Here is Ray's reply to my request for more info:
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Len, In the NC State F-Class championship Mr Ballard was firing our custom built rifle utilizing a BAT MB 1.55 round action in Lt. Bolt, Rt. port, sporting a Jewell trigger and a Night Force 12-42 scope. This rig was built upon our own Custom Laminated, Purple Low Rider F-Class Open stock and of course a 1.25 straight 32" Broughton Barrel, all weighting in at just over 21 lbs.
His project started fall of 2006 when he became interested in trying the straight .284 Winchester and using the high BC 180 gr Berger VLD bullets to achieve #1 accuracy , #2 increased barrel life and #3 reduced recoil. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the .284, some claim it is not fast enough but how fast is enough? Never the less, Charles is getting around 2900 FPS and our testing has shown that when pair fired this set up will clearly shoot 3" inside of our 300 WSM firing 210 Berger's traveling 2850 fps at 1000 yards.
Over our Oehler Chronograph firing 15 rd strings the STD is between 3 and 5. On target, this rifle is holding elevation dispersions of no worst than a 1/4 MOA at 1000 yards in match competition.
We feel that we have put together a great combination in these custom rifles. I contribute much of their outstanding result to our reamer own design and using Broughton Barrels. Why Broughton Barrels; #1 They just shoot, #2 increased velocity with moderate pressures #3 very good barrel life with the 5-C rifling #4 Great people to deal with. Another major accuracy factor is using big custom single shot actions that will take straight 1.25 barrel weights and chamber pressures without flexing.
In addition to Mr. Ballard's championship win we had 2 more of our customers firing our custom rifles placing 3 of our rifles in the top 5 overall. All were using this same set up but the other 2 used Barnard Single Shot actions and our special Laminated stocks for the Barnard action.
In closing I will say that this .284 project took a lot work from everyone. You must be on top of your game with your reloading skills to fully unleash the benefits of the .284 Winchester. If one can do that then the .284 can be a winner for you.
We would like to extend a big congratulations to Mr. Charles Ballard of Mebane, NC. Today, he won the North Carolina State F-class championship at Butner, NC in 600 and 1000 yard target shooting competition. In addition to winning and becoming the Resident NC State Champion he also won as: Overall Match Winner, Highest relay scorer with 150-9x, 600 Yard aggregate winner and he and his shooting partner won the overall 2 man team match. Way to go Charles!!
