Christmas is on the way and I don't want to be late with my wish list.
next spring i'm gona have a 6.5x284 rifle built. i want to keep the scoped rifle under 7lbs and be able to shoot 140gr bullets without useing up a bunch of powder space.
which action should i start with? Remington short or long action, Sako med or long or Win mod 70.

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born on a mountain, raised in a cave, hunting and fishing is all i crave!

Since the 284 was originaly designed to work through the short action of the M88 and M100, I would stay with the short action from any of the makers you mentioned.

gone hunting,

To meet your specification of scoped under 7 pounds can create some problems.

Your stock will have to be one of the synthetics often called "pounders" as they weigh about 16oz. They are available from MPI and HS Precision. The MPI will require more finish work in general.

The scopes that are available in lighter weights are called "compact" or you have to use a fixed power to save weight. Use 2 piece aluminum mounts and rings.

Light weight barrels are either skinny and short or short and heavily fluted to save weight. Technically you can use a #2 contour for a 6.5 barrel which should weigh about 2-1/2 to 2-3/4 pounds. Most barrel makers hesitate to make these longer than 22-24" for obvious reasons. The problem that you will encounter here is that with a 140 grain bullet seated you have about 60 grains of powder space to fill up. It will be very hard to get an efficient load (read full case/all powder burned) with this set up.

Now, receivers. You can lighten almost any of the current receivers. But no matter how much you do, you will only save a couple of ounces. You can get a Titanium rifle from Remington or receiver only from Prairie Gunworks. This also can save a few ounces. There are also Benchrest receivers made from aluminum with steel inserts.

Or you can get a hold of Ultalight Rifles and get one custom built at about 5-1/2 lbs. without scope.

Bear in mind that all these machinations take time and cost money. Kick it around and ask some more questions.

Bill

I've done some research on this cartridge and the 25/284. The short Remington is too short if you want to use bullets over about 85 grains.The Sako is the same length with a 2.80" magazine.Unless you want to lengthen the magazine box in the Remington the best bet is a short Model 70 Winchester with 3.10" magazine.

If you use a short (medium) action, then you will, as the previous post notes, be limited in how far out you can seat bullets and will have some very practical limitations with the longer 6.5 bullets. Even a Nosler 120 ballistic tip will eat up a lot of powder space in a Remington 700 or Sako L579. If you're determined to use a short action, check out a Remington 7.

If you go to a long action, then you would be much better off in every respect with a 6.5/06.

Either way, it will be hard to hold weight down without some "exotic" methods, unless you make the barrel really light.

the 22" barrel on the Remington Mt. rifle would be fine with me. in fact right now i'm leaning to a Rem Mt. in SS 260rem with a ultra lite wt. ADL style stock, Control lite wt. scope mounts with a 3x9 Burris compact, then have it rechambered to 6.5x284.

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born on a mountain, raised in a cave, hunting and fishing is all i crave!

[This message has been edited by gone hunting (edited 10-09-2001).]

All of that works, but you will loose one round of magazine capacity.

My friends with Burris compacts tell me that they have a lot of trouble with eye relief-eye alignment being very critical. I would go with the Leupold compact instead.

Our M15 Ti series rifles start at 41/2lbs
and we can do a 3" magazine that will hold
two rounds in a single stack super smooth
system.

www.prairiegunworks.com

I would think that a 22" bbl. is too short for a 6.5/284. Mark

You do NOT want to use a short action for a 6.5-284. You will have to seat bullets deep into the powder capacity and on many of the plastic tiped bullets the case mouth goes over the ogive curve (bad) in order to fit into the magazine box. I have played with this a lot, and a short action just doesnt work. You need a MINIMUM of a 3.1" magazine box to use 140 grain bullets. Even the 120's are too long for the short action. I built a .25-284 on a Remington short action and it works perfectly with bullets up to 100 grains, which is what I built it to shoot. Nothing in the box or the feed rails needs to be changed for a .284 case wildcat. The only thing that changes over the standard cartridges (.260, .308 ect.) is the number of rounds that fit. I can get 3 rounds in the box on mine and one down the pipe. If you need more than that, you are just having fun and you have missed your critter . My barrel is also a #3 contour Douglas 26". It shoots well under 1/2" and is in an HS varmint stock. 100 grain bullets shoot at 3,400 fps and 75's shoot at 3,750. It is a screamer and I love it. The whole thing cost me about $800. Flinch

You can use a short action, it really depends on the reamer used to chamber it. I know several guys personally, that use short action model 700's in 6.5-284 and they seat the 140 grain VLD's way out. The only limitation is that you have to remove the bolt to take out a loaded round. For hunting purposes though, the long action would be better as you could then use the magazine.
In a short action, the 260 is a great caliber and you could also do a 260AI. Just a thought...