I had an idea that the 6.5 Japanese in a T/C Contender would be equal to or better than the 6.5 JDJ. I also thought that it would cost less than going the JDJ route. It was something that was in theory only. So I started doing some research on the subject.

I found that it had indeed been done in the past, but the info was almost non-existent on the subject. So I wondered if this would be a worthwhile project to undertake from scratch. I wasn’t sure if it was worth doing & possibly ending up with a barrel that would on be good only as a tomato stake afterwards.

So I started posting on the forums around & found that a fellow shooter TCLouis had a barrel converted from 6.5 TCU to 6.5X50 Japanese by SSK Industries. Louis said that he had the barrel & was disappointed in it’s performance & had given up on it. It was then that Louis had made a deal with me that I could use his barrel, brass & reloading dies in exchange for the price of shipping & writing an article on it’s performance. Louis had also had the same beliefs as I that this cartridge would be suitable equivalent of the 6.5 JDJ. So I agreed to the terms & that brings us up to date.

I started by mounting a T/C Duo ring base & a Simmons 2x6 scope on the barrel. I also put a hanger bar & forend made by VVCG’s on it. I realize that you can put better bases & scopes on the barrel, but I did it that way for two reasons. The first & most important was, I had these things already & was available. Second was I also wanted to get an idea of its performance with relatively inexpensive equipment? That is also the reason that I used Louis’ Lee dies for the project even though I had a better set of dies available.

My first time out I ran Norma factory ammo 139 grain SPBT over the chronograph & got a reading of 2100 fps average with an ES of 88.09 & SD of 35.18. If you weren’t handloading this round alone would be good enough for deer hunting out to about 150 yards, maybe more. After getting this data I decided that my Handloads would have to be equal to or better than the factory ammo as far as ES & SD.

I started loading with the slowest powder listed for the 6.5 Jap in the Hornady 5th Edition loading manual. I started with IMR 4350 the slowest powder. The first load was 37.5 grains over a Federal 210 primer & a 120 grain Speer Spitzer ( Hot core). This load gave 2257 fps average ES of 203.5 & SD of 82.57 . While I was happy with the velocity, I wasn’t happy with the ES & SD. So I continued on from there. I worked up to 38.5 grains of IMR 4350 & got the results I was looking for as far as speed was concerned. That load gave me an average speed of 2307 fps. I went higher on the loading scale & started getting sticky extraction & stopped there.

My next step was to load that recipe again & confirm its data. On the next trip out I shot an excellent group but the velocity didn’t remain the same as the previous time out. I’m not really sure why I got a different velocity. The only thing that I can surmise was the temperature had gone up about 10 degrees & may have had an effect on it, other wise everything else was the same.

First Target shot at 66 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t remember if the 4 shots with the x’s through them were from the 6.5 Jap. I don’t remember shooting 9 rounds at this target. I do remember X-ing them out before the five shot group above however.

Second target shot somewhere between 74-80 degrees Fahrenheit.

I went out a couple more times with the 6.5 with both H4350 & IMR4064. While I was hoping for an improvement in both velocity & accuracy, it just wasn’t meant to be. The best that I was able to get form the barrel was about 2250 Fps. I also tried to change types of bullets to Nosler Ballistic Tips in exchange of the Speer Hot core.
I believe that the sharp taper of this shell caused a lot of the problems when trying to reach top velocity.

I also found that the 6.5 Jap had a very violent pressure swings with a small powder change of .2 of a grain with all powders used. While I’m sure it is powerful enough to take deer, I personally would not recommend this cartridge for the T/C Contender. I am sorry to have to say that as I had high hopes for this as a viable upgrade in a 6.5 cartridge.

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