Howdy Guys,
I know it's been a bit so I wanted to check in. Life got very busy with a retirement from the Navy, a move of our household goods from VA to NM and a much smaller move from NM to Stuttgart, Germany. Upon our arrival here, the wife was kind enough to allow me to purchase a rifle that I had my eye on for the better part of two years while stationed in VA. It's really a neat piece because according to the Mannlicher Schoenauer collectors' association, it is a Model 1950 due to the bolt handle being straight, not swept back, and the safety being located on the right side. It's chambered in one of my favorite cartridges for Europe, the 6.5x68. It's very similar to a 264 Win Mag but does not have a belt and actually has a rebated rim.
Of all the game to hunt here in Europe my favorite has to be gamswild, also known as Chamois. It is something akin to a pronghorn antelope that inhabits the Alps. This rifle could be considered state of the art or cutting-edge for the purpose of hunting gams in the 50s and, despite its age, still seems like a heck of a choice for taking afield today with its flat shooting ability and modest weight for carrying into the high country.
The seller allowed me to purchase some ammo for it that has not been manufactured for a very long time, as indicated by the 6 gram "teilmantel-S spitz" type bullet weight and the "Made in Western Germany" logo on the RWS package. Well, I finally had an opportunity to get it out to the range and burn some rounds through it. My first shot was at 25 yards to see if I was on paper and it was a little low and left, but good enough for government work so I moved on back to 100 yards. The cartridge's voluminous case and the rifle's hard plastic butt plate hade me a little worried about its recoil, but it wasn't bad at all and the double set triggers were a joy to use. I was elated to see that it's shooting about 1.5 inches high and only 0.5 inches left at 100 yards. It turns out that it really loved the 6 gram bullet weight and put two in one hole and the third about a half inch away! Not too shabby for a 75-year-old rifle wearing a detachable fixed 6 power scope with a big dot that obstructs the target. While aiming, I realized that it's easier to have the dot bracketed by the target diamonds to center it more precisely to shoot it accurately. I also shot a few 127 grain bullets which don't look to be quite as accurate but are close enough.
When you do the conversion on 6 grams, it works out to a little over 92 grains for bullet weight. Considering the 6.5x68 case has more capacity than a 264 Win Mag, I imagine that bullet must be scootin' along pretty quickly! Most hunting here requires the use of leadfree bullets and the twist rate of the 6.5x68 is usually 1 in 250mm so I'm going to see about loading up some 100 grain TTSX bullets. Anything more probably won't stabilize around here as we're only about 700 feet above sea level. The deer season ended here on January 31st and won't open again until April for reh deer so I've got a little bit of time to try to figure things out.
V/R,
Joe
I know it's been a bit so I wanted to check in. Life got very busy with a retirement from the Navy, a move of our household goods from VA to NM and a much smaller move from NM to Stuttgart, Germany. Upon our arrival here, the wife was kind enough to allow me to purchase a rifle that I had my eye on for the better part of two years while stationed in VA. It's really a neat piece because according to the Mannlicher Schoenauer collectors' association, it is a Model 1950 due to the bolt handle being straight, not swept back, and the safety being located on the right side. It's chambered in one of my favorite cartridges for Europe, the 6.5x68. It's very similar to a 264 Win Mag but does not have a belt and actually has a rebated rim.
Of all the game to hunt here in Europe my favorite has to be gamswild, also known as Chamois. It is something akin to a pronghorn antelope that inhabits the Alps. This rifle could be considered state of the art or cutting-edge for the purpose of hunting gams in the 50s and, despite its age, still seems like a heck of a choice for taking afield today with its flat shooting ability and modest weight for carrying into the high country.
The seller allowed me to purchase some ammo for it that has not been manufactured for a very long time, as indicated by the 6 gram "teilmantel-S spitz" type bullet weight and the "Made in Western Germany" logo on the RWS package. Well, I finally had an opportunity to get it out to the range and burn some rounds through it. My first shot was at 25 yards to see if I was on paper and it was a little low and left, but good enough for government work so I moved on back to 100 yards. The cartridge's voluminous case and the rifle's hard plastic butt plate hade me a little worried about its recoil, but it wasn't bad at all and the double set triggers were a joy to use. I was elated to see that it's shooting about 1.5 inches high and only 0.5 inches left at 100 yards. It turns out that it really loved the 6 gram bullet weight and put two in one hole and the third about a half inch away! Not too shabby for a 75-year-old rifle wearing a detachable fixed 6 power scope with a big dot that obstructs the target. While aiming, I realized that it's easier to have the dot bracketed by the target diamonds to center it more precisely to shoot it accurately. I also shot a few 127 grain bullets which don't look to be quite as accurate but are close enough.
When you do the conversion on 6 grams, it works out to a little over 92 grains for bullet weight. Considering the 6.5x68 case has more capacity than a 264 Win Mag, I imagine that bullet must be scootin' along pretty quickly! Most hunting here requires the use of leadfree bullets and the twist rate of the 6.5x68 is usually 1 in 250mm so I'm going to see about loading up some 100 grain TTSX bullets. Anything more probably won't stabilize around here as we're only about 700 feet above sea level. The deer season ended here on January 31st and won't open again until April for reh deer so I've got a little bit of time to try to figure things out.
V/R,
Joe
