LONGRANGE 6.5-284

[Charles A]

Planning on building another rifle for longrange shotting/hunting but not sure about details.Here's what I'M thinking-6.5/284 on rem action,30in. Lilja barrel,UARS stock,NF 5.5-22 power scope.What range will this setup be able to cositantly kill small southern deer.these are in now set so any sugesstions will be apreacated.

 

[PrimeTime]

Sniper-
Good choice on the 30 inch barrel. If you launch a 140 grain JLK match bullet which has a BC of .645 at 3,000 fps (easily obtainable), you will have about 1,100 ft. lbs. of energy at 900 yards. That is more than enough for whitetail and you could probably load some rounds hotter (3150 or so) and move out to a thousand. It is a fantastically accurate round and would serve you well.

 

[Steve in Mi]

I am building one know close to that without the 30 inch tube. I am going 26. From what I have gathered there is not much velocity to be gained with the 30 inch barrel. I plan on using mine as a hunting rifle and a did not want that much weight or legnth on the rifle. But 1000 yards is no problem I have a fair amount of data if you want I could e-mail it to you. Prime time is right on the money it is a very accurate round. There is a smith here in MI that builds them , and does most of sinclairs custom work. He is building mine as well. I can pass along that info to you as well let me know. Tn is a ways from MI. But I have sent my guns to FL for work before.

 

[Darryl Cassel]

Hello Seal, Steve and Prime.

Seal, good choice.

Steve, As per the added length of the 30" barrel, my shooting friends and I have found that, the difference of 4 more inches will give at LEAST 100 FPS in almost any caliber.
100 FPS additional velocity works out to at least a 21" (using the 6.5 bullet, 155 gr, at 2900 and 3000 fps) flatter shooting gun at 1000 yards.
I know that John Hoover (shoots nothing but 6.5/284) who is an excellent shooter at Williamsport, maintains 2950 to 3050 FPS with 30" barrels and 140 to 142 gr bullets on all 4 guns that his family uses at the club matches.
30" barrels are a bit long to most hunters/shooters who have been used to 22 to 26" most of their life.
Point is, it's worth the added length for longrange shooting if a velocity gain can be made and 100 fps is certainly worth that additional 4" of barrel steel.

Prime, As per the BC of the 6.5 bullet, I can only come up with a .615 for the 155 Gr Sierra MK and .585 for the Sierra 142 MK.
If JLK is advertising the 142 at higher then that (.655), I will have to adjust my records as per his listing.
Please double check that listing, if it's true, I will shoot some of those bullets in my 6.5s AGAIN.

Later
Darryl Cassel

[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Darryl Cassel ]

 

[PrimeTime]

Darryl-
John Hoover told me about the JLK bullets. I know he really likes them and you know how well he has done. I am quite sure he told me the bc was .645 but you would have to call JLK to make sure as my memory has failed me before. With a bc that high, it would certainly shoot flat and maintain pretty good energy at a thousand yards.
Take care
Sam

 

[rifletuner]

Darryl

For what its worth, Hornady used to list a BC of .660 for the 140gn 6.5 Amax. More recently they have revised this back to .618, but my shooting of this bullet shows the actual BC to be closer to the .660 as originally stated.

The Amax has shot quite well for me, though they do need to be sorted. Having said that, I believe any factory bullet needs to be sorted for long range work.

Fergus

 

[Len Backus]

Fergus

Please describe your sorting method.

 

[rifletuner]

Len

The sorting process I use centres around ogive measuring. I use a tool made by my gunsmith from a scrap piece of barrel and a throating reamer. Using the tool and a digital vernier, I sort bullets to within .001 or .002. Most boxes of 100 bullets give me two or three batches of bullets after sorting. All these bullets can be shot, the important thing is to only shoot bullets that will sit consistantly in/off the lands. I sometimes get one or two that are nowhere near the others – these are reserved for load development of fire forming.

This all came about after a range session where I could put 4 bullets in a one hole group of about 0.3", with a flier opening the group to about 1" total. I did not feel I was missing a condition change, but shot several 4 and 1 groups. Back home, I ran through the remainder of the box with the ogive tool and was very surprised by the extent of the variation. Measuring off the ogive, I ended up with two batches, some at 1.45" and the others at 1.55". This is a BIG variation! Once batched, these bullets shot very well and the fliers went away. I now batch all commercial bullets, Amax, Sierras, Lapua, etc.

My ideal is to use a Vern Junky or ICC. My friend has one and I have used his before. These are excellent tools and well worth the money in my opinion. They will pick up a lot of errors that other sorting will not identify. I hope to buy one of these in the next few months.

Fergus

 

[Charles A]

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO GET BACK,BUT I HAVE HAD A LOT OF WORK TO DO.THANKS FOR ALL THE REPLY'S. STEVE PLEASE E-MAIL ALL INFORMATION YOU HAVE,ASLO INFO ON THE GUNSMITH IF YOU WOULDNT MIND.


THANKS!!!!

 

[Charles A]

SHOULD I GO WITH A LONG OR SHORT ACTION?ALSO IF POSSIBLE I WANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE MY OWN HITS,I'M THINKING MUZZLE BRAKE,BUT WOULD IT DEGRADE ACCURCY AT ALL.IF NOT WHAT KIND OF BRAKE WOULD WORK BEST.

 

[No Fear in Accuracy]

SealSniper

I was told that 6.5-284 suits better on long action. As for muzzle brake, choose well-known muzzle brake companies like Answer, KDF or Vais. They are all good.

 

[Ultraman]

Fergus,
I am very interested in what you are doing on your bullet sorting but confused. If one is measuring all of his finished loads, with a comparator, which is working off the ogive(I think),what inconsistency other than overall length of the bullet itself, is being missed?
Or is that the whole point, that they are a different overall length?
I would really be interested in understanding your method as I have suffered from the same flier syndrom.
Also, what weight differences have you found with your two batches of bullets? Thank you
P.S. The main bullet I run is the 220 MK oif that makes any diference.

 

[PrimeTime]

A short action is normally used for target work. It works well as a single shot, you cannot however, use the magazine unless you go to long action.
I don't like the muzzlebrake myself as it forces you to wear hearing protection in the field. Your spotter should tell you where the shots are going.
Also, if you are looking for a good gunsmith, shoot me an email. There is a guy here in Pennsylvania that has built many of them and his rifles are really tearing up the 1,000 yard matches.

 

[rifletuner]

August

Whilst it is possible to ogive gauge loaded rounds, I much prefer to gauge the bullets before they are loaded. I use a digital calliper and the ogive tool to measure from the bullet base to the ogive. The length from bullet base to ogive is the important measurement in this process. The more bullets you can measure at once, the better in my view. I try to batch several boxes of 100 in one session as a minimum.

There are many things this method will not pick up, such as a fold in the bullet jacket or a problem with core seating. This where a Vern Junkey would really help. At this stage, I have done no sorting by weight.