#6.5x55 swedish rifles for sale upgrade#

45 'contestants' entered the competition and of these, two contractors Paul Mauser and Ferdinand Ritter Von Mannlicher, were supplied with prototype cartridges and barrels. The Italian military then began looking for parties interested in designing a suitable rifle for the new caliber. The Italians were impressed and decided to adopt a 6.5mm caliber cartridge. Hebler had been experimenting with 6mm and 6.5mm caliber bores. It was the decision to start afresh using the latest available technology that led the Italians to Professor Freidrich Hebler of Switzerland.

#6.5x55 swedish rifles for sale upgrade#

The Italian military had acted very rashly in the face of Lebel’s invention and had lost a lot of money trying to upgrade existing arms. It was the first smokeless rimless cartridge and its design was so well thought out that it went on to become the parent of our most popular modern cartridges. Nevertheless, both Mauser and other industrious groups continued to experiment with various bore diameters, the most cutting edge developments produced by Swiss researchers. Paul Mauser of Germany took a longer view and in 1888 produced the 7.92 (8x57). Some countries panicked and attempted to rework their existing weapons. The advantages of the Lebel cartridge in the hands of the French immediately struck terror throughout the rest of Europe.

At this time, France was under the influence of a power hungry war monger, General Boulanger. In 1886 Colonel Nicholas Lebel of France created the first smokeless small bore cartridge, the 8mm Lebel. The next major discovery was smokeless powder, this new powder created higher velocities, which in turn gave rise to the possibility of using even smaller bores. The 15mm bore diameter appeared during the 1850’s and by the 1870's, 10 and 11mm cartridges were very much in vogue. With the development of the brass case cartridge and breech loading rifle, ballisticians also began experimenting with smaller bores. During the muzzle loading era, the most common bore diameters in Europe ranged between 17 and 18mm.