Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 284 Winchester Thoughts

SU 35,

Some more 284 gack:

I have been talking to a friend of mine who is a 1000 yd benchrest guy. He has set several Three Points (Tucson) range records and has one world record.

He made a 284 Shehane recently using a Broughton 5C barrel.
The twist is 1 in 9. He has concluded that 1 in 9 isn't enough twist, in HIS rifle, for the accuracy he demands when shooting the 175 Sierra and 180 Berger VLD.

He sent me some details on a comparison of the 162 A-max and
the Sierra 175:



Test of 7mm 162 Amax vs 175SMK‏


I did some compartive tests today at 500 meters. From my 1-9 twist Broughton the 162's were clearly the winner. I shot both bullet weights seated .010 into the lands over 57gr of 4831sc and BR2 primers. At 80-85 degrees the 162's go out about 2,940fps and the 175's at about 2,850. 57gr is about max for the 175's in my chamber. I've tested different charge weights and seating depths before.

Three 5 shot groups of the 175's averaged 3.90" with average vertical spread of 2.73".

Three 5 shot groups of the 162's averaged 2.08" with average vertical spread of 1.60".

Best group with the 162's was 1.68" (4 rnds into .97") with vertical spread of .88".

My conclusion is the the 1-9 is just too slow to shoot either 175's or 180's as well as the lighter bullets. I'll bet the 175's will work much better in Dan's 1-7 barrel.

Next week I'm going to compare the best 7mm 162 Amax load against my best 6.5-284 load (142SMK 51.3 H4831sc BR2 jammed .060 (no typo! it's a weird chamber) and decide which I'm going to shoot at the Nationals. As things stand now I'd be pretty comfortable shooting the 7mm, particularly if there is much wind.

The fun never stops...nor does the expense. I thought you might be interested.

Bruce

Bruce,

Thanks! I am very interested.

After reading your post,

If you were to build a 284 win for shooting 168's and 180's would you go 1-8 OR?

I am not Bruce...I only forwarded what he said. He and I talked and he says that perhaps more twist is needed for the slower 284 and 180s compared to a 7 STW or 7 RUM case. I got the impression from him that a 1 in 8.5 would be minimum. On the other hand if you read the details on some of the rifles featured on 6mmBR.com's site you will see that at leastone guy guy is using 1 in 9 twist for hhis 284 and doing quite well. http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek088.html

Another friend of mine, Dan, has just put together a 30" 7 STW with a 1 in 9 twist. It has no stabilization issues with the 180 Berger VLDs BUT it doesn't shoot them very accurately. He just moved on to the 175 SMK and it looks very promising.

I have a 1 in 9 1/4 remington barrel rechambered from 7 Rem mag to 284 as I mentioned before. It will not shoot the 180s, 175s or even the 162 A-max to my satisfaction. The first two are a twist issue the last perhaps a throat/bullet shape compatibility issue. It does shoot the 150 nos bt very well with RL-17 @ 3100 fps.

It is hard to answer your question. If I was going to build a 284 to shoot 180s I would get at least a 1 in 8.5 twist.

Hi Azshooter,

I've just sent my barreled action 284 with Canjar trigger to McMillan to have it bedded to a Ruger Ultralight stock. This is going to set me back a bit and will take several months. I'm learning archery while waiting for my rifle to return next year.

Thanks for letting me know that McMillan used to produce an ultralight stock for a tang-safety Ruger. There is still one left if anyone is interested (http://www.mcmfamily.com/mcmillan-specials-ruger.php).

Bringing this back out of the mothballs

Besides the Winchester 150 PP, what are you guys using in the Savage 99, Win 88 and 100? I have a Savage 99C in a 284.

On the hand loads, can you share your bullets and load data?

Thanks!

Wow this in an oldie. I started off both of my sons with .284's. Both were Renington 700 bolt guns with Shilen barrels, 1-9 twist. Both rifles stated life as .243's. I loaded 55 grains of RL-19 behind 145 Speer Hot Cores and it bagged many deer and prong horns for the boys. They never had a chance to take an Elk with this cartridge. Both graduated to larger calibers later.

The 145 Speer is a great choice for the .284 because it is so blunt that it can be seated well out.

Thanks!

The 139 grain Hornadys are great deer bullets in the 284 case.
jmho
Tim

Anyone know what the oal of the factory Win 150 grain PP's?

Just measured some - 2.790".
(assume you meant OAL)

lol, yes I meant OAL.

Thanks for the info.

I just measured some at 2.775" oal.

Thanks!!

Trout

I ran mine using Nosler 6.5-284 necked to take a .284" 120 grain NBT over 52 grains of RL-15 primed with a WLR.

I'm getting 3260 fps with that combo.
This from a 23" PAC NOR Barrel screwed into a Win Model 70 FWT PF.
Using a WSM magazine with some tweaking to insure flawless feeding, it allows me slightly over 3.00" of COAL.

It put 5 deer in the freezer last season without issue

Like the thread, just bought a 284 built on a Rem 660 action, douglas 22" tube. Waiting for it to get here and plan on running 140 Nosler Partitions. It was a very good deal and a cartridge I have often read about but never had. Plus Im a 7mm nut so that didn't hurt either

ttt for any more info.

Also looking to buy 284 loaded ammo.

I had a semi-custom built on a Rem 700 SA by Rifles Inc. It is one of my favorite rifles; it's about 6 lb 4 oz with a Swarov Z3 3--10x on it. There is nothing magical about the cartridge of course, giving 270-280-30/06-type power and trajectory which has simply proven to be adequate for perhaps 98% of NA hunting. That's even more true now perhaps due to the advent of the mono-metal bullets like the TTSX which is also usually very accurate. It is in mine.

I don't think the design was recognized for what it was--very good--when it first came out and of course the rifles so chambered had a major impact on a cartridges popularity too. There was no cottage industry back then for REAL lightweight, bolt action rifles on short actions back then. Nor were there the choice in powders now available such as R17 which seems, at least in mine, to be perfectly suited for the 284.

I had originally envisioned the 7 mm SAUM in this rifle but the gunsmith refused citing the feeding problems he had experienced with this cartridge while never having had the same with the 284. At first I was disappointed with that but now that 100-150 fps extra with increased recoil of the SAUM is a complete non-factor.

Which brings up another point. Back when the 284 Was introduced the only way to be more sure of a long range hit was more velocity for a flatter trajectory. Now LRFs, ballistic reticles and turrets have negated the advantage of magnums with their flatter trajectory out to, say, 500-600 yards, much further than most of us shoot 90% of the time anyway. Last fall I took a very nice whitetail buck in the Sandhills at a couple of steps short five hundred yards. A magnum wouldn't have made it any easier; in fact, in this light rifle, perhaps more difficult.

Ok, iv'e now repeated myself and other points in this thread. I wonder of there is a gun-shot related dementia. You know, too many jolts to the head and neck with fractured hair cells in the inner ear. If this is combined with vocal worrying about regular bowel movements, I know things are getting serious.

Thanks for the info.

On the Savage 99, is anything longer than 2.81 to long?