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Tikka Sporter – 6.5x55SE or .260 in Australia
Hi guys,
Looking to buy a Tikka Sporter for benchrest shooting and the occasional plinking session out on farms.
Looked at the .308 but decided against it as it doesn't seem to be better for long range targets and I'm not going to be shooting bears or elephants. From my research the .308 is better for large game inside 500m but there are other calibers that do long range out to 1000m better.
So….I can't decide between the .260 or the 6.5×55 that the Sporter is available in – the issue is ammunition availability in Australia, as I wont be doing hand loading initially (I dont know how). Also looking at getting whichever caliber with the 24″ barrel.
The .260 ammo appears to be quite expensive and hard to come by in Australia (Victoria), as its hard to find on the web. The factory 6.5×55 being slightly easier to find but having average BC of mid 3s ~0.35 for things like federal shok and sellier and bellot make me wonder if its worth going the 6.5×55?
Does anyone in Aus have experience with factory ammo availability?
Or anyone with general advice on .260, 6.5×55 or the sporter in general?…..
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3 Replies
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Ok you have a bit of a conundrum here. on the one hand you don't reload currently. this means the .260 factory ammo is loaded at higher pressures and performance than most factory 6.5z55. If (on the other hand) you did reload you could get better performance from the 6.5×55. The question you need to ask is “am i going to reload”?
You will have to judge how hard it is to find 260 rem ammo vs how likely you are to get into handloading if performance is your key criteria.
I doubt you will be disappointed with either caliber.
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I haven't learned how to reload yet, but given the advice and research I've done if you want quality ammo you pretty much have to. From what I can see in Aus the .260 factory ammo is harder to find than the Swede and I think more expensive.
I gather due to the slightly larger capacity of the swede its going to have a marginal advantage with longer distance (up to or over 1000m?).
Does anyone on here do their own loading of the 6.5×55 swede in a modern Tikka and could recommend a load for medium range and a load for long range? A lot of the loads you see online are for the old mausers and have low pressures…
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There are a lot of threads on accurateshooter.com that will give you a starting point for most brands of components. Good luck!
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