Any advantage to building a 30-284

retepnosflow

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Just a learning Question, I attempted to search with the search function for an existing thread but came up with nothing.
Just wondering what peoples thoughts are & if barrel life would be seriously compromised by doing this compared to just shooting a 308???
I know the cost would increase$$$$ but thats not the information Im after.
Thanks for your input! cheers.:cheers:
 
What other information are you looking for?

The only advantage of the 30-284 over a straight up 308 is slightly greater case capacity which equals more velocity which equals more barrel wear! So basically, why bother!

Just shoot it as a straight up 284 with 168 gr Bergers or the 180's. If your looking for it as a F class open gun, again why bother when there are better combiations out there. ie 7WSM or 300WSM and the old favorite 6.5-284.

Hope this helps!

Cheers
 
30-284

This wildcat caliber 30-284 never caught on, I think it duplicates the 30-06 so closely, there's no reason for it. I've seen a couple rifles on the EE and it took some time for them to sell. However the 284 is a different matter, there seems to be some mystic about it; and bolt action rifles in this caliber sell quickly. I like the case and have one rifle in 6.5-284 and am on the lookout for one in 284.. I have a pre-64 mod 70 that may get a new barrel in 284.
 
I re-chambered a Remington 700 for Glen Taylor several years ago. It seemed to shoot just as well as it had as a 308 but I don't know that there was any real advantage to it. The problem with the 30-284 on a Remington700 Varmint was that recoil was a little much for "F" class shooting. Still, it could be a viable long range cartridge if one wants to shoot a 30.
For hunting, I see no reason for it since a 30/06 will do the same thing or more and hold one more round in the magazine to boot. Regards, Bill
 
If we accept the premise that the .30/06 produces slightly more velocity than the .308, and if we accept that the .308 is slightly more accurate than the .30/06, the .30-284 should provide the best of both worlds; .308 accuracy with .30/06 capacity. Is the advantage in velocity or accuracy enough to exploit? Who knows. In the shooting game, theoretical advantages seem to to become holy grails. Since success on the rifle range or in the field has much to do with confidence, anything which reinforces our confidence, founded or not, has some value.
 
This is an interesting cartridge. I have been shooting a 300 SAUM in F Class competition and it does extremely well using 210 Berger's. The recoil is very tolerable, however, the brass is soft and getting very expensive when you can find it. The only two cases close to it are the 30-284 on the light side and the 300 WSM on the heavy side. There really seems to be an advantage to the short fat powder column verses the long and skinny. For a hunting cartridge I see no advantage but I think the 30-284 would make a very good F-Class open cartridge for those of us who like 30 calibers and want to shoot heavy bullets.
 
It has an almost identical capacity to a 30-06 case, except it can work in a short action. Barrel life, same as a 30-06. Accuracy... all things being equal it should be about the same as a 308 or 30-06. I don't believe an '06 is inferior to an '08.

If you're going to go 30 cal, you need to go big to gain any sort of advantage. The 300 of which Steve speaks, is a good cartridge, and with heavy high BC bullets, it will work very well.

Understand that the only advantage with a 30 is barrel life, but you pay for it with expensive bullets and more powder, and at that, it ain't much better in the barrel life department. Brass... well, you're into Magnum brass which is either soft and very expensive or cheaper with mediocre life expectancy.

a 90 grain Berger 223 bullet has better ballistics than 90% of the 30 cal bullets out there. The 6.5mm 140 Berger is as good or better that all 30's , and the 180 Berger and 190 Matrix in 7mm blow away every 30 cal bullet made.

This is a very good article written by Brian Litz entitled "What's wrong with 30 Caliber?"
 
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