Thoughts on the 6mm-284

[ackleyguy]

Well guys let me tell ya!! This is one Hell of a little cartridge! I usually shoot the .30s but last year my buddy had one built and i saw some pretty good shooting done with it out to 1000 or so on groundhogs........so this spring a call to Douglas Barrels...and a trip down to Charlston to pick up the barrel(these folks at Douglas are FANTASTIC...went for a tour of there plant and had my barrel finish turned while i was doing that...cant say enough good things about these folks or there barrels for that matter but, more on this later)Took the Rem short action to my smith , reamed the barrel.screwed it on and dropped the whole works into a PUG rifle stock. Took my Nightforce and put it on.and 55.grs of Reloader 22, Fed 210,Win case,seat the 107 Sierra .020 into the lands and 3510 F/sec out of that 31" Douglas with a 1-8 twist And after a bit of load development to grt to the aformentioned load, .450 or so for 5 at 200 yards ...when i do my part....Now out to shoot a few hogs.....got one first try at 750....and a few more out to 1050.......very good performance to say the least....And the corrected BC for this bullet works out to around .560. All bullets are Moly coted and this barrel really does not foul alot at all. Kudos to Douglas!! Now My hunting partner and I go to a red tag farm here in Pa and long story made short One shot...one deer STONE COLD DEAD at 1350.
Now I know one dead deer does not mean thats the norm for this bullet at that range but the wound channel was pretty big and upon exit ther was about a 3/4 hole after taking out the far rib....So all I can say ia I am very impressed with this little gun and look for great things to happen in the future with it!Thanks for lettinf me bend your ear on this one fellas!

 

[*WyoWhisper*]

I have Ray Romain finishing one up for me now. Along with the 6.5 I have they are gonna be my long range PD and Deer guns... The 105 a-max should be deadly on pd's and the 107 sierra should really do the trick on some Med. range Mulies....

 

[cronhelm]

I have a question, mostly because I have a fast twist .243 that shoots this same bullet but I had never really considered it a long-range deer rifle.

The 6/284 data above works out to about 500 ft/lbs at sea level. Is this really enough to reliably kill deer. Obviously we know it worked in this instance but could this load be dependable enough to hunt at these sorts of ranges regularily?

Peter Cronhelm

 

[*WyoWhisper*]

I don't think the 6mm is long range bullet I'm thinking more like 500 and less kinda med. range...

 

[Darryl Cassel]

Hello

A 107 MK with a BC of .555 at 3250 FPS from a 6/284 still has 1954 FPS and 908 Foot pounds of energy left at "1000 yards". Most certainly you could kill whitetail deer with that at 800 to 1000 yards. I think to 800 yards or further on mule deer would be NO PROBLEM.

I know some fellows who have and are doing it.

DC

 

[ackleyguy]

Peter, I am NOT sure that this gun will always kill this well at that range...However
I would not hesitate to attempt it again. I am not at all a pundit of the Ft Lbs of energy formulas ...I think remaining velocity and resulent bullet expansion are a better indicater of the projectiles ability to humanely take a animal. One other factor that I also think plays a part in expansion is the rotational velocity of the projectile. It is a known fact that projectiles lose very little of there rotational velocity over the course of flight....at least at the ranges we will be using them in... I think this in part helps these little 6 mm pills to a large degree..Does that mean I would shoot a elk with one.....well... .yes...out to perhaps 600 yards or so and the shot would have to be perfect.. broadside,,,very little angle..but it would not be my caliber of choice by any means..just some food for thought

 

[Darryl Cassel]

The 8 twist with the 107 gr is the secret.

There are a lot of 243 Winchesters (with slower twists) used for elk in Colorado.
The 243 is the minimum rifle caliber allowed for elk in that State.

Would I hunt elk with one----No

Darryl Cassel

 

[cronhelm]

My 243 has a1:8 barrel and I have shot it out to 2000 yds but the terminal energy out there is comparible to a .380 handgun.

With all the talk about using big calibres and heavy bullets on this forum, I just wondered what guys thought was a reasonable idicator of terminal performance.

I am sure that a 300gr MK at 2500 yds has enough energy measured in ft/lbs as a result of its weight. However at that range, the velocity is pretty slow.

Compare that to a .243 at 1000 yds, which will have way more velocity but much less in the way of ft/lbs because of its light weight.

I am relatively new to hunting big game, having been a varmint hunter for many years. We hear so much about the .243 as a marginal deer rifle at close ranges, that it had never occured to me to use it for deer at longer ranges.

Obviously people are doing it so it must work. Here in Canada we have big Mule Deer so I worry about having enough terminal punch to put them down at longer ranges.

Personally I plan to get myself a custom 6.5 WSM for long-range varmints as well as long-range hunting. I like the idea of a medium weight bullet with a high BC, moving at pretty high velocity.

Obviously this is not an ultra-long-range gun but that is another topic.

Peter Cronhelm