6.5x284, hhmmm?

Blueranger

Blueranger

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Jan 10, 2020
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Looking at a 6.5x284. Any thoughts on this cartridge? How hard is it to find factory or specialty ammo? I can hand load, but my 6 yo likes to help, not the best combo. Thanks.
 
Blueranger said:
Looking at a 6.5x284. Any thoughts on this cartridge? How hard is it to find factory or specialty ammo? I can hand load, but my 6 yo likes to help, not the best combo. Thanks.
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Love mine. Elk to coyotes. Fast and flat. Easy recoil. Won’t find much at gun stores. Online is pretty good.
Good luck and have fun
 
I don't personally own one, but know several guys who do and they all love theirs. If you're not going to reload for it, take a look online and see if the ammo options you like are available.
 
The nosler factory ammo shoots great.

Brass is available. I’m not sure if anyone else makes factory ammo.
 
I had a 6mmx284 years ago that a friend custom built. Great round, I don't doubt the 6.5 is just as good if not better. This was before Norma standardized the cartridge, I think the availability is better now, but still slim.
 
Probably my favorite rifle. 124 Hammer Hunter over RL23 in Lapua brass for 3250 fps. Fast and flat as noted above.
 
Excellent cartridge. Hard to beat. If you get a relatively modern rifle chambered for 6.5-284 Norma you have an excellent gun with excellent factory ammo available when you can find it. It’ll push 140’s at 2800-2900 with handloads and hunting length barrels. Plenty of folks get a fair bit more than that.

One of my favorite guns is a wildcat that is quite similar. A 6.5-284 Norma would have been a much simpler path to very similar results.
 
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What I’m running with a VLD X
6.5 Recipe
Powder: Retumbo
Charge: 58
Brass: Lapua
Primer: 210
Bullet Weight: 140
COAL: 3.1
Velocity: 3000
BC: .612
 
There are many other similar chamberings I would pick over the 6.5X284 if I was going to rely (or focus mostly) on factory ammo.
 
4-5 years ago i built my first 6.5x284. I don't recall taking another caliber hunting since.

Hands down my favorite caliber.

I'd be pretty hard pressed to recommend one if you're not reloading though as factory ammo is certainly on the expensive side.
 
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I would not bother with one if I wasn't going to handload for it. I do and it's on the short list for a Tikka re-barrel when the current barrel goes down.
 
SnowyMountaineer said:
I would not bother with one if I wasn't going to handload for it. I do and it's on the short list for a Tikka re-barrel when the current barrel goes down.
Click to expand...
I'm kinda thinking along those same lines regarding a Tikka. Probably be better off to sell the heavy 260 Rem and rechamber the 260 Tikka and cut to the chase now...

Have also thought of doing a PRC on the Tikka, but that would require bolt face work for not a whole lot of difference in performance. Then again, Lapua brass and similarities in performance make me think the X284 would be a better/easier/cheaper update on the Tikka. Though the Hell's Canyon magazines would make for an easy transition to the PRC/SAUM/WSM if the bolt face work isn't prohibitive.

PS- I currently have way too much time for firearms mental gymnastics...
 
Pretty much like a 6.5-06 or 6.5-06AI from what others have said elsewhere. Some say the load data can be used interchangeably. If I wasn't working on another 6.5-06AI, I would have picked the 6.5-.284. Also quite a few seem to prefer a long action for this cartridge.
 
I agree on the l/a. For a repeating rifle, the cartridge has no business in a s/a. I would probably build a 6.5-06AI if I was to build another hot rod 6.5, but a 6.5-284Norma is still excellent. For a handloader, good brass is easier to come by in the ‘06. Even amount the best manufacturers good 6.5-284 brass seems to be hard to come by. Could just be my dad’s luck, but half the batches he bought were crap.

You can definitely still hunt with “crappy” brass though. So for the normal user, the 6.5-285Norma is an excellent hunting cartridge, and you will like it more in a medium or long action. A Remington s/a ends you feeling quite cramped.
 
ImBillT said:
I agree on the l/a. For a repeating rifle, the cartridge has no business in a s/a. I would probably build a 6.5-06AI if I was to build another hot rod 6.5, but a 6.5-284Norma is still excellent. For a handloader, good brass is easier to come by in the ‘06. Even amount the best manufacturers good 6.5-284 brass seems to be hard to come by. Could just be my dad’s luck, but half the batches he bought were crap.

You can definitely still hunt with “crappy” brass though. So for the normal user, the 6.5-285Norma is an excellent hunting cartridge, and you will like it more in a medium or long action. A Remington s/a ends you feeling quite cramped.
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Has he used Lapua? I've never had a bad piece let alone a bad batch from them. It's usually not hard to find.
 
1_pointer said:
Has he used Lapua? I've never had a bad piece let alone a bad batch from them. It's usually not hard to find.
Click to expand...

Yeah he did, and they were the best, but some batches weren’t up to normal Lapua consistency. In my experience with other cartridges, I find Norma to be more consistent than Lapua, but much softer, so I use Lapua in anything I want to really push. The batches of Norma he got were very hard, which is needed for the 6.5-284 Norma pressure spec, but the quality was really bad, which is not normal for Norma. They may be better now.

If I found a great buy on a good hunting gun in 6.5-284Norma I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it, but if I was building from the ground up, I’d probably go 6.5-06 or 6.5-06AI. I’d go with an action longer than a 700 s/a for either. Even in his single-shot the 6.5-284 was little bit of a pain in a s/a. Definitely usable, but I’d prefer a longer action for anything longer than a .308Win.
 
brockel said:
If you are going to shoot your conventional hunting bullets then I’d probably just roll with a 270 (man that tasted horrible) as there’s a ton of factory options
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I was gonna say the same thing. I would love to have a 6.5x284 since I reload, but the 270 has very similar ballistics and there is a pretty good selection of quality hunting bullets in 277.
 
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