Calibre ahead of its time?….by Doc Early
Suddenly the 6.5 is “new” and hot. There’s the 6.5 Creedmoor, the
6.5 Grendel, the .260 Remington, the 6.5-284 Norma, the 6.5×47 Lapua
and even the . 264 Win Mag and 6.5 Remington Mag are staging a
resurgence. How long can it it be before a new WSSM or RUSM jumps
into the mix.
It’s as if the.264 calibre has been newly discovered and suddenly it
is the answer to many and varied problems, from military
effectiveness, to precise high power target competition, to light
recoiling effective hunting rifles. Strange, I thought the 6.5 had
been around since the 1890’s, proving itself for the militaries of
the Romanians, the Dutch , the Scandinavians, the Italians, the
Greeks, the Japanese, the Portuguese, the Uruguayans ,etc, etc, etc.
And then, there are my two favorite sporting 6.5’s; the .256
Mannlicher and the .256 Newton, both somewhat lost in obscurity, and
yet they did everything the newer fodder can do (if not more).
(And yes, I do realize the 6.5×54 Greek Mannlicher-Schoenauer and the
6.5×53R Dutch are indeed the roughly one and the same as the Briitsh
designated round.)
The litte Mannlicher has had a storied past (as recorded by numerous
authors)and yet Norma has now ceased production of the loaded round
(still making the brass though ,thank God).
My prized possesion is a Von Hoffe prototype, that proudly wears the
silver images of the game it has taken on its stock , placed there
by its Jaegermeister ; now 106 years later continues to put 160
grains of of superbly penetrating projectiles into MOA groups.
The Newton came to life in 1913 the progeny of Charles Newton of
250-3000(Savage) fame and slipped largely into oblivion about 1938.
Basically a 6.5-06 and having been called “the Thinking Man’s .270″ ,
it none-the-less succumbed to the Winchester brand name, Jack O’
Connor’s prolific .270 praise and catastrophic management of Newton
Arms. (Not to mention poor powder choice and availability, as well as
bullet construction technology of the day.) My 90+ year old
example ,however, never fails to esthetically please or perform
quite practically.
Funny isn’t it, how everything old is new again?
