Thread: Sub-sonic 6.5x55

Has anyone done this? What bullets did you end up using?

It's being done a lot using cast bullets. I haven't heard of anyone doing it with jacketed bullets. There is a risk of sticking a bullet in the bore so caution needs to be used. There was a write up on developing subsonic loads for jacketed. I'll see if I can find it.

If you're not familiar with cast bullet loading you should be aware of the dangers of double loads with pistol or shotgun powders (one can use Trail Boss which almost fills the case and is what is used for subsonic jacketed loads in larger cases). There is also a danger of reduced charges of rifle powders 'detonating'. They don't actually detonate but they do on occasion blow up rifles and the 6.5x55 is probably the most susceptible to this. There was even a factory load developed using a test barrel which caused blow-ups in military rifles. I think this was the first time the event was reproduced in the lab. It's called a SEE or Secondary Explosion Effect. However, most alleged SEE's are likely to be inadvertent double charges of faster powders.

We did subsonic 140gr 6.5x47 lapua with Trail Boss a few years back, can't remember how much we used, it was pretty cool with a suppressor, big change in POI between supersonic and subsonic loads.

I was thinking with the high SD it should be a good killer if you could get the pills to stabilize

Too slow and small in my opinion, little bullets like anything .30 cal or less don't really work great for killing big stuff at subsonic speeds, don't expand well and not big enough to make much of a hole. You can muck around with cast bullets etc etc to get softer ones that will expand but it's just too much hassle. For subsonic, go with big fat fuckers, buy a .44 mag ruger bolt gun and cut it back to 10" barrel and stick a can on the end.

Sweet as, don''t think I'll muck around with subs for the 6.5 now.

I'll get around to finding a 44 barrel one day

don't you have a 303 hiding away somewhere? would be a better choice perhaps, lots of info floating around for that.

Yeah, Also have a .308 I could use. Would be easier to get load data for subs with that I assume?

303 and 308 are well trodden paths and you may get to play with casting bullets as well.
This guy Beaver Grease
has written a few articles on cast bullets in 303s and the like. you may want to touch base with him if no one else can provide info.

I think it'll be rather fun Pumping 200grs of lead into a plover out the back

Toby

I experimented with 6.5x55 and trail boss awhile back but dropped it in the end.
We were using 140gr jacketed projectiles....... one stuck out the end of the barrel

Now I use 300gr xtps over 9grs trail boss out of my Rossi 16" 44magnum.
Hit with a thump out to about 100m and is very quiet.

Cheers
Pete