ned Roberts in the US in the first half of the 20th century.

Could it be that he means the .256 Rigby which is what Rigby stamped the lovely Mannlichers they occasionally worked over?
 
This a gentleman's thread is it not? :D

We're all being rather circumspect and tactful, if I may be permitted to say, and so in that same spirit I say to you Mr. Dalua; I do believe you may be right sir.


:tiphat:
 
Having done such a splendid job of writing Vintage Guns for the Modern Shot, perhaps it is time Dig wrote a new one: Vintage Rifles & Cartridges for the Modern Hunter :). These old cartridges are so much more appealing, especially when used in old rifles.
 
Ha ha! Yes, I take your point :D. But he is getting a little more interested in rifles now. Especially since he's become keen on Mannlicher Schoenauers. You can do the chapter on 10 bore rifles and I'll take photos of you firing it in the prone position ;).
Did you see his old BRNO 8x57JS? It looks like the old Mannlichers and is also a lovely rifle.
 
I think it is just fashion, at the moment the 7x57 and the .270 are out of favour with the buying public.

I hate to thwart Muirs theory about the 6.5 as Jim Corbett's friend "Ibbotson" used a Rigby .257, unfortunately it never became quite as popular over here.

Simon

Help! I'm getting confused....

6.5mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer = 6.5x54 aka Greek - rotary magazine

6.5mm Mannlicher = .256 Mannlicher = 6.5x53R aka Dutch/Romanian - box magazine

What is .257 Rigby?

Dulua, i am sorry the mistake must be mine :oops: I will read Corbett's book again and post the proper calibre, I believe it was the 6.5x54 or the .256 Rigby/Mannlicher. Rigby made rifles in the more common european calibres, presumably trying to break into the larger market for rifle sales. Also the German ammunition was highly thought of.

I will find the requisite passage from the book and rectify my mistake, sorry!

Simon

Edit; I have just found the relevant passage in Jim Corbett's "The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag". Ibbotson was using a Mannlicher .256" according to the great man.

There was much interchanging of ammunition usage from european (mainly German) manufacturers to English rifle makers who then used the English terminology to denote the calibre. That's why the 7x57 became the .275". Rigby gained the rights to manufacture the Mauser action in 1900.

Sorry!
 
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What people forget is that America was minor market then. Europe and their colonies/Empires was THE market. In east Africa especially European cartridges ruled as they belonged to Germany, Belguim, France and Holland. It was not until after WW1 that things began to change and after WW2 it really switched.
 
Dalua, I think you mean .275 Rigby. 7mm = .284" bore groove diameter, but .275" = bore diameter measured from rifling land to land not groove to groove. I think the old Brits preferred the land to land bore diameter rather than the conventional groove diameter. Hence why 7mm Mauser (7x57mm) is also known as .275 Rigby. Someone with a bit more sense than me can clarify all this.
It may equally be that 7mm is .27559in and they just converted the metric designation without rounding up the 3rd decimal...
 
Amir, you sod! Right then, I'll just have to put up with the .303 double Holland & Holland :)

Dalua, I think you mean .275 Rigby. 7mm = .284" bore groove diameter, but .275" = bore diameter measured from rifling land to land not groove to groove. I think the old Brits preferred the land to land bore diameter rather than the conventional groove diameter. Hence why 7mm Mauser (7x57mm) is also known as .275 Rigby. Someone with a bit more sense than me can clarify all this.

OK let's look at this bit:-

I think the old Brits preferred the land to land bore diameter rather than the conventional groove diameter.

Now who decided that using groove size was "the way" to go. The American military used bore size as in .30-06 and not .308-06. The same question comes to mins as to who decided 0.004" deep was "the depth" for rifling?

My Steyr's have almost 0.007" deep rifling. The Enfield form is slightly tapered but is 0.0075"-0.005" deep.
 
OK let's look at this bit:-
Now who decided that using groove size was "the way" to go. The American military used bore size as in .30-06 and not .308-06. The same question comes to mins as to who decided 0.004" deep was "the depth" for rifling?

My Steyr's have almost 0.007" deep rifling. The Enfield form is slightly tapered but is 0.0075"-0.005" deep.

"hmmm..." :cool:
 
Mauser66,

i am looking for a 7 x 57 (preferably a Sako 75- rarer than hens teeth I know. Do you have details of 2nd hand rifle auctions please?

many thanks,

Longshot.
 
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