Thread: . 284 Winchester

I've had a .284 Win for the past few years where it was a reamed out 7mm-08 T3 by Gunworks who did a dam fine job. The barrel was cut back to 16 inches with a DPT suppressor and that rifle simply just shoots. I've always run 150 gr Sierra (#1913) with AR2209 which give me a 2 inch grouping at 300 mtrs with some necked up 6.5/284 brass.

I haven't tried any heavier projectiles as I always wanted to limit myself with this setup to 150's and I've always run AR2209 as I wanted some RE17 but that powder was just hard to obtain, perhaps supply for it now is different but I've also heard mixed reports on that powder being temperature sensitive.

With my loads I've shot heavy bodied Red stags out to 300 mtrs dropping them like a sack of the proverbial and even knocked over a Bull Thar last year out to 420 mtres but I also found the 150's were just a bit too heavy for Fallow where the projectile would pass through an animal not dumping all of that energy into the deer or expanding creating that desired bullet channel so I figured a lighter projectile for Fallow is more desireable. On Sika they were fine, certainly a large exit hole and a blood trail a blind man could follow.

When I initially tested my .284 loads I was getting 2970 fps but I later found I had a dodgy chronograph and later on when I tested with a lab radar I found my loads were going 2570 fps which I consider slow but still deadly!

I've done some other playing around with results as below all tested with a lab radar:

.284 Win, Federal Large Primer, 150 gr Sierra
53 gr RE17 = 2693 fps
54 gr RE17 = 2797 fps
55 gr RE17 = 2871 fps
56 gr RE17 = 2934 fps

53 gr AR2209 = 2570 fps
54 gr AR2209 = 2616 fps
55 gr AR2209 = 2675 fps

Accuracy was not as good as what AR2209 would give me but perhaps with some playing around with seating depth or another projectile in the 150 gr range such as a 150 gr BT the accuracy would improve?

I also considered switching down to a 140 gr projectile and looked on the net and read somewhere of an American hunter who swore by his .284 with a 140 gr partition projectiles that he hunted all of North America's game extensively with so I tried some 140 BT's which I had on hand and the results are as follows:

.284 Win, Federal Large Primer, 140 gr Ballistic Tip
54 gr RE17 = 2812 fps
55 gr RE17 = 2894 fps
56 gr RE17 = 2958 fps

Again accuracy wasn't as good as the my main load but groupings were still around the 1.3 inch from memory.

I've owned a .280 Rem (first in Sako AV action & second in a T3) before and between the two I find the .284 better as it can be run on a shorter barrel where as the .280 Rem needs that longer barrel, the .284 is also a more versatile cartridge in the Tikka actions which is what most people are running them in but that's just my opinion and experience on the two.

If I was to build another .284 I wouldn't go to a 16 inch barrel. My minimum would be 18 inches just so I could have that little bit more speed.

Powders to try have always been AR2209, next is Superformance and the best for speed is RE17

What I plan for the near future is to swap out my 16 inch barrel and putting on a longer 20 inch barrel as we now live here in the South where I'll continue to run 150 Sierras but I'm also keen on a good 140 gr load so I have been pondering the thought of a Berger 140 VLD which I might just have to try.