LETTER OF THE MONTH
Wants a different 6.5mm cartridge
Q Today, there’s so many 6.5mm cartridges on the market that there’s no reason for the added expense and going to a lot of trouble by working with a wildcat — but who ever accused me of being reasonable?
I bought a reamer for the 6.5-270 WSM from Pacific Tool & Gauge and will rebarrel my Winchester Model 70 .264 Win Mag which has a washed out leade. I’ve got a 24” barrel with 1:8 twist and a set of RCBS loading dies; with nearly 200 new .270 WSM cases, I’m am all set to go.
Can you tell me if there are any problems that might crop up with this wildcat? What kind of velocity am I likely to get with the good 142gn Nosler AccuBond LR? Any other information about forming this wildcat would be much appreciated.
Alex Wilson
A Most of the problems you might have encountered with the 6.5-270 WSM have been negated by using a long action. If you had been using the short-action Model 70 chambered in .270 WSM you couldn’t have seated bullets out far enough to gain the full potential of the 6.5-270 WSM.
SAAMI specs for the 6.5 WSM call for an overall length of 2.560 to 2.860 inches (65.0-72.6mm), but in the long magazine of your rifle you can seat bullets out to the increased overall cartridge length of 3.365” (85.5mm). I’d also recommend a long throat of at least 3/8” (10mm) which will allow greater powder charge weights.
The ideal powders for this 6.5 WSM are in the order of AR2225 and Reloder 333 (if you can find some).
Simply necking down a
