6.5x53R Dutch

[Jeremy T Garner]

I came across a rather large lot of this stuff and do not have a rifle chambered for it. I'm cleaning the cartridges and clips as I write this. I have way more than I will ever need and if this stuff cleans up half as nice as I expect it to I will be selling some of it in the next week or so. Everyone on this forum has been so welcoming and great to get to know I figured I would let you all know before I list it for sale. I will obviously post a classified ad once I get it cleaned up. We all share a love for firearms and if anyone has been looking for some I have 83 clips and 415 rounds in total! :)

[reincarnated]

Practically all of the 6.5 Dutch ammo was/is Berdan primed. For practical purposes, you will only get one shot out of it. Some or all of the bullets will be copper or cupro-nickle plated soft steel. These are a bit tough on the bore, but may be valued for other purposes. Many of the war-time cases are steel and are of dubious desirability. When you inventory the stuff, test the cases and bullets with a magnet. Separate by headstamp and by magnetic/non-magnetic. Also measure bullet diameters of the various headstamp loads.

There are those who shoot the Dutch or Rumanian military rifles (I am one) and those who shoot long-range target rifles chambered for the Dutch cartridge. If the brass is good, it may appeal to the target rifle guys. Otherwise, military shooters are your market.

For a behind-the-seat truck gun, I replaced my Bannerman Krag with an Old Model 1895 Dutch carbine, so I'm a potential buyer.

[Jeremy T Garner]

I am only through the first stages of clean up and inspection. All of the ammunition is Cupro Nickel jacketed 159gr FMJ from what I can tell (I pulled one bullet and weighed it). I wanted to clean them up before checking the diameter to make sure I am getting a true and accurate reading. The 20 projectiles I have tested so far were magnetic and have not tested any of the cases as all appear to be brass. No Nazi marked steel case unfortunately. There does appears to be a fairly mixed number of headstamps with the newest dating to 1940. I have not come across any newer than that as of yet. I am set up to convert smaller Berdan primed cases to Boxer if I really wanted to but haven't really thought much about that at this point because I don't have a rifle chambered for this cartridge as of now. As an avid military rifle enthusiast/collector I figured I should rescue it from the basement of the shop I found it in both because its rarity and god knows I will end up with one it that caliber eventually LOL! :)

[butlersrangers]

FWIW:

After WW1, the 6.5X53R cartridge (.256 Mannlicher) had some popularity in Great Britain as a Hunting Cartridge for Deer in Scotland.

After "The Great War for Civilization", long barreled Dutch infantry rifles hit the surplus market. Famous British Arms Makers bought the inexpensive, but, well made rifles, fitted handsome sporting stocks, and installed multi-leaf 'express sights. (The cartridge was simply the rimmed version of the 6.5X54mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer round and shared the rim and head dimensions of the .303 British round). Hunting ammo for the 'Dutch Mannlichers' was loaded in GB.

I use to have a ('Bubba-ed') 6.5mm Dutch Mannlicher carbine. I shot a few score of the brass-cased military cartridges through it and it proved relatively accurate.

Tired of cleaning for corrosive primed ammo, I reloaded for it, using .303 British and .30-40 Krag brass, reformed with 6.5X54mm M-S Dies. This worked well using 6.5X54 M-S loading data.

(I learned a valuable lesson one day!):

I loaded some of my re-formed brass with the 'square-flake' powder and projectiles from Dutch military ammo (I had pulled the bullets on). I poured the full charge from each 'pulled' round into my new re-formed brass.

I 'proof tested' that little carbine!

When I opened the bolt and ejected the first fired case, the spent primer fell out of the stretched primer-pocket!

I was lucky. No harm done except to one re-formed cartridge case. I disassembled the rest of these reloads and used the powder to fertilize our garden.

I would recommend keeping your 6.5 Dutch ammo as a collectable. If you get a Dutch Mannlicher and chose to shoot it, remember the primers in your ammo are corrosive.

(p.s. - The Mannlicher 'clips' are likely in short supply and more valuable than your ammo).

[Jeremy T Garner]

I'm glad no harm came to you or the rifle! A valuable lesson learned though for sure.

The vast majority of my collection is military surplus. I'm very used to cleaning up after corrosive ammunition. It can be a tiresome endeavor at times. I knew that these cartridges were corrosive and prepared for it. I have a certain affection to firing a period rifle with period ammo. I'm not sure what it is but I am drawn to the history behind the pairing of the two. It allows for a truly "original" experience. I also enjoy creating ammunition with reloading and fine tuning a load for a specific application. Particularly if period ammo is hard to acquire or if the platform is semi automatic. I will NOT fire corrosive ammo in an autoloader if at all possible.

From my readings in the current market it appears the ammo sells for about .50 to 1.00 a round depending on condition and number of rounds sold. The original clips sell for between $6 and $10 each depending on condition. I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with it yet and still am not but using this forum I certainly wanted to offer it up to anyone who has been searching for some considering I knew it's rarity and scarceness.

I have managed to start the first stages of clean up on about 100 rounds of the 415. I pulled 6 different head stamps and checked the projectile diameter of each. 5 of the 6 measured at .262 and one came in at .263. All were clearly brass cased and all 6 projectiles were magnetic. The picture of the paper illustrates the diameter of the 6 on the left and the headstamp on the right. Forgive the handwriting I'm a bit tired after working 13 hours at work today with no breaks.

[Jeremy T Garner]

These are the same 6 cases from the previous photos. This should be fairly representative of the finished product after thorough clean up. I've included a shot of the case head showing the sealant still around the primer.

[reincarnated]

AI headstamps are from Artillerie Inrichtingen, Hembrug. The principal Dutch ammo factory. FN headstamps are from Fabrique National, Herstal, Belgium, as you probably guessed. Don't know about the one with numbers in all 4 quadrants.

[Jeremy T Garner]

Sorry it took me a little bit to post pics of my pull down. The Artillerie Inrichtingen brass as you can see from my second photo marked their projectiles on the base as well.

Studying the cartridge more I have discovered a change in head stamping circa 1921. Pre 1921 you will see codes at only 12 and 6 o'clock. Post 1921 you will possibly have markings now at roughly 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. Marks at 12 o'clock denote year of manufacture, 6 o'clock indicates brass supplier/manufacture, 3 o'clock is date of manufacture, and 9 o'clock is powder lot. Many of the cases were re used and subsequently over stamped at later dates. This could explain the headstamp with all numbers we were having difficulty Identifying. Re used cases were either over stamped with new numbers, a O, or in some cases a triangle.

[butlersrangers]

Jeremy - Thanks for sharing your information and the photos.

Yes, that is the propellant I remember. Those 'Dutch' loads were quite hot, when transferred (completely) to my reformed (Remington) .303 cartridge case. The only time I stretched a primer pocket!

[Jeremy T Garner]

No problem at all! I enjoy learning about the history behind weapons, ammunition, and world militaries and sharing with others. This is really the only forum I belong to and I enjoy being able to converse with like minded individuals.

I have cleaned the clips with a nylon brush as well as an all copper penny/bronze brush on surface rust, then soaked in a mix of marvel mystery oil and break free for 3 days, brushed again with nylon, and finally lightly tumbled in some corn cob media. I will be grading these into two categories Grade A (little to zero minor surface putting) and Grade B (will contain surface pitting and have significant loss of the lacquer coating but not impact functionality whatsoever). I will probably post a listing for sale either later today or tomorrow.