Well my latest barrel arrived back today from being rechambered by SSK, I had a 15" Encore TC factory barrel in 7mm08 rechambered to .284 Winchester.

Anyone on board ever play around with the .284 in a pistol length barrel ?

Any good proven powder and bullet combonations ?

Ike

[ 11-23-2003, 13:52: Message edited by: IKE ]

I have an ole standby load that I have used exclusively for over 10 years. 59.0 of H-4831 with a 140 NBT with Federal lg Rifle match primers for deer and below or a 140 NPT for elk. This is safe in my gun, but I would advise you to start below and work your way up, since every barrel is different.

Ernie

Thanks for the input Ernie.

I'm really a big fan of the 7mm08 round in a handgun and I have owned or currently own several.

Being fond of the 7mm's I figured the .284 Winch. would be the next logical step up....it's kinda like a 7mm08 on steriods.

I'm interested / somewhat apprehensive to see what the recoil is going to be like in the .284.

I played with a loaner 15" 30.06 Encore barrel, without a brake or porting, a few months ago using factory 180's, to say I did not enjoy the experience would be an under statement.

The felt recoil and muzzle flip of the '06' was greater than my 15" Encore barrel in 45-70 (also with no brake or porting) firing my load of 58.5grs of Varget under a 300gr JHP.

I plan on mounting a scope on the .284 and making up about 25 mid load rounds and heading to the range early Sat. morning to zero the scope and play a bit prior to making up pet loads.......we'll see.

If you use from the 120-150 grain bullets your recoil should be less, even though your powder charge is greater. Let us know how your load development progresses.

Ernie

Well I mounted the B&L Elite 3000 2x6 scope and headed to the range early yesterday morning with 25 rounds of a thrown together load consisting of 46.5grs of Varget and some Speer 130gr BT's....the group hovered around 3" at 100yds.

I came back from the range resized the brass and then worked up five pet loads, of five rounds each, beginning with 48.0grs. of Varget going up to 50.0grs using a Sierra 130gr SSP and CCI BR-2 primers with a OAL of 2.934" and headed back to the range late yesterday afternoon.

For loading data I was using the new Sierra manual which shows 44.0grs of Varget at 2700fps as minimum and 50.0grs at 3000fps as max.....the data was developed by Sierra using a 26" barreled rifle.

The very first load, of 48.0grs, was by far the best of the five tested. At 100yds and off bags I had a measured five shot group of .785.

48.5grs opened up to about 1 1/4" and the rest of the loads hovered around the 2" mark with vertical stringing on the 49.5gr load. The 50.0gr max load was too warm for my gun, the action was difficult to break open after each round and I had visually flattened / smeared primers on all five cases.

With the above tested loads I did not find the .284 Winch. beyond my comfortable recoil tolerance level, sort of like a warmish 7mm08.

What say ye Ernie ?

[ 11-23-2003, 23:17: Message edited by: IKE ]

I have shot the 6.5/284 quite a bit and it likes H4831SC you may want to try it.
Crow Mag

Good shooting!
I'm happy you got an accurate barrel. I have never tried Varget before in my 284. Do you have a Chronograph?
That 130 SSP bullet (I would check and see what velocities they are designed for) may not be designed to shoot at the velocities you can attain and may tend to come apart on big game, especially at close range. I'm just glad you got good accuracy results so quickly. Good to see another specialty handgun chambered in 284 Win!

Ernie

Ernie,

No I do not own a chrony and your concern over velocity and bullet design were also reconized by me to the point I called both the Sierra and Hornady tech lines this past Thursday.

According to Sierra their 7mm 130gr SSP is designed to perform best between 2100 and 2500FPS. Hornady stated their 7mm 139gr SST does best between 2200 and 3200fps....quite a larger stated performance spread on the Hornady for some reason isn't it ?

Going by the new Sierra book they say with 48.0grs of Varget the 130gr bullet is moving along right at 2950fps out of a 26" rifle barrel.

I've heard to subtract aprox 35 to 50fps for each inch that the barrel is shortened and my barrel is 11" shorter than the test barrel Sierra used for data.

Now based on the above and if my math is right this early in the morning, I should be pushing the 130's along somewhere between 2400 and 2465 out of my 15" barrel which is on the border line for the Sierra but well within the design range of the SST.

Being armed with all the above info and thinking the SST would be a better choice in the .284 I went to my local gun shop Friday after work with full intentions of purchasing and working up a load with the SST's but he didn't have any available.

I mail ordered a couple boxes of the 139gr SST's Friday evening but wanting badly to play with the .284 I went ahead and tried the Sierra SSP's this past weekend knowing I'd still have the fun of working up a new load with the SST's after they arrived.

Hopefully the SST's will be here by Wed. and I'll head to the range to test them early Thursday morning while the bird is in the oven.

[ 11-25-2003, 14:56: Message edited by: IKE ]

Ike,
With my 284 Win I have always used the Nosler Ballistic Tip for deer on down and the Partition for elk. Another bullet I would consider is the Sierra Game King. I am using it with my 7.82 Patriot XP and am very happy with it. The Game Kings have a wide velocity spectrum also.

Ernie