Is Swedish military 6.5 ammo reloadable?

[Brian in MN]

Anyone tried it? I don't even know what type of primer they used.

If not, what kind of commercial ammo do you like for reloading?

[ftierson]

Keeping in mind that someone will come along and say that all berdan cases are easily reloaded, the quick answer is "No, it's not reloadable."

Forrest

[DYNOMIKE]

Originally posted by ftierson
Keeping in mind that someone will come along and say that all berdan cases are easily reloaded, the quick answer is "No, it's not reloadable."

Forrest

Yup what he said.... :tongue:

[indy_Muaddib]

Originally posted by ftierson
Keeping in mind that someone will come along and say that all berdan cases are easily reloaded, the quick answer is "No, it's not reloadable."

Forrest

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2005/berdanreloading/index.asp

they are reloadable if you can find primers.

[instr8]

If you have some berdan 6.5X55 cases you're looking to unload, I'd love to have it.

[ProGun1]

The ones I have are mostly corroded. I've shot a bunch but you can't tell the condition of the brass given that the boxes look great and don't exhibit mildew. I don't know where they were stored but I'd hesitate to reuse the brass. You can buy fresh factory ammo from AIM for not much more than surplus and reuse it for certain.

[DYNOMIKE]

I will say this.....
ALL of the 6.5 Swedish ammo I have or have ever had was TOP shelf stuff in every way..
Beautiful ammo and very accurate of course it's a Given the 6.5 is a Very accurate round anyway..

Saying that "IF" I ever did decide I wanted to mess around with the additional steps (special steps) needed to load BERDAN primed ammo I would have no issues loading the 6.5 Sweed..

My Comments about reloading are based on the fact that although YES they certainly CAN be reloaded, MOST/MANY would choose not to expend the additional effort required..

[ppo84]

As stated above, you can reload berdan, its just "different" from what most are set up to reload for. It takes a few different tools such as a decapper (hydro or claw and then finding some berdan primers.

If you have plenty of surplus and are looking to make up some hunting rounds without a lot of fuss. I once made some very accurate hunting loads by pulling the full metal jacket bullets from live surplus rounds and replacing them with soft points of the same weight. If you use this method, be careful not to spill the powder or you'll need to re-weigh it and use the same weight bullet(I think the fmj was 139gr and the speer grand slam was 140). Or you could just pull the bullets, pour out the powder and start with the primed brass and go from there.

[Pluribus]

About in the middle of the page.

http://www.samcoglobal.com/Ammunition.html

Yupper, the good stuff.