Anyone reloading for this? It's been on my mind as a possibility over the 7-08. Bullet weights will range from 90-175. No settlement on length ir twist as of yet. Not looking for any AI of any kind fir cartridge.
You can't go wrong with a .284 Winchester. Even in the stock short action is a great hunting rifle comparable to a .270, .280, 7mm-08 etc. but if you go with a 'medium' or long action, then the cartridge is a standout that achieves the optimal balance between energy delivery and precision accuracy. There is a reason the .284 has a long and ongoing history with the F1 1000 yard competition shooters.
I have a Winchester Model 100, Savage 99 and just finished a custom build in this caliber.....I've been wanting to build a custom to get the COAL out to reach the potential of this cartridge. I went with a Borden Ridgeline 'Medium' Action, Pacnor barrel 9:1 and, after doing a lot of snooping around on forums decided on a 25.25" barrel length. In load development now and so far things are looking like I have a tack driver with the limiting factor being the person pulling the trigger!
While the .284 Winchester is not talked about a lot in mainstream hunting, people in the know rave about the cartridge and there is ample load data and knowledge out there and enough people shooting either a stock .284 or 6.5x.284 that Peterson and others are producing brass to fill the demand.
Also note that the original load data from Winchester is conservative due to the confinement of the short action and chambering for an autoloader so there is ample room for performance gains that allow the .284 in a medium or long action to deliver energy just below the 7mm Magnums but with greater accuracy and less recoil.
You should also know a couple of historical facts about this load to understand why it is not well known..... first of all Winchester chambered it in a short action autoloader and lever action to make light, accurate and price pointed to compete with the .270.......problem was there were a ton of .270's out there people were familiar with as a tried and true hunting rifle and the .284 performance was only slightly better in a short action. Sure the rifles were relatively light and had shorter barrels etc. but there was no compelling reason to change.
The 'standout' in the short action were Melvin Forbes' Ultra Lite Arms chambered in a .284 . This rifle came in at under 4.5 pounds (no scope) and was an accurate and lethal backcountry hunting rifle. It was also his most popular selling. You never see these come up for sale.
At the time, early 60's, the short fat cartridge with the rebated rim was exotic / 'different' than standard long actions in use at the time like the .270, .280, 7mm-08 and .30-06 ...... in actuality this design was decades ahead of its time then as the .284 cartridge design has been the base concept for all these new 'hot' short magnum hunting cartridges are based upon.
Hindsight is 20/20 . Winchester should have gone all in with the .284 and developed a medium action around the cartridge to get the potential without the extra throw and weight of a long action. Then it would have been a standout. Now that there are custom medium actions available one can build a fantastic hunting rifle capable of taking anything from varmints to big game if they want to go through the time and $ it takes......and, if you have the $ but not the time Jim Borden can build you one. Personally, I've spent way too much on this build but am happy with it.....I justify it by telling myself that I don't need any other rifle, just this one no matter what game I am going after.
