I suppose that the 6.5-06 would be ok. I thought of the 6.5x55 because it's a bit exotic, bit it's still offered as a factory cartridge. This means that brass is readily available that doesn't require case forming. Necking up 25-06 brass to 6.5-06 wouldn't be too hard to do, but if one ever got in a jam and needed ammo, there is a decent chance of finding some 6.5x55 ammo around. 6.5-06 is still a wildcat.

Another reason that I considered the 6.5x55 is because my Savage's long action and full 30-06 length magazine gives plenty of room for the Swede even with the very long 140 grain tipped and VLD style bullets. This would allow me to seat the bullets out close to the lands without magazine length issues, and to take advantage of the space in the case even with a longer bullet. The 6.5-06 is a longer case and has more capacity, but to load a long 6.5mm bullet it'd have to be seated pretty far into the case, taking up a lot of the extra space the -06 case has to offer. Plus, the 6.5x55's typical lighter loading gives the advantage of low recoil and report. My wife is pretty recoil sensitive. I've also considered either rebarrelling to 243 Win or 6mm Rem, but the issue is one of how well the rounds would feed in a long action magazine. The 6.5x55 is big enough to take anything that won't try to kill you back at reasonable ranges, probably better than any 6mm, with only slightly more recoil. I'd imagine that the 6.5-06 is closer to the 270 Win for recoil, which I fear is too much for her to shoot comfortably.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll have to try to find my caliper and measure my bolt face.

Mike