these old single-stage triggers before and they end up safe and quite smooth. Trigger travel is plenty long, but it works. Pull was four pounds before I made any changes. Initial trigger tuning was per- formed by reducing sear spring pressure a bit, and also polishing the sear/striker mating surfaces to a mirror shine. There is a very simple, yet effective leverage built into the trigger/sear mechanism. This resulted in a safe and workable trigger for most needs. Though I had the factory trigger down to 2½ pounds, I decided to consult with the folks at Timney Triggers, Inc. They sent me one of the Featherweight models to fit the 96 Swedish Mauser that adjusts crisply to just under two pounds. The Timney trig- ger required some special fitting, but it was worth every minute spent on it. The Swedes had the trigger almost centered in the trigger guard, which makes it difficult to get a gloved finger into the loop. This all changed with the well-engineered Timney model. It now sits well back into the trigger guard. This involved opening the slot in the trigger guard, and inletting the stock rearward to make room for the trigger. The trigger housing on the Tim- ney Featherweight is much larger than the original Mauser versions. The trigger is adjustable for creep and over-travel, as well as pull weight. Of course, the origi- nal striker lock safety is used as provided on the Model 96 Mauser rifle. On firing, the original trigger actually caused the bolt to move slightly downward as the sear pulled down on it. Such movement certainly wouldn’t be conducive to best accuracy. Now there is not a hint of bolt body movement as the Timney trigger fires the rifle. I took a careful look at the finished
rifle with the scope in place, and the new fore-end and shortened barrel. The white-black, laminated fore-end with its “Weatherby” slant was quite easy on the eye. The Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil stock finish brought out the dark blond wood grain to a burled beauty I haven’t seen before. The finished rifle with scope weighed 9½ pounds, at a total length of 46½ inches and displayed good balance. The gun really took on a presentable nonmilitary appearance and looked ready for action. WORKING WITH
THENEWLY CUSTOMIZED RIFLE I had several boxes of PMC 139-grain factory loads to use, so I shot some of
these at 100 yards as a shoot-clean bore break-in regimen before turning to more serious handloading following my lap- ping procedure. I was down to denuded bore metal, so at least some break-in was in order. I then thoroughly monitored the bore for fouling and cleaned after each five shots. The old bore really didn’t show excessive copper or fouling buildup as I progressed to handloads. As closely as I could determine, the groove diameter is 0.265 inch or 6.73mm. I don’t know how closely these old guns ran to our modern day bore tolerance, but a thousandth of an inch over standard didn’t seem out of the picture. I know some of my real shooters have had bores that seemed a bit oversize, but they were uniform, as this old Swedish Mauser bore appears to be. A bullet tends to obturate the bore on firing as tests have proved, thereby form- ing a uniform contact to the bore wall. Starting back in 1959 when I was using the then new Model 70 Winchester cham- bered for the 264 Winchester Magnum, on fox and other varmints, there were only a few bullets available in 6.5mm. This enigma no longer remained once American shooters finally recognized the merits of the 6.5mm bore and bullet. Varmint hunters, big game hunters, and target shooters now have a very wide and excellent variety of 6.5mm bullets to
satisfy their every need. I have included a picture, in this
text, showing 21 different 6.5mm bul- lets by several manufacturers, including Sierra, Hornady, Speer, Berger, Nosler, Lapua and Barnes to serve a variety of shooting needs. I have used these bullets selectively in a number of my 6.5mm chamberings, including such cartridges as the 260 Remington, 6.5-284 Norma, 6.5- 06 and the 6.5x42 NEJ Wildcat of my own design, a descendent of the reworked Winchester Super Short Magnum car- tridge. So, my anticipation ran pretty high as I embarked on handloading the 6.5x55mm Swede. I used a Redding Type S bushing
sizing die along with their competition seater. The PMC cases were very uniform in weight and volume with very uniform case neck wall thickness. Neck turning was not indicated. I prepped the PMC cases with
routine case mouth chamfering. The chamber neck measured 0.299" for a respectably close tolerance. Neck turn- ing would not be in the plan at this time. I used Redding series “A” neck sizing and seating dies, which produced a very concentric loaded round. The PMC neck wall thickness ran quite uniform at 0.016" … just right for the 0.299" chamber neck. Initial testing involved some addi-
Table I.
6.5x55 Swedish Mauser Load Comparisons from Hornady 8th Edition Manual Using 95-grain Hornady V-Max bullets.
Cartridge
Includes additional loads used in author’s 6.5x42 NEJ Cartridge Developed from Winchester Super Short Magnum Cartridge. Bullet
6.5x55 Swedish Mauser 95 Hornady V-Max 260 Remington 6.5 Creedmoor 6.5x57mm 6.5mm-284 6.5mm-06
6.5x42mm NEJ (Author’s Cartridge
95 Hornady V-Max 95 Hornady V-Max 95 Hornady V-Max 95 Hornady V-Max 95 Hornady V-Max 95 Hornady V-Max 95 Hornady V-Max
Design & Handloads) 95 Hornady V-Max 95 Hornady V-Max
Make & Model Caliber
Date of Manufacture Action Type Barrel
Magazine Capacity Trigger Safety Stock
Length Weight
Sights & Mount
Charge & Powder Velocity Range fps 48.4 gr. IMR 4350 47.7 gr. A 4350 42.5 Norma 203B 47.5 IMR 4350 49.7 IMR 4350 52.5 IMR 4350 48 gr. H 4350 49 gr. H 4350 50 gr. H 4350 50.5 gr. H 4350
3,200 3,200 3,200 2,700 3,200 3,400 3,262 3,322 3,369 3,400
Rifle Specifications
Model 96 Swedish Mauser 6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser 1896
Bolt action – five-shot magazine
Factory, stepped, four groove 263/8", 1:8 twist Five/staggered removable floor plate Timney – set at one pound Firing Pin Lock
Burled hardwood/sporterized 46 ½"
9 ½ lbs. Sightron/Leupold
www.varminthunter.org Page 111
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