Raimey,
Of course, it is very easy to tell the difference between the rimmed and rimless versions of the cartridges when they are both "in hand". The problem comes in when other people cite ballistics or loading data of the 5.6x61 without clearly showing the difference. You can hardly match the advertised ballistics of the correct cartridge and trying to get the 5.6x61 von Hofe SE velocity from a 5.6x61R vom Hofe SE will likely cause problems. Your discussion of the need for "harder" bullets is precisely the reason we had to limit the 70 gr 22HP bullets to 3,000fps or less to obtain acceptable groups.
Mike

Carcano,
You are absolutely right about the preferred case for the 5.6x61R. The problem is that they are much less available than 7x65R in the US. I would be happy to change to them, If I could find them at a reasonable price. My rifle came with cases formed from 30-06 Rimmed (which I am using) and from Berdan primed 8x60R (which I have retired). We use the best cases we can find that are satisfactory. For the rimless version, many people start with 25-06.
Mike

Last edited by Der Ami; 05/21/25 10:43 AM.