284 still popular?

[Tim N]

Hi All
Just wondering if the good old 284 is still a popular round for F Open?
I have a couple of barrels and all the reloading gear but haven’t shot one for nearly 10 years as I migrated to a 280AI which worked very well then got caught up with the 7saum as required for team shooting.
With the recent popularity of the 7-6.5PRC has the 284 faded away?

[superx10]

Hi Tim
IMHO I think that f open gets down to Brass, availability,cost, and longevity, with the .284 W going on the Lapua not making much anymore list and making heaps of the 6.5 PRC brass, this had a huge impact on the .284 W with f open shooters opening up the 6.5 PRC brass to 7 mm. But it is not much good shooting a magnum that picks up a ring at 1000 yards but loses it to vertical. I know of a guy who won a queens with a .284 W that had over 2000 rounds on the barrel,that will probably not happen with a magnum. So barrel life is important as well. IMHO

[PeteFox]

Hi All
Just wondering if the good old 284 is still a popular round for F Open?
I have a couple of barrels and all the reloading gear but haven’t shot one for nearly 10 years as I migrated to a 280AI which worked very well then got caught up with the 7saum as required for team shooting.
With the recent popularity of the 7-6.5PRC has the 284 faded away?

g'day Tim
There is certainly a move to the 7-6.5PRC, but that could also come from ex SAUM users who have have given up because of the difficulties with obtaining brass and have gone PRC.
However the ability to shoot tight groups with a .284 hasn't changed. These two shot at 800 & 900 yards last weekend in the TRA Kings with a 284W with 180 Bergers @ 2820 mv.

800.jpg

900.jpg

This was in pretty much perfect conditions. This barrel (9T Bartlien) has shot 2100 rounds and is getting better every time I shoot it. Barrel life is a big plus with the 284.

The main issue is in the wind, the magnums will be inside the six ring and the 284 will shoot the odd five that is just outside the six, by virtue of the magnum's higher velocity. It's getting frustrating so I've ordered the F Class Products 7FCP reamer and dies , which by all reports is shooting well and another barrel (sigh).
I don't like burning barrels so I think I'll be using this cartridge sparingly.

Anyone got a left hand Barnard magnum bolt or an extractor they want to part with?

Pete

[BATattack]

I don't thing there has been enough people that have worn out a 7-6.5PRC barrel to have meaningful data yet. Also a lot of the velocity numbers Ive seen are over 2900fps which means they are running the case at fairly high pressure. Might not be trashing cases because the lap brass is so good but the pressure and erosion will be up there. I found the SAUM had a sweet spot in the 2890-2920 range so would be interesting to see a PRC throttled back to the 2800-2850 range and see how it compares to the 284.

[jsa54]

G'day Tim,

After waiting for 3 years for 'it will be here in two months' SAUM brass and having a smooth bore SAUM barrel with close to 2500 rounds through it, I had to find something else in the 7mm world so decided to go down the 284W path. Paid all the significant transition $$s and got everything set up...and then of course.... woke up to the news that Lapua was suspending production of both 6.5-284 and straight 284 brass; I did get a couple of boxes of Lapua brass at the time so the 284 is still usable for me and it does very nicely . My 6BRAI was good for Hornsby but not the winds in Canberra etc but I needed to look for something long term, this time with a sizeable number of manufacturers, and the (7-)6.5PRC model came out tops, particularly since Lapua was one of the manufacturers and there were other good fall-backs.

I'm tending to use the PRC more for the SAUM 'lookalike' and I use the 284 to take on some of the workload at the shorter Kings ranges to save barrels. Projectile availability is now also strongly influencing my mix. Re the PRC, I've just gone for the simple straight neck up to 7mm and haven't done all the extensive shoulder and neck work that others have done in trying to 'replicate' a SAUM case. I have sort of settled on 184 hybrids in the PRC with the speed just below 2900 (no pressure signs or clickers etc) and 180 hybrids (or 168 VLDs) in the 284 in the 2850-2880 range.

In recent comps I have seen an increasing number of 284s being bought out of the cupboard, often by necessity, and I have to say many are posting extremely respectable scores in the right hands (e.g. yours). If Lapua had not suspended production, I would have probably stayed with the 284 but having made the primary transition to the PRC world, I still feel very comfortable with the 284 as the backup.

A rethink on insisting on SAUMs for teams might well be in order.....

Cheers,
Alpie

[willow]

I don't thing there has been enough people that have worn out a 7-6.5PRC barrel to have meaningful data yet. Also a lot of the velocity numbers Ive seen are over 2900fps which means they are running the case at fairly high pressure. Might not be trashing cases because the lap brass is so good but the pressure and erosion will be up there. I found the SAUM had a sweet spot in the 2890-2920 range so would be interesting to see a PRC throttled back to the 2800-2850 range and see how it compares to the 284.

I'm finding the PRC to be a 2850fps cartridge - smack bang between your 284/SAUM nodes. I haven't found accuracy to be on par with my 284 Shehane just yet though and still feel like there's more to be gained from an accuracy perspective.

[Dan81]

Hey Tim,
I think .284 has a good future in F-Open in Australia for those who have the brass, They are consistent easy to tune and as you would know, super accurate.

I ran my .284 in Townsville Kings using 184 hybrids and 2213SC (light load 53.4SC@ 2760fps) with 2,000+rounds on the barrel and didn't drop a point over the 3 days. The rifle still shoots well with 2213sc or 2209 and 180-184 hybrids. the first 2 barrels seemed the same.

For someone with your wind reading ability I think the perfect combo would be .284 as main gun and magnums for the longs or a windy day.

I've spent the last year trying/learning the Magnum and yes it picks up a ring at the longs on a windy day but I'm yet to see anything as consistent and reliable as the trusty .284

Hope all is well mate

Danny