6mm x ,284 WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Gene Bland

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Jun 5, 2013
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Through a series of trades I acquired an older Savage 110. in 6x284. I really wanted a 6br but figured I could always re-barrel if necessary. It turns out that it was chambered in 243 and re-chambered in 6x284. Oh man, shame on me for trading third party over the phone.. Plus it was pretty rough on the outside. The chamber looked good and the bore was clean. I found some used brass and got some Sierra 82 grainers and loaded for 3400 fps with Acc 3100. 200 yard groups were 1/2 min. The trigger on this thing sucks.
Cleaned it up, pillar bedded and cameo paint. Will not buy better trigger yet. set scope for 200 yd 0 and went chuck hunting. This rifle is a dream to carry compared to my 223 AI.
Found chucks way out across a basin in the rim rock. Using a photo tripod and a swivel stool and set up on one at 225 yds. Got on the gun and jerked like I was tugging on a rope. No idea where that shot went. my hunting buddy is still laughing about that. Got on the gun again, same chuck. Boom, recoil, can't see the impact but can hear the meaty thump of a good shot. Gary says the bullet hit just under the chin and the chuck went to pieces. A look through the scope show the rocks cover in red meaty chunks. I cannot speak highly enough of Sierra bullets. They have never failed. During the next three days of driving between long rocky ridges and long stalks to get into shooting range we killed 52 chucks between us. From 200 out to 485 the 6x284 did the job. I may not go to 6br after all.gun)
 
you have a varmints worst nightmare for sure. A friend of mine created a similar wildcat years ago and it is perfect for groundhogs even if the wind is blowing a little it screams right to the target. congrats and I dont blame you if you forget about the BR!
 
I shoot that bad boy caliber. I took it and a 22-250 and 223 Prairie Dog hunting in central Montana. It was too big,90 degree temps and 3-4 shots and its BBL was screaming hot. I was shooting 52.5 grs of Re#22 behind a 105gr A-Max 3400 FPS . I should've kept ammo in ice box I had ejector marks on the brass when in cooler weather no problem. Also it didn't blow the PDs up any more spectacular than the 22-250 or 223 . Oh yes guts and red mist all over, its just why burn 50+grs of powder when 25-36 out of the .224 caliber guns was great. When this bbl is shot out ( On my 3rd bbl) I'm done with this caliber.
 
I only use this for ground hogs and coyotes and only when the possibility of longer ranges may show up. Plus it is light while my 223AI is heavy to carry over rough and broken ground. Thus my barrel doesn't heat up and I limit my 82 grainers to 3400. This is not a prairie dog caliber.
 
Iron Worker, sorry to hear you are finished with the 6-284 after this barrel burns out. I really like my 6-284 :D 12T shooting 66grainers and way to heavy to pack thru the woods!
 

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I put together a 22/6mm for general varmint destroying. It runs 75gr amax at 3680fps from a 25" barrel. I had a 6mm06 that would sling 105s very well too just got tired of the soft Norma brass. The 22/6mm is a lot more versatile I think, and it flat hammers stuff
 
I like my 6x284. Its also on a Savage 110 action with 28" Pac-Nor barrel with a 1/7" twist.
I am shooting the Hornady 105 A-Max with a dose of Re-19 at a more sedate 3250 fps MV.
I use a 300 yard zero that gives about a 350 yard max point blank range for a 7" target.
For practice and where I often see coyotes from my house I have set up a RR tie plate at 850 yards. Under most conditions the correction for this shot with a 300 yard zero is 3.8 mils or 38 clicks with a .1 mil click.
As long as the wind is steady not too much trouble hitting the tie plate. When I miss its usually due to poor trigger control or wind changes I missed.
 
3500FPS ! You could easily do that with a 243 ,why waste a 6mm bbl is those slow slow loads ? I get 3400+ shooting 105 gr A-Maxs out of my 6x284 .

I too felt that 3500 fps with such a light weight 243 cal bullet was relatively unimpressive. However I also understand that most often supreme accuracy comes at a less than impressive velocity. In these small calibers if you don't have accuracy you don't have anything.
With the quoted load of the light 243 cal bullet at 3500 fps using a prairie dog max point blank range or say a 6" top to bottom target your dead on hold is going to be something near 350 yards give or take. Not too unimpressive when compared to other cartridges used for PD shooting. Some of the rim fire cartridges come to mind there.
Another point in favor of using loads that are substantially less than max potential for the cartridge is barrel life. One of the factors involved with barrel ware is pressure. Loading to a reduced pressure will extend barrel life all else being equal. An example might be that say you shooting a .224" 70gn bullet in a 223 Rem as well as a 22/250 Rem both at 3000 fps. Even though the bigger case 22/250 at normal pressure will normally erode a barrel faster than the smaller case 223 in this case maybe not so. Why? Because of the reduced pressure loading in the bigger case in the example.
This is why the traditional chambering's for African hunting used such large cases. Not to reduce barrel ware but to deliver the same ballistics as smaller cases of like caliber at much reduced pressure.
So in short having a large case for caliber but using it at less than its full potential has merit in that it can equal the ballistics of a smaller case in the same caliber but do it at lower pressure and extended barrel life.
But then its always interesting to forgo the benefit of reduced pressure loading and put the hammer down!
 
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