6.5-284 vs 7-08

[JOSE A. MARINE]

I own this two rifles and are very accurate, but I cant decide on which one to use for metallic silhouette shooting. most of the shooting is done between 200 and 600 yards.

Sierra does not recomend using a 155 grain matchking in the 6.5-284, I want to use it for its windbucking ability, versus the slower 168 grains matchking in the 7-08.

anyone out there has any experiences with these both calibers?
anyone has reloading data for the 155 grain mk in the 6.5-284?

thanks for taking the time.

JOE

 

[AMMOe]

Jose: I have loaded both but not with that bullet or for Silhouette shooting. I am wondering though, are "wildcat" chamberings OK for metallic silhouette? It's been a while since I shot it (20years) but I remember being told not to bring my 6.5-06 out because it was a wildcat cartridge. ~AMMOe

 

[JOSE A. MARINE]

THANKS, I live in old Mexico where we can shoot almost everything we want for silhouettes but magnums, and belive me you dont want to shoot 40 rounds with a magnum at those sils.

the only rule we have is, hunting rifles only, with riflescopes without AO. and in some places where informal shootouts are made you shoot what you brought.

how about passsing some info on the 6.5-284 mine is still in the gunsmiths shop until next week, so maybe you could share/have any info on reloading for it....


thanks
JOE

 

[AMMOe]

Joe: I had a feeling you were shooting south of the border. I am really pleased to hear that you kept the rules to match the original spirit of the sport: hunting rifles and no A/O. My first silhouette rifle was my deer rifle, a 7x57 mauser shooting 140 grain bullets. Almost overnight it became a money race to see who could buy their way into the best rifle and scope. When I left the sport, shooters were hanging weighted rods off of the end of their barrels -bending the rules where ever they could. I was disgusted. As a consequence, of course, the sport diminished in popularity to the point where I don't even know if a match is held around here anymore.

I was loading 6.5/284 before it became "popular". This was 25 years ago when THE powder was H-4831 because there was still a lot of it on the surplus market. There was also no data available so I used starting loads for the 6.5 Remington Magnum and reduced them by 10%. I'm sorry I don't know remember what the final load was exactly but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 grains. I now keep all of my data but back then I sold the data when I sold the rifle. I just took a look at Hodgdon's page and they list 50 grains as a max load of H-4831 with a 160 grain bullet so that 140 grain load was about right. Here is the link

http://www.hodgdon.com/data/rifle/65mm284.php#top

Good luck! and Good Shooting!

~AMMOe

 

[JOSE A. MARINE]

thanks.


by the way, was your 6.5-284 "inherently" accurate? is it a finicky calibre to reload?

what didnt you like about the caliber, why did you sold it?

thanks
JOE

 

[AMMOe]

Joe: I sold it becuase of lack of interest, not utility. It was accurate, but not exceptionally so. No more than any other 6.5. I moved on to another project.

I believe that the 7-08 is more accurate. I have owned one and built a few for other people. It is an inherently accurate cartridge, but most of the 7mm's are. I have kept the same 7x57 sporter for 26 years now and it will still shoot around a half inch for 5 shots at 100M!~AMMOe

 

[fdkay]

The great thing about the 6.5 is the insane BC's you get with the bullet weights, the great thing about the 7mm-08 is the ecenomy of the very efficient cartridge design. I would take a look at the 145 gr gold dot match from speer for the 7mm, if you want to push the 168 out of a 7mm, you may want to move up to the 7x57 loaded to modern pressures. Those 168 MK's are excellent bullets, but they are so long that they take up to much space in the case.