roysclockgun
Handloader
- Dec 17, 2005
- 736
- 1
This cartridge is slightly different from the old 6.5x57mm cartridge. As many of you know, all sorts of wildcat cartridges were produced when GIs returning from WWII, were unable to find suitable cases with which to load hunting ammo. For the 6.5x50mm Arisaka cartridge, one choice was to ream the chamber to accept 257Roberts cases, which had been developed by necking down the 7x57mm Mauser round. The neat little rifle that I picked up at a flea market was sold to me as a 257Roberts, but I recognized the stepped barrel of the original Japanese Type 38, and knew the the bore was 6.5mm. Everything had already been done to create a handy deer rifle, to include shortening the bbl., bending the bolt handle and seriously altering the original Arisaka stock.
While I knew that I could have a 6.5x57mm die made, I read that the two are different in shouder angle, so I simply put the 6.5 expanding button into my 257Roberts die and opening up the mouth of the 257Roberts cases to 6.5, seems to do the trick. The rifle seems to handle heavier 6.5 bullets better than the light ones as the throat is long, which causes me to favor heavier bullets in order to get the bullet close to the lands.
Can anyone add some input to this project, in terms of offering suggestions of how to hand load the cartridges any differently??
While I knew that I could have a 6.5x57mm die made, I read that the two are different in shouder angle, so I simply put the 6.5 expanding button into my 257Roberts die and opening up the mouth of the 257Roberts cases to 6.5, seems to do the trick. The rifle seems to handle heavier 6.5 bullets better than the light ones as the throat is long, which causes me to favor heavier bullets in order to get the bullet close to the lands.
Can anyone add some input to this project, in terms of offering suggestions of how to hand load the cartridges any differently??
