charlie45
"I seem to remenber reading that the twist rate for the m96 6.5 x 55 mauser was 8 7/8". now i've read other post stating it was 1 in 7". I am thinking of tring cast bullets and need to know."
The twist is officially in metric measurement but is generally conceded to be a 1-7.5" twist. With cast bullets of 120 to 160 gr your best accuracy (1 to 2 MOA at 100 yards) is going to be around 1400-1500 fps. Reasonable accuracy (3-4 MOA at 100 yards) can be obtained upwards of 1700 fps but regardless of how hard you cast the bullets, what lube you use or what powder you use the deciding factor is RPMs and the 1-7.5" twist revs the bullets up pretty fast.
Larry Gibson