Oh, man... You struck a chord there... I'm a huge fan of the old Swede, that 6.5x55. When my oldest son was ready to hunt, a buddy just happened to have a M70 Featherweight so chambered that he happily donated to the cause at a very, very fair price. I've let a few '96 Mausers come and go over the years myself, and finally settled on a Ruger #1. I found it on Gunbroker years ago during a lull in the activity at work (and there was lots of downtime when we weren't traveling). It was about three hours away, as luck would have it, just east over our Cascade range. Told my boss I was "outa here", he asked where I was off to, and I told him I was off to buy a rifle and would be back tomorrow. "O.k., but I need to see it when it gets here" was all he said (a Marine Lieutenant in a past life...).
Our pair of Swedes:
Favorite load is the 155 grain Lapua Mega over a stiff charge of Reloder 22 for about 2,400 fps. I bet that would make a dandy hog load. Probably too stiff for an M96, though. A modern CZ Mauser would have no trouble with it, though.