Enjoyed the article John,
I love this old cartridge. It was way ahead of its time. Minimum body taper, steep shoulder angle and rebated case head. It would be decades before other cartridges showed up with similar characteristics. The 300 RUM comes to mind.
I began my journey with the 284 Win back around 1985. My first and only rifle was a Ruger Tang Safety in 6mm Rem. I wore the barrel out and went to see the late Harry Lawson, here in Tucson, about rebarreling it.
Harry suggested I let him install one of his Remington takeoff barrels in 7 Rem mag, cutting off some of the chamber end, threading and rechambering. It was a perfect fit! The unaltered rifle's magazine was approx 2.950" IIRC and fed the 284 fast or slow. First bullet choice was the 140 Sierra gameking. Killed many coues wt, javelina, jackrabbits, coyotes and even a coati with that original barrel.
As the years went by the loads and powders changed. Original load was a minor variant from what Bob Hutton suggested. He used 57 or 58 gr of IMR 4350 with a 140 Nosler partition. I used same load data for the Sierras.
I acquired other 284s in several platforms, shot them for a while then moved them along. At one point I even had Ron DeWarf's original 284 Win silhouette rifle he used at the Tucson Rifle Club where the first silhouette range in the country was built! Ron was one of the founding fathers of that range. He sold it to me because it admitted it was a bit too much recoil for him and that type of competition.
Around 10 years ago had the mag box lengthened to a more useful 3.050" and even had a custom reamer made to my specs. It requires neck turning for Winchester brass as the necks were not that concentric. I do my own barrel work now.
More recent powder choices were H4350 then on to RL-17 which shines in this cartridge. RL-17 is used with 120 NBT and 168 Berger hunting VLD, the two current bullets used in this rifle, now on its fourth barrel. (current barrel is a 24" Rem takeoff formerly a 7-08)
Last year I acquired a long action Rem 700 long throated 284 with a 29" barrel. It likes H-4831 and 180 Berger target hybrids. Who knows how long I will keep this rifle but one thing is certain I will never part with my first rifle which will continue to be a 284 win.
