Ok, before everyone crucifies me, I know winchester never made this rifle, but I always thought they should have, so I did! This is going to be a bit of a long story but it is sunday and I am lounging drinking coffee and thought some might find it interesting. I first became aware of the .284 around 1996 when I bought a pile of barreled actions from a gunsmith and started putting them together. One of them was a 95 ludwig lowe mauser with a military 7x57 barrel that had been re-chambered to .284 winchester. Someone had done a nice job turning the bolt and I had a nice walnut 95 mauser stock so I put them together and decided to shoot the rifle. I immediately fell in love with the cartridge. I went on to deer hunt with it that fall and was so pleased with the results that it became my deer rifle for many years. The factory 150 grain bullets didn't perform as well as I liked on whitetails so I handloaded 140 grain nosler ballistic tips and they do a great job on deer. The only problem was the rifle was built on the 95 mauser action so I never could load the cartridge to it's full potential for fear of blowing up the action. I was a young father at the time and on a budget and that rifle put a lot of deer meat in the freezer. Fast forward to 2014. The kids are grown and gone from home. Life has been pretty good to me and I can now afford pretty much whatever I want. The old 95 mauser finally quit grouping worth a darn a few years before and had been replaced with a limited run Browning A bolt chambered in .284. I really liked the browning but have always strongly felt that winchester really missed the boat by not chambering a bolt rifle in .284. I know they did a limited run in like the early 80's of a DBM rifle that was chambered in .284 but they only made approximately 60 of them and I have never seen one for sale. So while on vacation in Wyoming I stopped in a pawn shop and the first step of my dream to reality happened. There on the rack was a pre-64 model 70 chambered in 30-06. The barrel had been cut off to 20 inches, rear sight was gone, and it was in a Fajen after market stock. So absolutely no collector value beyond being a pre-64 model 70 action. Several years prior while duck hunting on public land one day I met a young man who had just graduated gunsmithing school. We became friends and duck hunted for many years together until a job changed moved him out of state. His job change was to take a position as gunsmith for Kreiger barrels. After a phone conversation with him I sent him the barreled action and he went to work. The new barrel matches the pre-64 contour and has the swell for the rear sight but no dovetail is cut, kind of like a gopher special. The crown appears to be a rounded sporter crown but the last 1/16th of an inch before the bore is tapered 11 degrees like a target crown. There is no front sight, again like a gopher special. He also smoothed and adjusted the factory trigger. I found a nice condition factory stock and had it professionally restored and it looks origianal but new. The stock the rifle is in was made by an 83 year old man who used to be the shop foreman for Bishops. This blank had been tucked away in his stash for many years for a very special project and I managed to convince him to let me have it. The checkering and carving was done by his daughter who is a master carver. I am very happy with the way this project turned out and wanted to share it with you all. Hope you like it as much as I do.
That is nice. How does the .284 feed with the longer 30-06 action? What length barrel? I have a pre-64 FWT in 30-06 that I am looking to rechamber. I was going to go bigger like a 9.3x62, but maybe this would be the way to go. I really like my Win. Mod 88 in .284. Been wanting one in a bolt action for a while now.
I did some research before deciding on an action and from what I found the 30-06 action is the perfect one to build a .284 off of. To get the performance out of the .284 cartridge you need to lengthen it out anyway so it feeds fine in the longer action. The barrel length is 24 inches.
I am a huge fan of the 284. Don't often check in here, I slum it over on the Savage collectors forum normally. When the thread title said 1964 .284 I about broke my finger trying to open it up.
With Savages lever guns, the 1964 .284 is the Holy Grail gun for post-1960 Savages. Like Winchester, Savage had to initiate cost cutting measures along about then so the 1964 models were the last ones with hand cut checkering. 1964 was also the first year of the .284 in Savage rifles, so finding a hand checkered Savage 99 in a cut checkered rifle was a one year only proposition. It's taken a few years to locate some but I now have three of those .284's with the hand cut checkering. In fact, one of them is a 1963 receiver gun with some features that make me wonder if it wasn't an early prototype possibly put together in the very early development stages.
Anyway, it sounds like you may be the same type of .284 nut I am, and it's nice to read your account. I may have to do a little more study on the Winchester .284's and begin a new search myself.
The 284 is the rifle that ends up in the truck most often because it hammers whatever it's pointed at, with extreme prejudice! I should point out that the .284 that goes hunting is a later model with replaced wood rather than one of the rarer birds. I had good fortune this year with a bear and a blacktail at 275 and 364 yards respectively. Of course the Savage 99 is a short action rifle so length is limited but the Speer 145 btsp fits perfectly and is advertised to have a BC of 502.
Congratulations on your beautiful rifle, what a treasure!
Long live the .284!
Last edited by Fireball2; 11/10/19.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
Beautiful rifle! Wow what a pedigree too! A Krieger barrel installed by a Krieger employee and a Bishop employee made stock! That is a true classic collector piece!
Love the 284 Winchester. In fact, I had one built last year on a SS Model 70 Classic PF action, with a shillen select match #2. McMillan hunters edge stock, with PTG bottom metal. I haven’t shot it yet, but maybe it will accompany me on a future deer hunt.
Boogan1: No crucifying from me - I think your custom Rifle is extremely handsome and built in an excellent caliber. Good for you and keep up the good work. Back in 1986 I had a custom Rifle made on a pre-64 Winchester Model 70 action and it was made in caliber 280 Remington. I have used it extensively afield on Blacktail Deer, Elk, Mule Deer, Antelope, Black Bear and Whitetailed Deer. My Rifle has a 25" barrel and wears a Leupold 4x12 variable scope with A/O. I went with the 280 Remington over the 284 Winchester (which I considered using for a long time) because of the increased (by maybe 200 F.P.S.) velocity with the 140 grain Nosler Partitions which I planned on and DO use to this day. I hope to take my Rifle on a Caribou Hunt here soon before I cross the great divide. Thanks for sharing your experience and the great photos. Enjoy. Hold into the wind VarmintGuy P.S.: I chose my pre-64 action to use in the build specifically because it was made the same month I was born some 72 years ago.
When the thread title said 1964 .284 I about broke my finger trying to open it up.