I'm about to rebarrel a 700 30-06 and make a 6.5-284 norma. Getting pacnor to make the barrel and chamber it for me. I'm opting for the .297nk per their recommendation. The question i have next is they wanted to know if I wanted .060 freebore or .188. I had to do research to even know what freebore was.......now that I do im not sure what is the better option. im most likely gonna be shooting 130-140 grain bullets most of the time, but might load some 115-120's and see how they shoot. My question is would i be at a disadvantage with the smaller bullets that might not be as long if I opt for the longer freebore? it would be giving these bullets a greater jump to the lands.....if im thinking about this correctly.
I'm no expert in this field so don't bash me if i said something stupid in the post. Just looking for what would you do and maybe some explanation to help me think through this better.
This will be a hunting rifle 99.9% of the time and then maybe some playing with longer distances over 500-600. not looking for a 1000 yard gun....just FYI.
Hi Don't want to rain on your picnic, but I have a 6.5-284, and wouldn't recommend a freebore. They are already barrel burners and the only reason one would freebore is to gain speed. This learned to us from that Guru of the 50's known as Mr.Roy Weatherby. Going out on a limb here but I say that freebore is not an aid to accuracy only to speed. Make a tight bore using bushing on your press to get tight tolerance. Keep the speed less than 2800 fps. Don't know about the hunting bullets on the market for that caliber but I know that the 142 SMK will be very accurate.
