Name that round

[Lil Stinkpot]

A friend just gave me a handful of curio cartridges, and this one really sticks out. She and I pulled out the big book of bullets and a caliper, and using the table therein figured it to be a 6.5 x 50mm SR Arisaka, AKA the "Jap. 25" as she calls it. She gave me a NEAT history on the subject. I'm a little confused, though; the cartridge pictured on Wikipedia doesn't match what's in my hand. That bullet is long, but not ohmygoshthatsgottahurt long like mine.

Whatever it is, it's certainly a fabulous little piece of history!


Tell me something, if you could. Clearly someone thought that a super long bullet was a good idea. What went awry? What is it about the long bullet that made it unpopular, and it's use was discontinued? Do they tumble? Penetration or accuracy issues? Just too damn long for the charge behind it? All new to me, and this makes an interesting topic.


Pictured L to R: 6.5 x 50 mm Arisaka??, 30-06, .223, .22 lr



This thing's OLD: domed primer

[ducky_0811]

Commonly called 6.5 Jap. Definitely a military issue cartridge based off that primer and the triple stake crimping on it. This is just a guess but that projectile looks either cupro nickel plated like many bullets of the day or that could also be a steel, or tin projectile, which is less dense than lead, hence the elongated shape it would need to bring it up to weight. The Japanese ran out of materials late in the war and that MAY (again just a guess) explain it.

[MongooseV8]

Long skinny bullets were also used in the 6.5x55 Swede. We use them today in modern loads as they are far better at reducing windage drift, and retain velocity better down range.

[Lil Stinkpot]

OK, cool! So pretty much Wiki could use more pictures. Gotchya.

I brought out a magnet, no stick. I also had a little bit of an "Aha!" moment when I noticed a dirt ring on the bullet, gave it a curious twist and tug, and found that someone has made an almost dummy out if it already by pulling the bullet and dumping the powder. It also explained the ridiculously long bullet when in pushed it back in, and it snapped to the ring mark, a little bit further down than I found it. It's still looooooong, but looks more like the reference pictures in the book.

Random thought: that would make one hell of a squib to pull out, yuck.

[8mmFMJ]

Looks like a 8mm mauser necked down to a .30 cal. Cool old round ya got. I collect unfired ammo also, one at a time.

[BrocLuno]

6.5x50 does use a long bullet. They sort of set the standard for that back in the day. Very good BC and retained energy at range. Remember they were WW-1 era cartridges. And were used in Volley Fire at extreme ranges. How would you like to have a couple of hundred of these coming down on you at at 1,000m ...

They eventually moved up to the 7.7 to get better penetration and share components with the machine gun production. But the 6.5 can be quite accurate loaded right

[Desertdoc]

I will happily take my long, high BC, 6.5MM projectiles any day.