I've been shooting the 6.5-.284 for close to 30 years now. It's a fine cartridge all the way around. The newer Norma version is definitely the way to go. You are able to seat bullets out further and utilize case capacity for powder. Seems to shoot best for me below maximum loads. The reputation as a "barrel burner" in my opinion is a little over hyped. I think in a competition setting where a person is shooting long strings with no cooldown, it's probably more of a issue. I will say however that I think there is opportunity for carbon fouling just forward of the throat area. It's not uncommon to periodically need to do some serious cleaning, that area in particular. I've personally had 3 rifles chambered "back in the day" that utilized the shorter OAL cartridge length. My newest rifle has the Norma configuration chamber. I like it much better. Can seat the bullets way out there and gain some speed via more powder. Mentioned above was brass selection. My older rifles all utilized old Winchester Western .284 brass that was fire formed, trimmed, id and od neck turned (necessary because of a "tight neck" chamber reamer), primer pockets uniformed. New brass made by Lapua and Peterson seems to have tighter primer pockets and works very well. I've got Lapua brass that's been fired 15 times and still has tight primer pockets. Overall, I think it's a fine cartridge that will do most anything you can ask of it with todays high quality projectiles. Happy shootin'....
