The 5.6×61mm SE, an abbreviated form of its full designation, the 5.6×61mm om HofeSuper Express, is a

rifle cartridge A rifle cartridge is a firearm cartridge (firearms), cartridge primarily designed and intended for use in a rifle/carbine, or machine gun. Types Full-powered A full-powered cartridge is a rifle cartridge used interchangeably between servic ...

introduced in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 1937. It is based on the

6.5×55mm Swedish 6.5×55mm Swedish, also known simply as , 6.5x55 SE, 6.5x55 Swede, or in its native military as (), meaning "6.5 mm cartridge model 94", referring to 1894, is a first-generation smokeless powder Rim (firearms), rimless bottlenecked rifle Cartr ...

cartridge. The '5.6×61mm SE' uses a .228-in diameter

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made in various shapes and constru ...

(as also does the .22 Savage Hi-Power, unlike the more common .224-in bullets used for most .22

centrefire Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center A center-fire (or centerfire) is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i ...

cartridges. 5.6×61mm VHSE

ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

is still available (2007) from Walter Gehmann,

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, Germany. No mass-produced rifles are currently offered in this chambering, but custom rifle makers will chamber for it; and the

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or wher ...

has a loyal if specialised following, especially among

handloading Handloading, or reloading, is the practice of making firearm cartridges by manually assembling the individual components ( metallic/ polymer case, primer, propellant and projectile), rather than purchasing mass-assembled, factory-loaded com ...

long-range hunters of roe deer and

chamois The chamois (; ) (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope native to the mountains in Southern Europe, from the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennines, the Dinarides, the Tatra Mountains, Tatra to the Carpa ...

, although the cartridge has accounted for very much larger

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

and

antelope The term antelope refers to numerous extant or recently extinct species of the ruminant artiodactyl family Bovidae that are indigenous to most of Africa, India, the Middle East, Central Asia, and a small area of Eastern Europe. Antelopes do ...

References

Pistol and rifle cartridges {{ammo-stub