30-06 to 6.5-284

I think your idea is a great one and that you will thoroughly enjoy the virtues and benefits of those sleek 6.5 bullets. The 6.5-284 is a great cartridge not only for targets/steel waaayyyy out there but is also great as a hunting round.
Lapua brass shines. With good reloading practices you can expect long life and consistent numbers (ES/SD) from this brass (Of course that could also be said with Lapua .30-06 brass!).
I traded my first barrel (factory Savage 26") and 100 pcs of Lapua brass, that was on its 9th reload, to a buddy who "had to have" it. The barrel was still shooting under .5" and the brass will still going strong.
I went with a 28" Lothar Walther tube and Norma brass this time and have no regrets. I haven't shot it very much (100-200rds) but I don't appear to be getting the same velocities as the factory barrel with the same powder charge but the ES/SD's are a little lower. This could be either the barrel or the brass, I suppose. The barrel is hand lapped at LW and no break-in or seasoning was needed. It has shot .3-.4's consistently from day one and may "speed up" with more use.
I'd would advise to get at LEAST a 26" barrel to get the most from it. Some like 24" but I tend to like longer with every cartridge. Just me. Also, I read all I could find on the 6.5-284 after getting it. A lot of that was on 6mmBR.com and the F-class and benchrest peeps seemed to prefer/use H4350 and H4831. I could not get the performance that I wanted with those powders and branched off. I got great performance from RL25 with the 120gn bullets but Retumbo has been my mainstay for quiet a while now. I have tried RL26 and the numbers (fps/ES/SD) are great but it's hard to find and I have a jug of Retumbo, so until this runs out, that's where I'll be. As we all say, "YMMV". Good luck and keep us abreast of your build.
 
last year I had Clarence Hammond take a 30-06 model 700 and rebarrel it with a medium weight Krieger into 6.5-284, then glass bed it into a laminated stock. It shoots around .3 with nosler ballistic tips, and I'm looking forward to Berger finally stocking the shelves with their 130gr hunting VLD's
 
This is an interesting topic since I just asked a buddy of mine what I could do with the 30-06 I already have. I put it away after hunting with it for 30 years.
Just have a hard time with doing something like this to it since it has so many memories. My dad bought it for me in 1979 ( I think), when I was 14.
It would just sit in my safe from now on.
 
I did the exact same thing that you are proposing to do. I could not be happier with my choice. I did not know the barrel burning characteristics when I had it built, but I figure it will get me a few good years before I need to rebarrel. I used a 26" Hart barrel, and it shoots .25 moa with Berger 140 VLD stuffed in Lapua brass. Love it.
"
 
I have a Remington 700 LA ADL currently chambered in 30-06. Don't use it much and considering building a 6.5-284. Want a long range Antelope / Target rifle.

I have a HS Precision PSV 107 stock and plan to have it inlet for the Badger M5.

Considering the 6.5-284 because of the action I already have, the availability of Lapua brass and a stunning history of accuracy.

Your thoughts??

Thanks.
Great cartridge that shoots and feeds suberbly! Did this with a 1970's vintage 30-06, Remington 700 BDL. With little effort, turned out to be one of my most accurate LR rifles! Barrel life will vary depending on shooting conditions and criteria, but 1100-1500+ seems to be quite typical of the 6.5's driven in the 3000FPS range.
C8D72054-79ED-4D25-B010-9B2FC5308183.jpeg E7B00C39-3287-4921-8880-D771CCBEDB14.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top