Should this calibre be in a long or short action?

I have one built on a Rem short action. It was built by Rich Reiley of High Tech Customs. It was built as a light weight mountain rifle. The short action works well with the box opened to 3.2". If I wanted a heavier long range/target/varmint rig I may go long action.

Mine is on a Small Ring Mauser built as a sweet, lightweight hunting rifle.
Doug

If you have the box of SA opened up by a competent smith it works fine in a SA. If you don't use a long action or you will never get the full potential out of the cartridge. Be sure that the smith doesn't throat it so short that you are comprimising the powder capacity of the case.

PaPa 260

I went thru tjis when I was going to rebarrel my M700. Like Papa said, w/o reworking the magbox, it's just not worth the trouble over a .260 or .260ai. I went w/ the .260ai, it's about 2gr more vol. maybe 50-75fps.

Long action ,deep throat. roger

MMMMMM! I'd love a 6.5-.284, but I've just bought a NIB 6.5x57mm and have not finished playing with it yet. Agree with fred though, the .260ai is probably tops.
LLS

question.

The BR guys burns the throat/barrel in about 1200 rounds with the 6.5x284, now does anybody know what barrel life would be downloaded to 28-2900 fps with the 140 grain bullets?

Should one see a dramatic increase in barrel life?

fredj338 nailed it when he said that the 260 A.I. is the best. It is in my opinion as well. I have one as well and get 2860 accurately from a 25" barrel with H4350 and 2920 from the same barrel with H4831 SC with the 140 gr. class bullets with no pressure. That my friend is pushing on what a 6.5 X 284 will do. I am familiar with the 6.5 X 284 (burnt the throat out of two of them) and like the 260/260 A.I. much better. You can down load a 6.5 X 284 to those levels but you will still be burning more powder than the either of the other two. Throat life will shorter than the other two even with reduced loads. Just my humble opinion after sending thousands of rounds down range with all three of them.

PaPa 260

What about a 6.5x55 AI? Does anybody know if there is one and anything about it?

I have 6.5-284s in both long and short actions. Unless you think that you need bullets longer than the average 140 grain, I'd suggest going wtih a short action. The only reason that I have a long action is that I rechambered an older pushfeed Winchester 70 XTR Fwt from 6.5x55. I mostly use 129 grain Hornadys to shoot deer with the 6.5-284, so the short action Remington 7 and 700 work fine for me.

Jeff

.260remguy, are you single loading your M700sa? I just don't see an advantage deep seating 140gr bullets in the 6.5x.284. Unless you mod. the mag/box, OAL is 2.810" max.

All of my magazine rifles function as magazine rifles, no trouble feeding. My preferred deer bullet in the 6.5-284 is the 129 grain Hornady. The Winchester 70 Fwt is a long action and since it has a rechambered 6.5x55 factory barrel, it has a deep throat such that bullets need to be seated out as far as possible to minimize the jump to the rifling.

I prefer to chamber the 256 Newton in my long action 6.5mm rifles, but have 4 in 6.5x55 in case I feel a need to shoot that round.

Jeff

I have been working with a 6.5x55AI and it has been a great chambering thus far. In an 8 twist 4 groove PacNor tube with 140gr a-max's it has gone under .3moa at 200yds during load work. It is also just a tad shy in capacity to the 6.5x284, so throat life should be improved a bit as well.

I have about 900 rd. thru my 6.5/284. It is a rechambered '96 Swede with a 28" barrel. The barrel looked fine when we did the rechamber. Now it looks like the first inch or so has been sandblasted. Doesn't seem to have effected the velocity and still shoots 1/2" which is as good as I can shoot. I did the same rechamber on both of my grandsons Swede's but they only shoot maybe 100 rd./yr so they should last a long time.Good luck, Mark