I have a standard Remington 700 short action in .308 Winchester.

I'd like to rebarrel it to 6.5-284,

Does this require any feedrail work?

Mine feeds with no work

However with the short action 140 gr bullets have to be seated quite deep to fit in the magazine. And if seated to just off the lands there is no way they will fit the mag.
I have plans to switch to a long action down the road, I bought a 270 to make the switch but I like it too much to do it.

Mark

I would extend the mag box a bit.

Thanks for the replys guys...it's appreciated!

Very little, mostly just to make it feed smooth. A 3" box helps the seating depth issue. A long action solves the problem. Did you by a reamer yet?

quote:

Did you by a reamer yet?

not yet.....got one?

You can get a Wyatts extended mag box that is about .100 longer but you will be much better off useing a long action. Those 6.5 bullets are L O N G.

A few years ago, I was looking into building a 6.5-284. I concluded that in order to do it 'right' it had to be on a long action. So I figured that since I was building a long action anyway, I may as well build a 6.5-06. Hence, no worries about feeding issues, etc.

A LOOOONNNGG time ago, I built a 284 on a 1909 action. Not a 6.5 but... The Mauser mag box is the perfect length for the round. It is longe than the short 700 and shorter than the long one. I long throated the chamber to allow a loaded 165 Barnes to a 3.120 lenght. It feeds like a dream with very little work to the rails.

I would go with the long action also. I have built a number of the 284 wildcats, and they all really need the bullets seated out to take advantage of the case. I have built a 6/284 on the 700 SA, and that pretty much fills it up. Even going to 25 starts to be limiting.

I built a 338/284 on a 96, and the length was perfect. I just keep the loads mild.

All of a sudden I'm reminded of my .40-.284, built on a 1939 Oberndorf action to duplicate the .400 Whelen in a shorter length action. No problem with feeding and the performance is right on a par with the .400 Whelen/.405 Winchester. A nice little package. Plenty of shoulder to headspace on, too.

As far as the 6.5-.284 is concerned, it is just a modrnized version of the .256 Newton, which appeared on the scene prior to World War I and was the precursor of the .270 Winchester. Modern powders really bring out the best in the Newton, which was far ahead of its time. I have a 1000 match rifle chambered for that cartridge and it is a proverbial tack driver.