Great response. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
I'm surprised the 6.5-284 Norma cartridge never caught on with the "normal" hunting crowd. Unless you've spent time on the Internet searching or time at long range competitions, most likely guys have never heard of the cartridge.
Only guess I have is maybe the rebated rim scares off guys who think it won't feed from a magazine reliably? Because besides that, it pretty much checks all of the boxes needed for it to be a great hunting cartridge.
You are absolutely right about the general awareness of the 6.5x284. Over the past several years, many hunters I have met are not aware of the round. Those that are have been involved or follow competitive shooting sports. I think the biggest reason for hunters shying away from the round is the rounds reputation for being a barrel burner. Unfortunately this reasoning is often taken out of context. It earned this reputation with the bench rest crowd early on in its career. Of course the high repetition shooting in competition , usually occurring in the hot summer months would burn out the barrel of any high velocity round capable of killing game out to 1000 yards. The Benchrest shooters put up with this because of the superior ballistics and accuracy of the 6.5x284. If they used many of the rounds that we use for LR hunting they would likely experience comparable, or worse barrel life. Also keep mind that for the BR crowd, the barrel is gone when .25MOA or less accuracy is eroded. I have had 7Mags, 270WSM's, and several of the Weatherby's erode similarly or faster then the 6.5x284. Of course some case designs may promote longer life then others but this can become immaterial considering all the factors effecting the life of a barrel. For typical hunting applications my 6.5x284's will give me 10+ years of solid performance. This includes hunting shots, practice, zeroing, and fun, busting long range targets; total, about 100 rounds/year.
As to the rebated rim, I have not experienced failures to feed with any of my rifles, both clip and internal magazines. Because the round spent much of its life as a wildcat, much like the chamber cutting process with the 6.5x284, I have found that many issues with the round can be attributed to improper gunsmithing.
IMO.