(1)After shooting the 6/284 will I be happy with the 7-mag. I plan on working up a 140 gr load and bring down that factory trigger. I know I'm going to miss that 85 gr nozzler.
I think so! I shot an elk with my 7 Mag. in October, using the 175-grain Nosler Partition. The critter hit the ground so fast, when I rcovered from the recoil, he had disappeared from view. There were two other bulls with him (which were in the brush, and I had not seen them) and these two ran out to the side. I thought one was the one I had shot at. I didn't get reloaded fast enough to shoot at him again before he was in the timber again. I Went over to where the elk I fired at had been standing to look for blood, and lo and behold! There he was, lying behind a log!
Be advised that the 7 Mag. has a little more noticeable recoil than the 6mm/.284! But it is no worse than a .30/'06!! Mine (Ruger No. 1B) will fire a 140-grain bullet at right close to 3400 FPS! There are some people who use the 140 Nosler for everything, includiong moose, elk & grizzly bears with perfect success. I'm a heavy bullet man, and my one concession to Elmer Keith when using the "little piddly" 7 Mag. is to use 175-grain bullets in it.
(2) Scope question: I have both the VX-ll 3x9x50 on the 270 and the VXlll 3.5x10x50 on the 6/284. I've shot the VX-lll on the 6/284 for 2 years and only have shot my sons once, I can't remember there being any differance in the 2 scopes at a 100yrd range. Question is the VXlll worth the extra $100.00??
NO!! I have a Vari-XII 2-7X, and a Vari-X III 2.5-8X. I personally don't see any diffference in their optics or the accuracy of their adjustments. My understanding is that the
"Vari-X I, II, and III" scopes are being replaced with a line called
"VX I, II, and III", which will have essentially the same power scopes in them that are in the current Vari-X lineup. What the differences in optics, lens couatings, and adjustment setups will be, I don't know!