6-mag

Got any 6/284 wildcat shooter out there?? if so what loads are you shooting?
I' m shooting 85gr. nozzler part. 56 grains 4381. Mostly deer hunt been with this round for the last 25 years. It is by far the best rifle I' ve owned and was woundering if they were any more out there.

eldeguello

I have one I built in 1964 on an FN Browning action, using a Douglas premium grade barrel, 26" , 1/10" twist. It is by far the most accurate rifle I have ever owned. It will (still!!) produce 100-yard 5-shot groups as small as .3" . The load that does this is 53.5 grains of H4831 with the 100-grain Sierra bullet. As mentioned, this rifle has a 26" barrel, in which this load produces 3300 FPS. My deer load is the 95-grain Nosler Partiton bullet with the same powder charge, nearly the same MV.

This gun is throated for the 105-grain Speer spitzer seated to the base of the neck, so with lighter bullets, this probably amounts to a form of " freebore" , like Weatherby uses. Nonetheless, accuracy with lighter bullets has not been adversely affected, but I never got acceptable accuracy with the 105 gr. Speer.

Working up a load for the 85 grain Nosler solid Base Boattail bullet, I got to 59 grains of Norma MRP, Lot no. 015303, for a muzzle velocity of 3623 FPS. BUT for a shooting load with this bullet, I dropped back to 57 grains of this same lot of MRP, which produces only an average velocity of 3496 FPS. I also got excellent accuracy with the 85-grain Sierra HPBT using 53 grains of IMR4350, but never chronographed that load.

6-mag

eldeguello, thanks for the reply. I live in a small town pop. 10,000 ther are 5 6/284' s in that town. My Father built the first one back in 1965. He used a mauser 98 action and coustomized the stock, not sure what barrel he used but it was done in Louisiana.
The neck downs on the cases were done with a mop handle and hammer using the chamber to resize. These cases have been reused at least 5 to 10 times. I plan on buying a full lenth resizer and make up some new cases this summer. What do you use???

The 85gr nozzler 56 gr of 4381 have worked best for me, been shooting that load since the early 70' s . I mostly deer hunt with it, I' m leaving for west Texas in the morning and will try it on a hog.

Thanks for any help!!!

1SHOT_1KILL

6-mag,

I have one and my father has one. My father also built his first one back in the early to mid 1960' s. He used a M-70 win in .243, that he bought new in 1954, that had the barrel shot out on it. He has since shot 4 more barrels out and just put his 5th 6x284 barrel on it last summer. He has shot out 3 Douglas and 1 Schilen barrels over the past 40 years. We use our mainly for groundhogs and other varmints and critters. He has the same 15x Unertl Utra Varminter scope on his pre-64 M-70 6x284, that he installed back in the mid-1960' s. He has a 26" heavy Schilen match grade barrel, 1.200 at muzzle on it, and it is in the same Fajen Varminter stock that he made back in the mid-1960' s. His current load is 54.5 grains of IMR-4350 and a Sierra 85gr HPBT. He is currently using Hornady 6.5x284 match brass neck down to 6mm. He has truned his necks down an dtrimmed them slightly to uniform them and drilled the flash holes out to .081" t ounifrom them. His groups are in the .250" on a good day but below .5" eve on a bad day.

I built my 6x284 back about 15 years ago. I used a Rem. M-700 long action, so I could have of room to seat the bullets out as far as I needed to. just installed my 2nd barrel on it a couple months ago. I now have a 28" Mcgowen match grade on it, that is 1" at muzzle. I have a 24x Unertl Programmer on it and a Fajen " A" fancey walnut varminter stock. My current load has yet to be determined, because I have not been to the range yet to work up loads. My load for the previous barrel was 54 grains of IMR-4350 and 85gr Sierra HPBT. It grouped right at the .400" range, and was very consistant. I am hoping to get a load in the .250" range that is just as consitant. I am working on a fresh batch of Hornady 6.5x284 brass now, weighing them, segragating them by weight, turning and trimming necks, drilling flash holes, ect. I think I an going to try IMR-4831 powder, starting in the 54 grain range and working up to the 57-58 grain range, in half grain increments, and 80gr Nosler ballistic tips to start with. If 4831 doesn' t work, I' ll go abck to 4350 and try 52-56 grains and see how that works.

I also have 2 6.5x284' s that I have built, one a 6.5 pound light deer hunting rig and another a 16 pouund heavy barreled 1,000yd competition rig. The 6.5x284 is an outstanding round in it' s own right. IMHO, you can' t go wrong with a round built off the .284 Win case.

eldeguello

I use a RCBS .25/.284 trim die to size my cases down to .25, then the RCBS full-length die to get it to 6mm. However, today, I think I would just buy some Norma or Lapua 6.5/.284 cases, as I hear these will size down to 6mm with just the regular 6mm/.284 sizing die. I have found two powders which work well for me, the Norma MRP and Hodgdon H4831. I have not tried Alliant RE 22 or 25, or any of the Vituvuori powders, but some of these should also be good in it!!

6-mag

Thanks for the help!!!
I will go to the gunshop and ask my best option on the resize, I have a RCBS reloader.
I didn' t get to try it out on a hog but my son did get his Aoudad and Mouflon.

One shot, why are you going through so many barrels? Do y' all shoot that much, the loads you are shooting are light and not hot.

1SHOT_1KILL

Keep in mind these were heavy barreld varmint rigs. When a varmint rig will not keep groups under 1/2" and consistantly open up to 3/4" -1" groups, and you know the loads, brass, etc. are correct, then it time to supsect and inspect the barrel, or throat is gone away a tad to be exact. This can be expected any time after 4,000 rounds. When the throat starts to go away, I put in a fresh barrel. Yes, we do shoot them that much. I go through approximately 8,000-10,000 of various rifle rounds a year, just myself.

The steel of old Douglas barrels, of the 60' s, 70' s, even the 80' s, were on soft side, too soft in my opinion. They were just to soft to give any kind of long term barrel life. Reamers and cutting tools would go through them like a hot knife through warm butter. That is why I don' t and won' t use Douglas barrels anymore. Anyway, those old Douglas barrels have made many good muzzle brakes. A couple of our better old 6x284 barrels have had 2" of the chamber end cut off, re-threaded and re-chambered in .240 Gibbs. This cleaned up the old chamber, the old threads, and got back to fresh lands.