After World War II, the Germans took just about twenty years to re-emerge on the market for rifled core cartridges where, in the meantime and for obvious reasons, the Americans had placed their calibers, giving very little space to competitors from old Europe. So in 1965 the RWS presented the first cartridge that we would call post 1945, and it does so for its part to counteract, overcoming them, the different high intensity .22s that at the turn of the II GM had won the favor of customers who became more attentive in the meantime. hunting, but equally to shooting range. The 5,6 × 57 RWS, also in the 5,6x57R version with collar for overhead doors, stands out with its sales numbers that are not astonishing, but certainly with respect and excellent performance.
Three years later it is the swan song of the old DWM, an acronym dear to all hoplofiles today fortunately reborn and present, she too entered the field of very bright .22s with the 5,6x50R: it was born just like this with the collar version providing a greater attention to complement in the action shotguns, perhaps as a second rifled barrel of a Bockdrilling to be placed side by side with the 12/70 and the classic 7x65R; the success soon put on the stage the fluted sister for rifle and the Steyr, for example, regularly produced its Mod. Steyr Mannlicher so comraded and chosen in the Austrian or eastern Italian areas for roe deer. A proposal by RWS still follows with the 6,5 × 65, normal or R, another success that deserves attention for the performance on the field while in the mid-80s a new signature proposes that measure never so followed by the Central European world: the 6 millimeters .
Ingenieurbüro Frères, a company from Pfinztal, near Karlsruhe, studies its new cartridge by obtaining the case from the well-known 9,3 × 62 by Otto Bock: unchanged the dimensions of the caseback and the body, the angle closes by 5 ° of the shoulder, passing to about 40 °, and the size of the collar is shortened by about 1,8 mm: the differences adapt the cartridge to the new criteria for a better exploitation of the powder which, according to various tests, must be of the progressive type and in large doses. It is interesting to read the American considerations that immediately observe how it is not possible to obtain the brass blade from the .30-06 Sprg. for the different size of the caseback: here it seems that everyone has come to terms with it and the interested parties have continued in the purchase and use of this direct competitor of the .240 Weatherby. Commercial production is entrusted to Ruag Ammotec of Fürth as well as to Men, Metallwerk Elisenhütte GmbH of Nassau / Lahn and the loads include 87 and 100 gr balls. It seems that the cartridge, certainly not easy to manage and for this reason sometimes judged a bit hysterical and bizarre, only wants top things: a refill with 58,3 gr of N / 165 and 85 gr Nosler Partition bullet scores 1040 m / sec of V / 2 and at 100 m three shots in less than ½ MOA, while another charge with 56,5 g of MRP and a Hornady V-Max 87 g bullet gives 980 m / sec. of V / 2 and verticalized pattern of 0,6 of MOA.
The cost factor has recently slowed the spread of this project, truly remarkable both for the empty cases and even more for the original charges, the not always ready and immediate availability in all the armories, and lastly that intrinsic selectivity for the refills with which not everyone gets in tune quickly. On the other hand, the 6 × 62 Frères has on its side the ease of handling shooting where the recoil is really modest in relation to the performance provided thanks to which you can undermine from roe deer to chamois, from fallow deer to mouflon: some digression on deer is also allowed. if you have the approval of the laws and the ability not to exaggerate the length of the shot, placing the ball very accurately.