My 6.5 Family

[65Carcano]

From top to bottom: 1902 Carcano M91 TS, 1915 Carcano M91 Cavalry Carbine, 1901 M96 Swedish Mauser, and last but not least my new Grendel, which is just a 20" PSA upper on a Ruger MPR lower. Just got the optic mounted, hoping to get to the range to sight it in soon. I gave the upper a thorough cleaning and lubing. Also bonus picture of 6.5 Grendel, 6.5x52 Carcano, and 6.5x55 Swede.

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[VASCAR2]

Very nice! I always wanted a 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser but never found one. I did buy a Type 38 Arisaka 6.5 which is in pretty decent shape. When I was in my late teens a Friend used to hunt ground hogs with a Arisaka carbine in 6.5x50. He let me shoot it and I have been a fan of the 6.5 ever since. My Dad brought back an Arisaka from Japan after the war but gave it to his brother in law. The Arisaka was gone before I was ever old enough to shoot and I never new if it was a 6.5 or 7.7.

[LRRPF52]

[65Carcano]

[65Carcano]

Took the Grendel to the range for the first time this weekend, managed to get minute of pig accuracy which is about what I was hoping for with a cheap upper like that. Big accuracy difference between the PSA upper and the 5.56 Ruger MPR upper, I was shooting Hornady ELD-M and SST so decent ammo but it'll get the job done. The ASC 10 rounder I was using at first was not feeling reliably at all, but the new 10 and 20 round Duramags ran flawlessly so I'll stick with those.

[VASCAR2]

Thanks for the update on your PSA. Hopefully the accuracy improves with use.

[65Carcano]

Thanks for the update on your PSA. Hopefully the accuracy improves with use.

I also put a box of Wolf through it, do you think with another box of Wolf + some more Hornady groups will tighten up? I wish there were some other plinking level ammo available at the moment besides Wolf, just need to be patient I guess. I'm saving my brass for the eventual day when I can start reloading.

[biodsl]

You have a nice family there.

Perhaps some day the good old days will return. The days when Hornady sold American Gunner at $.70 a round and Wolf was round $.30. Not likely though. Were it not for reloading I'd shoot very little. I've found that reloading has added to my enjoyment of shooting.

[VASCAR2]

I also put a box of Wolf through it, do you think with another box of Wolf + some more Hornady groups will tighten up? I wish there were some other plinking level ammo available at the moment besides Wolf, just need to be patient I guess. I'm saving my brass for the eventual day when I can start reloading.

[kmon]

Lice the 1903 6.5X54 MS and agree they have the smoothest actions I have ever handeled. I like the 6.5 caliber, started with a 264 WinMag, then 6.5-284, 6.5'54 and finally a couple Grendels. The grendels get shot more than the others combined.

[65Carcano]

I think I've shot about 50 rounds total through it, I'll try to make it to the range again here soon and send some more Wolf down range and see how the ELD-M and SST group after that. I shot one promising group with the SST last time, but I only have 15 rounds left so need to conserve. Have a good amount of ELD-M at least for hunting purposes. My Swedish mauser gets shot a good amount, I've killed two hogs with it and it is fun at the range too. 6.5x55 has managed to stay fairly inexpensive and available too thankfully.

[65Carcano]

When to the range again today, shot some pretty decent groups at 100 yards with SST but ELD-M continued to be rather mediocre. Shot a lot of Wolf too. ELD-M seems to be somewhat readily available but haven't seen hardly any SST so just going to wait until more appears. My Swedish Mauser and my 30-06 will handle the hogs in the meantime.

[65Carcano]

Took my PSA Grendel upper in its new PSA lower, it was shooting pretty mediocre (1.25-1.75 inch at 50 yards with PPU 120, Hornady SST and ELDM) until the last few groups when it suddenly tightened up to .75 inches. A lot of the groups are decent with 1 or 2 spreading things out, I am suspicious that maybe those are ones where tips are getting deformed in feeding. I'm curious how Federal Fusions or similar will do. Also took it to the range with another 6.5, this time an old M94 sporterized 6.5x55. It shot pretty good, should make a handy little woods gun.

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[lazyengineer]

LOVE the 6.5 rounds. To me, the 6.5 Cm and 6.5 Grendel are my favorite general purpose AND special purpose rounds. Interestingly, I really want a 6.5 Grendel Bullpup, which is not an option, though there is a 6.5 Creedmoore bullpup MDRx. Which I have. Unfortunately, that rifle is sensative to heavy loads, and shoots ppoorly. I basically have to download to nearly 6.5 Grendel power level, to get acceptable accuracy (light bullet, fast powder, medium to lower charge). Interestingly, to get a 6.5 CM to shoot teh same bullet at the same velocity as a 6.5 Grendel, takes almost 10 more grains of powder, to do that. That's how efficient 6.5 Grendel is. Its one Hell of a round, and to me, 6.5 Grendel is the ultimiate optimized general purpose small frame AR15 round.

[65Carcano]

I agree, 6.5 is great. I was impressed with how light the 6.5x55 recoil was in that little carbine, I think an older elementary schooler could handle it no problem and it would have a lot more horsepower than a 243 or 223. I may be adding a 6.5 PRC to the inventory sometime to go along with the 6.5x55, 6.5x52, and 6.5x39s I have already. Would love a classic 6.5MS and need a 6.5 Arisaka for the milsurp collection.