I just found a Ruger No 1A that has been rechambered from 7x57 to 284 Winchester. Is there any real advantage to this? It`s a gorgeous little rifle, best wood I`ve seen on a No 1 in a long time. How does the 284 behave in that 22 inch barrel?

Thanks.
Rob

It will exactly duplicate a 280 or 270 in a 22" barrel. The cartridges are ballistically identical. The advantage of of the 284 was the shorter overall cartridge length. This is of no benefit in a No. 1. Neither is it a disadvantage.

The short fat cartridge advantage claims for the WSM's and the RUM and RSAUM will also apply to the 284, since it is of identical design and came along 30 years earlier. Unfortunately, claims are all they are; they don't exist in the real world with duplicate powders and pressures.

My personal preference would have been to leave a 1A in 7x57. I think a 284 would be better served by a 1B. I don't believe a 22" barrel is adequate to burn an 06 case load of powder with a lot of bullets, and most No1's look better with a 24 or 26" barrel.

I got a new Ruger #1A in 7mm Rem Mag with a 22" barrel in 1969. It handled so well that I shot and hunted it quite a bit. In fact so much that the barrel wore out!

I could look up the chrono records that I have from that rifle. Rest your heart that the bullets came out of the barrel with no complaint. Powder did not pile up on the ground in front of the muzzle.

I did not matter what cartridge it was, not a hoot. The animals fell down. There is no difference in results from 270 thru 30 as far as I can tell.

I much prefer the look, balance and weight of the 22" #1A to the 26" #1's. Call it a matter of taste but they handle and carry much better for me at least.

One note on this operation that is commonly overlooked, the overall length on this cartridge according to SAAMI specs is 2.80". This was done to fit the Win model 100 and 88 magazine box. What this does is cause the bullet to be seated too far into the cartridge for max efficiency. If I were to do this conversion, I would custom throat it for a 3.18" LOA. I did this on a custom 1909 and get 7mag velocities, believe it or not.

I suspect the barrel is no longer 22". It seems to me that the .284 reamer would not completely clean up a 7X57mm chamber, since the 7X57 is 2.235" and the .284 is only 2.16", almost a tenth of an inch difference. If it was not set back 1 thread, I think you have a "VERY long throat".

[ 04-28-2003, 18:12: Message edited by: eldeguello ]

I've got a 284 in a single shot, an Encore. Mine is 24" but doubt you'd lose more than 50 fps from 22" tube.Wonderful cartridge, especially when you can load it to fit the barrel rather than the magazine. I also shoot a 280 and a 7/08 so have a basis for comparison. The 284 is very close to matching the 280 in velocity. Definiteely was overlooked as a cartridge because of marketing snafu that introduced it in a lever gun and semiauto instead of a bolt.
But the wildcatters know about it...as is evidenced by the 22/284, 6/284, 6.5/284 on up to 375/284, and others, so cartridge supply not a problem.It's a "big/fat" cartridge that was ahead of it's time. My 284 Winchester(and 6/284)are accurate, a dream to shoot and easy to load.

Eldequello:

I guess one must be VEEEERRRRRRYYY specific in their replies here. I only assumed you would understand me to turn the barrel in a turn or two. What I was getting at was to cut a new chambver and tehn custom throat it for a longer OAL of the cartridge. SHHEEESH