calibres

[bruce moulds]

alan,
the quick answer is yes, the 284 is more tiring than its 6.5 offspring.
i had to adapt my style away from free recoil, and shoulder the gun a lot more to avoid the nxs coming into contact with the skull, but am now not even coming into contact with the benchrest model with 1" less eye relief.
as one gets older, the big lesson in life is that most things involve compromise. perhaps the best fopen cartridge no holds barred is something like the 7mm boo boo, but expect short barrel life and recoil.
at the other end of the scale is the 6br, much more shootable & superbly accurate.
the 284 seems to be less finnicky about loads than the 6.5, but both can be scary in their potential on thei knife edge of accuracy which is hard to maintain.
don't think the 6.5 is behind the 284 in the wind. i always found that the 140 berger shot at its best at 3000 fps+, and the 180 berger seems to like about 2800 to 2850. compare berger with berger, not sierra with berger as has been recently done.
the 6.5 grouped better as the loads went up, whereas the 284 seems to prefer lower pressures which could affect a barrel life comparison.
i loaded the 6.5 so that 200 cases lasted one barrel,trimming each loading.
the 284 brass just won't trim, because it won't grow.
don't forget the relative cost of pills. 7mm do cost more.
of interest is that i can't tell the difference in wind between the 175 sierra and the 180 berger. the sierras seem to prefer jump, while the bergers like jam.
the old 142 sierras got so bad in thei variation that i had hundreds that would not fit into batches-an unthought of cost. the 175 sierras at the moment seem not to need batching too much.
the 6.5x47 question arises. apparently it can give 130 bergers 2950 with accuracy. the 130 berger has similar bc to the 142 sierra.
the 142 sierra works well at 2950. if the x47 holds good elevation, it probably lasts 2500 shots, is easy to shoot, uses 80% of the powder of the 284 case in any of its forms, it could offer the budget minded shooter a lot of fun.
bruce.

[AlanF]

Very informative post Bruce. Did you ever try N165 in your 6.5? It promises to give considerably better barrel life because of its exceptionally low burn temperature (was the lowest of any that Henry Childs tested in the US). And another question, how fast did you reliably push the Berger VLD 140s (i.e. without blow-ups)? I have a barrel that likes SMK 142s at about 3040fps. I have plenty of 140 VLDs but am a bit wary of trying them at that speed. Would be a pain to have a blow-up in a big shoot.

Alan

[bruce moulds]

hi alan,
berger 140 gn up to 3010 reliably. these were bullets made after eric stecker appeared on the scene. i had some bad ones made before his time, and to his credit, he sent me some replacements for nothing. have never looked back.
berger 130 up to nearly 3200 reliably.
never tried n165 due to price. tried & always tested with 2209, 2213sc, &2217. 09was always the safest bet with 48 gn being goto starting point.
if sierras or lapuas worked at 48.5, bergers would need another 1 to 1.5 gn, possibly because their jackets offer less resistance to the leade, causing a different pressure curve.
2217 can give the highest speed ,but not necessarily accuracy.