Looking at being different and building a long range toy in 6.5-284. I have read a fair few articles on it as well as poring over some ballistic tables but was wondering if anyone either has/had one and can share their thoughts and experiences.
Not looking to go into full comp mode, more of a play toy with maybe the odd comp thrown in.
All thoughts/suggestions/ideas welcomed
Biggest problem with large cases in 6.5 is throat erosion. There is also a problem with diminishing returns with regards velocity. Why not build one chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. Far more efficient cartridge and real easy to get shooting acurately. Barrel life will be better, components are easy to get and choices are now quite good.
I used to shoot a 6.5/.257 Ackley, which would match the 6.5/.284 for achievable velocity with about 5gr less powder. Great round, very accurate, consistently put down 1.5 inch groups @ 500m. But boy was it good at eating out the throat. Had it rechambered twice to get back to the rifling, that barrel now sits under the bench with about 4-5 inches of smooth “free-bore” in front of the chamber.
The Creedmoor will get a 140 odd grain VLD type bullet moving at very similar velocities to a 6.5/.284 with nearly 15 grains less powder. That equates to a lot longer barrel life and an easier shooting gun.
Yes, I do own and shoot a 6.5 Creedmoor, and NO, I don’t sport a “man-bun”!!!
I reckon you should try it, if you don’t like it or it doesn’t do what you want, it is an easy rechamber to 6.5/.284 without loosing barrel length. If you go the other way, the .284 chamber will have to be cut off before you could rechamber loosing over two inches of barrel length.
Thanks for that @danmac, that’s the sort of thing that I was looking for.
The main reason for thinking of using a 6.5-284 was just to be different. I try not to follow the norm and get what everyone else has. As an example when I brought my 6.5x55 they had just come into Australia, everyone else was using either a 243 or 270. I coped a lot of flak by buying it instead of the norm (not that it bothered me) as there was not much out there about them. Now days they are as common as can be.
I did see that most user’s are only getting around 1000 rounds before rebarreling and that the only real gain over the 6.5 Creedmoor is about 150 -200 fps. Another calibre that I looked at was the 6.5x47, again not much in it.
Things like brass availability etc will also play a part as 6.5 Creedmoors are very common where as the 6.5-284 are not.
At this stage I am just toying with ideas and seeing what thoughts are out there.
Yeah well, I’d take the 6.5 x 55 over those two any day. I’m like you, normally like to have something different, I’m not one to follow the flock. I didn’t build my Creedmoor because they were trendy, I built it based on what I needed to achieve and it came out in front of other contenders. It does the job for me using 20% less powder than my old 6.5/257AI so I expect barrel life to be a lot better.