6-284 questions

[muleyman]

A couple questions about this 6mm. I have never had one or know someone who does. It would be a hunting rifle with the occassional long shots for practice, not at any time a competition gun.

With good barrel care, good scrubbings and watching the heat, how many rounds could a person expect to get before things start to go bad and "Hunting" accuracy starts to fade.

Then with a good trigger finger and the stars aligned, what is a reasonable distance one could expect to get for (large deer and down) sized animals. Bullets would more than likely be the 115grn VLD or the 107 MK loaded on the warmer side of things.

 

[Broz]

I have a 6/284 with a 10 twist 26" Shaw #2 coutour. I origionally built this for a Coyote gun when I was shooting yotes using hounds. That is why I wanted a fast shooter. I was hard on it at first by shooting 70 SMK's @ 4100 fps. Then I started using the rifle for deer and Antelope and now load 85 gr game kings. It will not stabilize larger bullets well with the 10 twist. This rifle is a pleasure to shoot and last weekend I wacked a steel plate at 550 in 10 mph wind , first shot. I would not hesitate to shoot deer out to 600 with my rifle. As for the bore life, I can tell you due to the first round of my reloading with small bullets and high velocity the throat does show a bit of erosion and I have roughly 700 rounds through it.

So, I would advise doing just what you said and use an 8 twist with 105 bergers. I think you would like the results.

Jeff

.

 

[Michael Eichele]

I would treat it like my 300 RUM hunting rifle. I developed loads for it, learned the real drops for the 2 or 3 loads selected, shoot maybe a handfull of rounds through her a year and leave her in the safe the rest of the time while I practice more with less of a barrel burner.

 

[Tyler Kemp]

What kind of velocities could I get from 30" barrel with 115 Bergers or the new 117 grain DTACs? Interested in this cartridge when my 6mm Ackley barrel is done.

 

[Lightvarmint]

Tyler,

I have one and the throat is very rough from shooting 600 yard matches with it. But, it still shoots bug holes.

I would estimate that I have around 3000 rounds through it.

Longest kill with it is 605 yards with the Nosler 90 grain Ballistic tip.

I have used this rifle to introduce non shooters and youger hunters to longer range shooting.

My Faculty advisor at the US Army Sergeants Major Academy was "Hank the Tank Gallahan" and he was an SF sniper and SF sniper instructor. He was shooting his bolt gun one day and his wife was at the range with him. She had never fired a center fire rifle before.

I set my rifle up on the bench and turned it over to her and coached her on the 600 yard gong. She started ringing that gong and I thought Hank was going to have a fit. She kept ringing that gong over and over....... Hank actually asked us to stop shooting the gong as he had a rifle malfunction and did not hit the gong that day.

Anyway, he liked the caliber and the rifle so much, he took his Rolex off and sold it the next day at a gun show and ordered a Hall Express in 300 win mag, 308 and 6x284.

My preachers kid (now a marine) was 14 years old and he had never shot farther than 100 yards. We set him up in the elevated shooting house on the 1000 yard food plot and he took his first LR deer there with that 6x284.

They are fun and accurate. I am sure you will enjoy the one you get. If you are ever down my way, I have some ammo loaded and you can shoot it on my 1000 yard range.

James

 

[Fiftydriver]

The 6-284 is a great round but care must be taken when using it. As we all know, its not a high volume shooter. I look at it as a high powered long range varmint hammer or a small to medium big game chambering.

I got into long range hunting with a Win M70 heavy Varminter with a 30" 1-8 3 groove Lilja. With the A-Max or Berger bullets, its limited to a 3250 fps velocity ceiling because of the fast twist and high baring surface compression percentage. The 107 gr SMK on the other hand would allow any velocity I could throw at it and I loaded it to 3500 fps.

I have made over 4 dozen one shot kills on chucks and yotes at ranges over 500 yards. She has 11 one shot kills over 1/2 mile and three over 1000 yards with the longest being 1128 yards.

The rifle has been semi retired and lives in the safe these days but I will never get rid of it.

If I were going to build a big game (deer) rifle on this caliber. I would likely go with the 6-06 instead simply because its easier to form with a 25-06 case and it feeds DRAMATICALLY better then the 6-284 in pretty much any receiver type.

performance of the two are nearly identical with a slight, and I mean slight edge going to the 06.

Both would kill deer out to 1/2 mile if hit properly, I do not recommend this, 400-500 yards is about my personal max for any 6mm.

For a hunting rifle, these rounds would last you a lifetime of hunting.

 

[Lightvarmint]

Tyler,

Almost forgot to mention that the caliber you choose may be influenced by the quality of brass that is available.

I know that good brass from Lapua is available for forming this case.

As difficult as good brass is to get, don't forget to consider the brass you will be shooting.

Some folks base their experiments on what brass is availble from Lapua/Norma and consider nothing else.

James

 

[Ernie]

I guess I am one of the odd ones, but I have NOT kept track of the number of rounds shot through my 6-284 (exclusively 115 DTAC's except for under 100 SMK 107's) when I ran out. I have used it for some matches and for pd shooting (sometimes hot-n-heavy shooting). It still shoots great. I know I have more than 1,000 rounds through but less than 2,000-How is that for close
I use prepped 284 Win brass (tight neck)/H-4831, Fed Match primers. Barrel is a Broughton 5C 1-8 T.
I know some folks who have used the cartridge for deer out to 700-800 yards with success, but at the moment I don't remember which bullet they used.
My longest pd is 1590 yards.

 

[Buffalobob]

With the 115 Bergers in a 6 groove 1-8 twist, 30 inch barrel I can get them to 3250 -3260 fps and not hardly any more. They are right on the raggedy edge of blowing up and on a really hot summer day I start losing them. I just don't shoot on really hot days anymore.

 

[Tyler Kemp]

I am getting 3400 fps from 95 grain SMK's in my 26" 6mm Ackley. I was hoping from a 30" 6mm-284 I could get near that with the new 117 grain DTACS. Supposedly they are going to be able to handle extreme velocities, and a .6 BC at 3400 fps with very little recoil is something to behold!

It sounds like the barrels still shoot more rounds than conventional wisdom would say they should. The brass was another concern for me. Lapua 6.5-284 should be able to withstand some hot loads without losing primer pockets. I'm not really concerned about feeding, I usually shoot single shot all the time. Actually, with my 6mm I always shoot single shot and I've never had a problem with a quick followup round.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Ernie]

Tyler,
The last word I have heard on the 111 DTAC and the 117 DTAC is that they are not going to happen.
David first made the 117's and found they had some blow-up issues at faster MV's, went to the 111's and didn't get the accuracy he wanted.

I guess he could have gone back to the drawing board on the 117's, but I am not aware of that.

 

[Tyler Kemp]

Dang, never trust google! Do the normal DTACS handle high velocity? As I understand it they are basically SMK's under a different name.

 

[Ernie]

the 115's do just fine

 

[Tyler Kemp]

What barrel length and what velocity, and any pressure?