Description
If you own a break-action rifle or a drilling chambered in 6.5x52R, you already know the problem: almost nobody loads it. The Sellier Bellot 6.5x52R 117gr SP is one of the few current factory options, which is reason enough to buy it when you see it.
- A Rimmed Cartridge for Break-Action Rifles
- Sellier Bellot 6.5x52R 117gr SP Specifications
- Honest Notes on Feeding an Obsolete Chambering
A Rimmed Cartridge for Break-Action Rifles
The rim is the whole point. A break-action rifle, a combination gun or a drilling has no bolt face to grip a rimless case, so it needs a rimmed cartridge that headspaces on the rim and extracts cleanly when the action is opened. European gunmakers produced a family of rimmed rifle rounds for exactly that, and the 6.5x52R is one of them.
Ballistically the Sellier Bellot 6.5x52R 117gr SP is modest by modern standards: 2133 feet per second with a 117 grain bullet, roughly 1181 foot-pounds at the muzzle. That is comparable to a 30-30 and it tells you what the cartridge is for. This is a European woodland round, meant for roe deer, chamois and boar at the ranges those animals are actually shot in cover.
Sellier and Bellot loads it in Vlasim, Czech Republic, on boxer-primed reloadable brass with non-corrosive primers. For an owner of an obsolete chambering the reloadable brass is arguably worth more than the loaded ammunition, because it is the only reliable long-term supply.
Sellier Bellot 6.5x52R 117gr SP Specifications
The bullet is a conventional jacketed soft point with a flat-ish nose profile. At 2133 feet per second it opens readily on light-skinned game and penetrates adequately, which is the correct balance for the velocity available. There is nothing exotic here and nothing needs to be.
Combination guns and drillings are usually regulated at a specific distance with a specific load, so point of impact with the Sellier Bellot 6.5x52R 117gr SP may not match whatever the gun was set up for decades ago. Shoot it at your intended distance before hunting with it rather than assuming, and expect to work out a hold rather than to re-regulate the barrels.
Save every case. Factory 6.5x52R appears sporadically and disappears for long stretches, and a shooter who reloads is a shooter who keeps hunting with the rifle. That is the practical reality of owning any obsolete European chambering.
- Cartridge: 6.5x52R
- Bullet weight: 117 grain
- Bullet type: jacketed soft point
- Muzzle velocity: 2133 feet per second
- Muzzle energy: approximately 1181 foot-pounds
- Case: brass, boxer primed, reloadable
- Primer: non-corrosive boxer
- Country of origin: Czech Republic
- Rounds per box: 20
- Boxes per case: 20
- Manufacturer part number: SB6552RA
- UPC: 754908510115
Honest Notes on Feeding an Obsolete Chambering
Buy the Sellier Bellot 6.5x52R 117gr SP if you own a rifle chambered for it. That is genuinely the whole case: this is one of very few current production options, and availability is unpredictable. Buy several boxes when you find it.
Do not buy it for anything else. It will not chamber in a 6.5×52 Carcano, a 6.5×55 Swede or any other 6.5, and the rim guarantees it will not work in a magazine-fed bolt action either.
Be realistic about range. At roughly 1181 foot-pounds and a curved trajectory, this is a 150 yard cartridge in the woods. It is not a mountain or plains round, and no bullet choice changes that.
Other Sellier and Bellot rifle loads: 30-06 Springfield 180gr SPCE and 303 British 180gr SP, both for older chamberings still in the field. Sellier and Bellot publishes its full rifle ammunition catalogue on its own site.
MAG5 Firearms stocks ammunition for obsolete and European chamberings that the big-box stores gave up on years ago. If you shoot something unusual, ask us before you assume it is unobtainable.
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