Brad Norman
Active Member
If it helps you at all, my Son and I hunt with a Savage LRH in 6.5X284. It's a wonderfully accurate rifle/cartridge combination. Not a good choice if you only burn factory ammo, but if your'e a handloader I don't know of a better cartridge for hunting in North America. We've harvested Pronghorn, big Mule Deer and a nice bull Elk in Nevada, all with nice clean one-shot kills. I find the recoil to be quite mild. Rifle weight is a big factor but, comparing apples to apples, I suspect the 6.5X284 kicks about the same as a .308 Winchester.
There's really need to push things by loading the cartridge to its maximum velocity potential. We stay under 2,900 fps when using the 140-grain A-Max (discontinued, but I understand now it's the ELD-M) and it's one of the most accurate hunting-weight rifles I've seen. I don't claim to be capable of pulling it off on any given day, but I once managed a dandy 5-shot group into .75" at 200 yards shooting off my backpack.
I've become a big fan of Savage rifles generally, and I'm especially happy with my LWH. The 6.5X284 cartridge is very easy to handload for; and the accuracy results, for me, have been astonishing.
Happy hunting Sir!
There's really need to push things by loading the cartridge to its maximum velocity potential. We stay under 2,900 fps when using the 140-grain A-Max (discontinued, but I understand now it's the ELD-M) and it's one of the most accurate hunting-weight rifles I've seen. I don't claim to be capable of pulling it off on any given day, but I once managed a dandy 5-shot group into .75" at 200 yards shooting off my backpack.
I've become a big fan of Savage rifles generally, and I'm especially happy with my LWH. The 6.5X284 cartridge is very easy to handload for; and the accuracy results, for me, have been astonishing.
Happy hunting Sir!