Got a new 6.5x55

[Rapier]

It is like potato chips, once you start you just can not stop. I have been looking for a 6.5x55 Rem 700 Classic for several years now. Every time I find one it is in the drug behind a PU condition or new in the box. So at Tulsa a guy walks up to the end of my table where my back is to him, and one of our group, sitting next to me facing the other direction, asks the one with the gun, what you got there and the the guy pops up with "a 6.5x55" at which point I start to turn around, as I hear "what do you want for it," just as I see it is a Classic in about 98% condition. So, yeah, long story short, I get stuck with trading the table buddy a 35 Whelen Classic plus $100 for the 6.5 gun. But I bought the Whelen at a really good price and so I now have another 6.5x55 but it is my long sought for Classic 700 in 98% condition with a blue muzzle even. But it is hard for a buddy to do you like that, as he laughed through the entire deal, since he has known for three plus years I wanted a 6.5x55. The tables will turn though, hum, oh I guess we are about even, I bought the 32 inch 20ga Browning 525 he was quivering over and kept it, then shot his pants off with it in two tournaments. It was worth a Ben just to do him like that Lol, lol.

The new book shows the Classics to be worth about $750 with the 6.5x55 at a 25% premium by the way, so my giving him a Ben with the 35 was actually a buy, or so goes the stories amongst the GST.

Part of going to a show with a group, there are stories to be told with witnesses.
Ed

[Adam Helmer]

Rapier,

What year was the 700 Classic in 6.5X55MM? I think the .35 Whelen was in 1988. I got a .35 Whelen NIB for $485 (the hang tag price still on the trigger guard) in 2001.

I like the 6.5X55MM and have some M1938 Swedes and M96s. My old military surplus Swedes do fine for my PA deer woods hunting.

Adam

[Rapier]

Adam,
The 6.5x55 was put out by Rem in 1994.

I have just one 96 in original condition, all matching, I bought for $100 and a few that are altered to sporters with various stocks, mesquite, maple, black walnut, english walnut, etc. Plus I have an action, with parts, and 3 or 4 new M-38 barrels in the white. When I get my shop building built on the farm, I will put that all together with a different (from the others) type of wood stock. The 6.5x55 is just a great cartridge.

The 35 if still new, unfired, now lists at $900 in the blue book, it was put out in 1988.

I had a lady ask me in Tulsa if the Classics were really bringing that kind of money, her husband bought a Classic at the show, and so I gave him a hand up by telling her they were going up every day if kept clean.
Ed

[Rapier]

I have been pulled here and there by business, clearing land at the farm, meetings with builders, etc. I just ran a patch through the 6.5x55 to make sure the bore was not pitted and then an oil rag over the exterior when I returned with the gun.

Yesterday, it was a rain day, so I took the rifle out of the safe to give it a good cleaning. I looked down the bore and in a bright light could see something that looked like little bits of lint, I ran a couple of wet patches and the lint stayed, I thought to myself, now that is odd. So I got out the Sweet Shooter and a bronze brush. After about a dozen scrubbing strokes up and down, I ran a dry patch, what came out was a light oil brown patch.... geez, dried oil. Now the bore is slick as a whistle and patches are white. So I looked at the bolt face, not one brass mark anywhere, nada, blue black as the day it was made and even inside the muzzle is still blue.

Now we have a problem, the gun is not just 98% it is unfired. With about three little handling marks on the stock, on each side, otherwise it would be a 100% gun. So.... now I have a decision, shoot it or not. Blast it, after all this time looking and then finding a nice used gun, I discover it is not used after all. I hate to fire an unfired collector gun, so I will have to think on this.
Ed

[Adam Helmer]

Rapier,

I heard a great Sermon last Sunday at church. The bottom line is: We will leave ALL our possessions behind since we never see a hearse with a luggage rack. I say, go shoot and enjoy your nice 6.5MM and hope the next owner is as caring as you are.

Adam

[Jack]

"I hate to fire an unfired collector gun, so I will have to think on this."
The solution to your dilemma, of course, is. . . go buy a used 6.5x55 that you can shoot.
Yeah, I hate when that happens, and you gotta go buy another gun.

[Rapier]

Now there is a guy after my own heart, I like the way you think Jack, plus it was also my conclusion.

I will put it back and go look for another used 6.5x55 M-700 Classic to shoot.
Ed