6.5x284 Norma Chamber Question

[Jacobhunsaker1]

View attachment 105511 View attachment 105511 I just had a rifle built in a 6.5x284 Norma that I plan on using as a hunting rifle in Arizona. I had Pac-Nor build the barrel and do the reciever work. I had the choice of doing a .060 or .188 freeborn and went with the .060 as I am planning on using 130 & 140 grain Nosler Accubonds and 129 & 142 Accubond long range depending on what the rifle likes. My issue is I loaded 130 grain accubond to the O.A.C.L listed length of 2.980, which gives me a length of 2.458 to the ogive, which is .083 longer than the lands depth. The 129 ABLR loaded to the listed O.A.C.L. Of 2.980 comes out to 2.365 to the ogive, which puts that bullet .016 off of the lands. My question is do I seat the bullets deeper and call it good or do I send the barreled reciever back to PAC-Nor and have the free bore set deeper.

 

[shortgrass]

Sounds to me, because of the choices PacNor offered you for freebore, that they have 2 reamers for the 6.5x284. One for the .6.5 x 284 Winchester, and the other for the 6.5 x 284 Norma. Any time you are looking to load to a specific OAL you need to provide a dummy round, so that the chamber can be cut to that specific length (freebore, throat and all). That can be done with either a throating reamer or by having a chambering reamer made to your specifications. Not all who chamber, the barrel makers or an independent gunsmith, are going to have the reamer with the specs you want, in their tool box. That would just be cost prohibitive.

 

[Hatrick]

I would load them to fit and shoot it before deciding.

 

[shortgrass]

I would have the freebore/throat set to your desired specs. A short throated 6.5 x 284 is nothing more than a glorified .260 Rem. PacNor may or may not have or use separate throating reamers.

 

[L.Sherm]

Long or short action?

 

[FURMAN]

I personally would have chosen the .188 freebore. Especially with the bullets you want to shoot they have long bearing surfaces vs others like Berger. Since you have it I would probably just see how it shoots and what the velocity is.

 

[Jacobhunsaker1]

Long or short action?

It is built on a Remington 700 long action. PAC-Nor told me when they were chambering it, that if it was to short they could throat it to a dummy round later.

So if I go ahead and set the bullet to depth it will be 2.882 col with the 130 accubond at .015 off of the lands and the 129 ABLR will stay where it is at (2.980) being .016 off of the lands. But from my experience with the accubonds in my other rifles I load for, the accubonds like having a little jump rather than being jammed close. And my reason for building on the long action was to not have to worry about limited cartridge length.

 

[elkaholic]

If it's a 700 long action you should have plenty of room for .188 freebore! You are leaving a lot of performance on the table with the short throat!

 

[L.Sherm]

This^^^

 

[Jacobhunsaker1]

Thanks for all of the responses. I am working on getting it sent back to PAC-Nor as soon as possible. Lesson learned on my end with this one.

Now time to play the waiting game again. Hopefully I will have it back in time to take it to Minnesota deer hunting in November.