6.5x53R

[Tonymin]

Does anyone have any leads on this ammo?

[knucklehead0202]

For dutch mannlicher? Buffalo arms shows out of stock but taking back orders. You can make brass out of .303 brit cases and reload your own. Cartridges of the World has some data. You just reminded me of a weird rifle I don't yet have...

[I Swan]

I have one. Fired some old surplus in it most went off. I also have a version in 303 Brit.

[6mmintl]

Very easy to make out of 303 british brass and 6.5x55 swede die set and additional button die sizer in 308 neck BD holder.

Run up in 6.5x55 die with good lube on neck, and finish size in 308 button die carefully sizing down till it sizes/closes snugly in your chamber, seat bullets with 6.5x55 swede seater.

after fire forming use 6.5x55 swede die to just neck size.

[gun toting monkeyboy]

Or you could just get a 6.5x54 mannlicher die set from Lee, and a. 303 British shell holder and call it a day. Run your.303 brass through it, trim it to length, and you are done. You can use 6.5x54 reloading data as well. I have found Remington brass works much better than Winchester, but both are miles ahead of the Greek surplus brass. I heard a few Dutch rifles, and they are some of my favorite guns to shoot.

-Mb

[Tonymin]

Would reloading for this with surplus brass be easier? I just found some surplus ammo.

[Armistice]

I would assume you don't know surplus is Berdan primed and reloadable brass is Boxer primed?

Unless the surplus is Boxer already (which would be news to me )

[Crunch130]

The only surplus I've seen that was Boxer primed was US stuff in various calibers (7.62 NATO, .30-06, 30 Carbine, 5.56 Nato) and Korean surplus M2 Ball.

Safe to say 6.5X53 surplus is Berdan, non-reloadable.

[Tonymin]

Well that sucks. It looks like some of the brass I have been saving is garbage LIke GP11?

[Armistice]

If it's surplus Swiss, it's Berdan primed, non-reloadable

[I Swan]

Berdan is not non reloadable, just presents more difficulties.

[Capybara]

That GP11 brass is top notch. Just Google it, you can reload it but it is more involved than Boxer primers.

[gun toting monkeyboy]

You can reload berdan primers. It just takes a little different set-up, and the primers themselves are a bit harder to find. There are a few problems that you might run into, however. If you are saving surplus brass, and it was not cleaned soon after it was fired, you may have issues with the mercury salts (depending on what chemicals they used for the primer) weakening the brass. Another issue may be the age of the brass itself. Depending on its age and how it was stored, it my have become more brittle, and may not take resizing well. This is much more uncommon, but it can still happen. And finally, make sure that it is actually brass. They used steel cases for this round as well. If it looks like a gray metal case, it isn't worth trying to reload. It can be done, but it really isn't worth it.

Also, as I said before. If you are going to make your own cases, use commercial brass, not surplus .303 brass. I have exactly 3 6.5x53R cases made from Greek HXP brass. I know this, because the 3 of them took me nearly an hour to reform, and I was starting to worry about breaking the dies or my press by the 3rd one. Those three will probably last forever, but I am NOT going to bother making any more.

-Mb

[I Swan]

I haven't fired any of the surplus steel case German WW2 ammo in this caliber yet.The boxes say like for MG on them so hopefully it isn't too hot.

[Flyin Brian]

Does anyone have any leads on this ammo?

Tony,

A good friend of mine has a few of these rifles and even shot one in the Sac Valley match last Saturday. I mentioned it to him today that there was a thread here asking about that cartridge and he asked me to forward it to him. He doesn't get on here much at all, but when I get in the office tomorrow I will forward this thread to him and see if he can offer any help. I don't know how to do it on my phone FB