Help me decide please!

[darrindlh]

Hello I need help deciding on which caliber to build next. Currently I have a 300 winmag shooting the Berger 210's. I want another long-range rig and can not decide on either a 6.5x284 or a 280ai. Please help all opinions are welcome. Pros and cons of each.

Darrin

 

[Engineering101]

darrindlh

I just had to answer a similar question for myself and I went with a 7mm WSM. A 7mm/300 WSM holds the current British record for 5 shots at 1,000 yards and its bigger brother, the 300 WSM holds a 10 shot 1,000 yard record in the US so I wanted a WSM case. I went with the 7mm because of the bullet choices available in that caliber. This quote from page 167 of Bergers new reloading manual kind of sealed the deal.

"At the current time, the form factors for Berger's .30 caliber lline are not very good in comparison to other calibers."

And it looked to me like the 7mms were the best of the good ones.

In fairness, I already had a 6.5mm and 30 cal so I was kind of hemmed in. If limited to only the 2 you mentioned, I'd go with the larger cal (bullet choice), though I'm guessing whichever one you go with you will like it.

 

[BrentM]

I have the 6.5x284 but the 280AI will have further reach and I would imagine more recoil as well. The 7mm bullets have finally gotten a much needed facelift to be a major player again. I think this one is more of a how do you want to shoot and then pick the rifle to get you there. My goal was 1000-1200 max and lower recoil. The 6.5x284 seemed to fit that criteria pretty well. You may want to compare the 280AI to the 300 and see if you are basically going to have the same rifle in different calibers. I know the 6.5 will not run with the 300 but it's not designed to do so.