Action for 284 Sporter

J

JEC

Guest
I am a "novice" regarding "rebuilds" and would appreciate some advice for a sporter style rifle I am considering. When replying, take note that I reside in Canada so when it comes to actions, I pretty well have to go with purchasing a "factory" rifle ...
I am interested in building a 284 sporter style rifle with magazine feed and am seeking input regarding a good action that will work for this cartridge. Are there things I should be wary of in terms of action length, feeding issues, etc? What recommendation would you have regarding the best "donor" rifle. Thanks
 
I have built them from 98 Mauser's and Rem. 700's with equally good results.
 
Assuming we're talking ".284 Winchester", one comment I'd make would be to suggest going to a long action if a Remington is used.

I have a 6.5-284 in a long action M700 and it works much better than some of the short action guns I've seen that will not eject a loaded round without allowing the bolt to travel rearward beyond the bolt stop. While the .284 Win was indeed designed as a "short action cartridge", it is much more convenient to handle in a long action and the additional magazine length allows more flexibility in seating length and bullet selection.
 
Thanks guys. The rifle will be a 284 Win and be used for hunting. I know this is not a "popular" cartridge but I like the ballistics and am always looking for something different.
I will watch the action length. I have a new TC Icon (308) on order and may even consider it as it has a "medium" length action. Not sure what would happen with the single stack clip in terms of modification?
 
I have a 284 that is on a 1909 Argentine Mauser. It feeds great even with the rifle held upside down and it is a true 1/2"-3/4" MOA hunting rifle.
Butch
 
I built mine on a Rem 700 long action that was originally a 30-06 and it feeds perfectly. One piece of advice though...............If you are planning on buying a reamer, Don't order a SAMMI spec reamer. The throat will be about 3/4 of a degree per side. Order a 1 1/2 degree throat and decide ahead of time which bullet you plan to use and have it throated for that. I had mine throated for a 120-140 grain bullet. The original design was made for the longer heavier bullets which can still be accomplished with the 1 1/2 dregree throat and some freebore.
 
284

I have used Win 70 short action, Rem 700 short action,Ruger 77 short action.

Just my opinion, if you are going to use a long action do a 280 rem.
If you are trying to build a "handier" rifle use a short action.

Chris
 
eshell said:
Assuming we're talking ".284 Winchester", one comment I'd make would be to suggest going to a long action if a Remington is used.

I have a 6.5-284 in a long action M700 and it works much better than some of the short action guns I've seen that will not eject a loaded round without allowing the bolt to travel rearward beyond the bolt stop. While the .284 Win was indeed designed as a "short action cartridge", it is much more convenient to handle in a long action and the additional magazine length allows more flexibility in seating length and bullet selection.
Click to expand...

Meaning no offense, but if you use a long action why not chamber it for a 280 Remington? It has a slightly larger case capacity, but not much. Or better yet a 7 mm mag? There is absolutely no ballistic sense in chambering a long action for the 284 Winchester. I've also owned a Remington 700 in 280 and got rid of it because it WAS a long action. Ballistically, it really offered nothing I didn't already have in the 284.

The advantage to the short action rounds is to get approximate long action performance out of a shorter, lighter, and perhaps handier rifle. The .284 does approximate the .270/280 performance. The 7mm mag slightly outperforms all three. That being said, I have not seen any signifcant difference with any of these in use on animals upto elk in size...haven't shot anything bigger.

Seat whatever bullet you choose to reliably function through your action and you'll have no problems with ejection. The myth of seating a bullet out further giving you a significant gain in velocity has not held up in any of the guns I've actually shot across a chronograph. Some guns may have showed a slight increase but in all cases it was less than 50 fps, usually MUCH less.

I've owned a short action Ruger 77 in .284 since 1970, have loaded many hundreds of rounds (all using Nosler Partitions) with bullets up to 175 grains and have never felt there was any kind of problem what so ever. I have also owned a Remington 700 in 7 mm since 1965. Between the two, I use the .284 90% of the time. It IS lighter, shorter and handles a bit better and the animals can't seem to tell the difference.

But to each his own.

Now I guess I'll climb down off the soap box..........:D

-Mike-
 
No offense taken Mike. :)
I too like a .280, but the man asked about a .284 and the point of my post was not about ballistics or velocity gains. I simply suggest that the long action provides easier manipulation with the longer bullets, like the heavier VLDs, for example.
 
eshell said:
No offense taken Mike. :)
I too like a .280, but the man asked about a .284 and the point of my post was not about ballistics or velocity gains. I simply suggest that the long action provides easier manipulation with the longer bullets, like the heavier VLDs, for example.
Click to expand...


Eshell,

I agree, a long bullet seated way out would work better in a long action. But I don't understand the reason for doing this, if it does not offer a ballistic advantage the why use the longer, heavier action? Perhaps if one was only going to use the rifle from the bench, then maybe......
That being said, my response was based solely on the field/hunting use of the rifle, which is what I thought the origonal post was about. If a guy wants to use a short action round, then a short action rifle is called for. IMHO

I think, maybe, that we are talking two different applications.

Just my $.02

-Mike-
 
I am looking to build a short action (or at least the shortest that will function properly) to use as a hunting rifle. I do shoot a fair amount so it will see some "bench" time but I am not a compeditive shooter. My thinking is, that the 284 Win round, being relatively short and fat with a fairly steep shoulder angle, should have lots of accuracy potential. I like shooting sporter style rifles that are capable of 1/2MOA.
I just picked up another 308 TC Icon today (Composite stock / alum bedding block / 3 lug bolt) and it could be a candidate for the 284 Win conversion. I just measured the ejection port and it is 2.68" long. The only Rem 700 short action I have is an LTR on which the ejection port is 2.40" long.
Do all Rem 700 SA's have the 2.4" long ejection port?
 
JEC, the ejection port on the LA 700 (originally a .30-'06) I used to build a 284W on is 3.25"; both the short 700s in the safe have 2.4" ports.

I gotta admit to being a nut about the 284 Win. - always thought it'd be a great cartridge if chambered on an action with a long enough magazine so that the heavier bullets wouldn't have to be seated down below the neck/shoulder junction of the case. The reamer I used was designed to work with S175MKs & Berger 180 VLDs seated out this way, so the long action was a must if I wished to avoid the hassle of running the adjustable cheekpiece back down so the bolt could be removed to unchamber a loaded round. This isn't a hunting rifle - it weighs 15.25lbs. with a 30" hvy. Palma bbl. - wouldn't be any fun to lug around, and it's too long to handle well in hunting situations. But it suits my needs (NRA LR Prone) very, very well, and is currently my favorite 1000yd. rifle.
 
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