Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser 131gr SP – Reliable 20 Round Hunting Load

Description

Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser is factory loaded ammunition for a cartridge that most American shops have never stocked. It is the rimless 6.5×57, developed in Germany before the First World War and still chambered in sporting Mausers and combination guns across Europe. The Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser load carries a 131 grain semi-jacketed soft point at a listed 2,543 feet per second for about 1,880 foot-pounds at the muzzle, twenty rounds to the box.

Read Your Barrel Before You Order This Ammunition

There are two cartridges with almost the same name and they are not interchangeable. The rimless 6.5×57 is a bolt action cartridge. The rimmed 6.5x57R is a different case designed for break action rifles, drillings and combination guns. This box of Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser is the rimless version, part number SB6557A. If your rifle is stamped 6.5x57R, this ammunition will not chamber correctly and you need the rimmed load instead.

It is also not 6.5×55 Swedish, not 6.5 Creedmoor and not 260 Remington, all of which throw the same diameter bullet from a different case. Check the chamber stamp on the barrel rather than going by bullet diameter, and if the rifle carries no legible marking, have a gunsmith make a chamber cast before you fire anything through it.

That warning matters more here than with a modern cartridge. Rifles chambered for 6.5×57 Mauser ammo are often a century old. Small ring Mausers, worn bores and unknown gunsmith rework are all realistic possibilities in this corner of the collecting world. Have an old rifle checked over by a competent gunsmith before shooting it, whatever the ammunition.

Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser Specifications

Figures for Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser are the published numbers from Sellier and Bellot for part number SB6557A. Brass is boxer primed and reloadable, which matters in a cartridge this scarce.

On paper the 6.5×57 sits within a few percent of the 6.5×55 Swedish and comfortably ahead of the 6.5 Grendel. A 131 grain soft point at 2,543 fps with a sectional density of 0.269 is a classic European deer and boar load, and the long-for-calibre 6.5 bullet penetrates out of proportion to its modest energy figure. That is the whole reason the 6.5 bore earned its reputation in Europe long before the Creedmoor existed.

The Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser soft point opens readily at these velocities without coming apart. For roe and red deer, fallow, and boar at sensible woodland ranges it does what it is asked to do. It is not a long range target bullet and it is not pretending to be.

• Cartridge: 6.5×57 Mauser, rimless
• Bullet: 131 grain semi-jacketed soft point
• Muzzle velocity: 2,543 fps
• Muzzle energy: 1,880 ft-lbs
• G1 ballistic coefficient: 0.389
• Sectional density: 0.269
• Case: brass, boxer primed, reloadable
• Manufacturer part number: SB6557A
• UPC: 754908512423
• Packaging: 20 rounds per box

Buying and Shooting a Scarce European Cartridge

Supply of Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser is the real constraint. Sellier and Bellot is one of very few makers still producing 6.5×57 rifle ammunition in quantity, and American distributors bring it in irregularly. If you own a rifle in this chambering, the sensible approach is to buy several boxes when you see it rather than assuming you can reorder in October. Component bullets and dies exist, so reloading is a genuine option, and saving the brass is worth doing.

Sight in with the load you will hunt with. Older sporting rifles often wear open sights or a period scope in claw mounts, and point of impact can shift noticeably when mounts are removed and refitted. Confirm zero at the start of every season, not the week before.

Expect some recoil from Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser, but not much. The 6.5 bore is famously mild, and this load in a full sized Mauser is a comfortable round to shoot from the bench, which makes careful load development and honest range practice much easier than with a heavy magnum.

Check your local hunting rules. Some states set minimum calibre or energy requirements for deer that a modest 6.5 may or may not clear on paper, and a few jurisdictions in Europe and the United States now require lead free projectiles for big game. This is a lead cored soft point, so it will not satisfy a non-lead requirement. Our Federal Power-Shok in 6.5×55 Swedish is the closest thing we stock for owners of the Swedish cartridge, which is frequently confused with this one.

This is a specialist box for a specialist rifle. If you own a 6.5×57 Mauser, it is one of the few ways to keep it fed with modern, consistent, reloadable ammunition rather than hunting through estate sales for old European stock. Sellier Bellot 6.5×57 Mauser ships from our licensed inventory in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and an adult signature is required on delivery.

If you keep other classic European rifles, the same maker loads a number of legacy chamberings that are otherwise very hard to find. Our 303 British 180 grain soft point is the same idea for a Lee-Enfield, and it is worth seeing what else is on the shelf while you are ordering, because these production runs do not come around often.