RE: bullet seating depth?
Rob
You and I posted at the same time....
I see that your smith is gone at the moment. Just sit tight. It sounds like I might also be shopping for a smith that is knowledgeable. More so than this fellow. His line sounds like BS to me. The 6.5x284 is used with your weight bullet more often than not for LR shooting. It should be throated as such. Coming back later to deepen-- hogwash. That barrel might not last 1000-1500 rounds anyway more than likely for top edge accuracy.
Yep, forgot about deep seating. I don't recall seating depths but here is an example in 223. I used to shoot 75 amax seated long for single loading in the AR. Was appx 2.450 give or take. Then i loaded up some at mag length with was way down in the case and looked ugly they were so deep. It was 2.240 oal. I did back off my charge about .75 grains basically but everything else was fine.
Take into consideration my 223 case capacity is about 25 grains, compare to yours, reduce load accordingly and for a safety measure and shoot if you have to. I still say you really need to find out the throat diameter vs your bullet or you still may be in trouble firing any rounds. Not to mention the neck diameter of the loaded rounds again either. Both are serious issues. Regardless of how bad you need to fire the gun. Its your gun, your money and your life. be careful.
And if you smith can't answer the questions go find one that knows something.
Jeff