Cooper or Nosler

[Ncole]

I'm looking at buying a new 6.5 284 and I think I've narrowed it down to two rifles. I'm looking at the Cooper and the Nosler. I only know one person who has owned a Cooper (in .223) and loves the gun. He says it has always been a tack driver. I don't know anyone who has had a Nosler rifle or either one in a long range caliber. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[firstcoueswas80]

A good buddy of mine owns a Nosler rifle that I tried to buy it but couldn't quite come up with the money. It's a good gun has been super accurate and I've always like the fit and finish.

 

[ramrod79]

Go with Cooper ,and don't look back they are very accurate rifles .

 

[Gene]

Love my Cooper in 6mmBR. Only negative is the bad trigger. Never had a Nosler - think they are over priced.

 

[AZShooter]

A friend of mine just took delivery of two Cooper rifles. One is a 243 the other a 270. Both shot factory ammo very accurately. I think highly of Cooper based on what I saw with these two rifles. I like the short throw bolt with the three lugs and the trigger was light and crisp with no creep.

Another friend, who frequents our range often, has several Nosler Rifles. Some shot well and others didn't. He always tries factory ammo and if he isn't satisfied he handloads. IIRC he had a 6.5-284 that gave him fits, he sent it back and had it rebarreled to a different chambering.


I would choose the Cooper.

 

[Ncole]

Thanks for the replies. It's sounding like more consistent positive reviews on the coopers.

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

God I hate to be the Grinch, both are way way overpriced ! You'd be better served to take an old 700 you have or one in Dad's gun cabinet and get it completely redone...re barrel, chamber cut the way you want it, Jewell trigger, they make some fairly inexpensive stocks today that are just as good or better than both for less than the $2000.00 your spending.....and that cartridge, people love it and people hate it, there's not many in the middle, surely there's a better choice that won't have you pulling your hair out...why not a 26/28 Nosler, they will do anything the other one will..heck you could do about the same thing with a .260 rem.... Whatever you choose good luck and enjoy playing with it...There's lots of ways to skin a cat !

 

[Ncole]

I thought about that to. I don't have a donor action and I've actually got a 284 in a savage Long Range Hunter. It shoots good I'm just not a huge fan of the stock and I've looked everywhere for a replacement but nobody makes one for that gun so I've just decided to start over and stick with the 284 since I've got all of the reloading supply's and a good starting starting point of load data.

 

[Deleted member 25294]

God I hate to be the Grinch, both are way way overpriced ! You'd be better served to take an old 700 you have or one in Dad's gun cabinet and get it completely redone...re barrel, chamber cut the way you want it, Jewell trigger, they make some fairly inexpensive stocks today that are just as good or better than both for less than the $2000.00 your spending.....and that cartridge, people love it and people hate it, there's not many in the middle, surely there's a better choice that won't have you pulling your hair out...why not a 26/28 Nosler, they will do anything the other one will..heck you could do about the same thing with a .260 rem.... Whatever you choose good luck and enjoy playing with it...There's lots of ways to skin a cat !

Why would you say the 6.5x284 has people pulling their hair out, one of the easiest and most accurate rounds to load in my experience.
Also the 260 Rem won't come within 200 FPS of the 6.5x284.
I would agree that there's a lot of good options out there though , I just wouldn't slam the first one.

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

As a range master for 10 years at one of the long range groundhog bench rest matches for more than a decade I got to see 100's if not thousands of shots being fired out of them under bench rest conditions in ever concieveable condition. No other cartridge had more people loving or swearing at it...one week it would be love and the next week you'd hear that's impossible over and over... Only a few could make it work somewhat consistently and it was the ones built off the original .284 cases, the Norma's drove people crazy, mind you now this is a bench rest match for score not hunting..all were fine for hunting out too 800 with no problem but tiny groups at 200-300-500 yards seemed impossible for whatever reason...over that 10 year plus period almost all switched to the 6br, dasher and all the other variants...they just shot better groups without screaming or going nuts..these days you rarely see one..

 

[tbrice23]

As a range master for 10 years at one of the long range groundhog bench rest matches for more than a decade I got to see 100's if not thousands of shots being fired out of them under bench rest conditions in ever concieveable condition. No other cartridge had more people loving or swearing at it...one week it would be love and the next week you'd hear that's impossible over and over... Only a few could make it work somewhat consistently and it was the ones built off the original .284 cases, the Norma's drove people crazy, mind you now this is a bench rest match for score not hunting..all were fine for hunting out too 800 with no problem but tiny groups at 200-300-500 yards seemed impossible for whatever reason...over that 10 year plus period almost all switched to the 6br, dasher and all the other variants...they just shot better groups without screaming or going nuts..these days you rarely see one..

Same experience here, and I am really hard-headed and dont give up easily. But enough is enough afer two different barrels.