Who's loaded the 6.5x284 Norma

[hookedonblacktail]

I was at wss today and was fondling one of those Savage package rifles which surprisingly came in this chambering, in a 24" barrel to boot, for the price I thought it wasn't a bad deal actually. I'm curious to hear about this cartridge from those who have used it, according to one of my reloading manuals the 6.5x284 winchester is basically the same thing except those rifles had very short throats and pressured much sooner resulting in warm 260 rem velocity. The norma seems to show higher powder charge than the winchester in my manuals. Has anybody chrono'd this cartridge, did the extra powder result in some notable velocity increase. Wondering if I should just seek out a 260 rem?
Thanks for any input

 

[dan belisle]

Loaded to the same pressures, the 6.5-284 Norma and the 6.5-284 are ballistically interchangeable. Longer throats let you load equal weight bullets further out from the case, a small (very small) advantage there. It also lets you use longer (heavier bullets (another small advantage). Norma brass is generally better then the Win variety, so yet another small advantage there. I own a 6.5-284 Norma and have had a regular 6.5-284 back when I was enamored of wildcatting every caliber I could make fit on the 284 case. I think the Norma version is a slightly better cartridge, but barrel twist and the quality of your gun build would negate that small advantage quickly. FWIW - dan

 

[Neilm]

I had a 6.5 284 win back in the early 80's built on a 600 action so I had to seat the bullets quite deep. This had a 22" featherweight contour barrel. I was shooting 140 gr partitions at 3000 fps. I don't think a 260 will match that. By the way David Gentry converted this into a left handed rifle.
Neil