1000 yard F class is 6.5x284 barrel life really as bad i hear it is?

[croyleje]

Hello Everyone,
I am getting ready to get my new rifle built and really like the ballistics of the 6.5x284 but everything I read says the barrel life is terrible I have seen people saying as few as 700 rounds and throat starting to erode. Most of the post about the barrel life are pretty old now that the cartridge has been out there are people really seeing these very short barrel lives? Also any recommendations for a 600-1000 yard cartridge? The new 30 cal bullets are making the 308 look good again. Just want to see what your thoughts are on the topic.
Thank you,
Jason

 

[jackie schmidt]

Hello Everyone,
I am getting ready to get my new rifle built and really like the ballistics of the 6.5x284 but everything I read says the barrel life is terrible I have seen people saying as few as 700 rounds and throat starting to erode. Most of the post about the barrel life are pretty old now that the cartridge has been out there are people really seeing these very short barrel lives? Also any recommendations for a 600-1000 yard cartridge? The new 30 cal bullets are making the 308 look good again. Just want to see what your thoughts are on the topic.
Thank you,
Jason

I built my first true Long Range Rifle this past year, and decided to go with the 7mm, specifically a .314 neck 284. I built the entire project around the 7mm 180 grn Berger Hybrid, using necked up Lapua 6.5x284 cases.

One reason I did this because a lot of good shooters are using the 7mm, for the reason you mentioned. It just as accurate, with more BC, with much better barrel life.

But I don't shoot F Class. The recoil of the 7mm is a little more than the 6.5, not sure if that is a concern. But since you are looking at FClass Open, you have 22 pounds to play with.qq

 

[mdlandolfi]

I shot a 6.5x284 in NRA Highpower rifle, sling supported. My PacNor barrel lasted about 600 rounds before it went bad. Barrel life for a 6.5x284 is short compared to other cartridges based on my experience as well as that of several friends.

I now shoot a 6XC at 1000 or a Palma rifle.

I am trying FTR this year and using a 308.

Mike

 

[boltman13]

Hello Everyone,
I am getting ready to get my new rifle built and really like the ballistics of the 6.5x284 but everything I read says the barrel life is terrible I have seen people saying as few as 700 rounds and throat starting to erode. Most of the post about the barrel life are pretty old now that the cartridge has been out there are people really seeing these very short barrel lives? Also any recommendations for a 600-1000 yard cartridge? The new 30 cal bullets are making the 308 look good again. Just want to see what your thoughts are on the topic.
Thank you,
Jason

To answer your question in a few words, yes the 6.5-284 has short barrel life. If you can chamber, thread, and crown your own barrels you can keep up if you are an active shooter. If not as soon as you fire your first match go home and order another barrel. Most matches are at least 70 shots total and will last about 10 matches plus load development and some practice. Precision gunsmiths also are in short supply and high demand. The reason most F-Open shooters moved away from this round to the 284 Win was not that they couldn't shoot good scores and win, but they couldn't keep good barrels on their rifles. The 308 rules in F-TR but struggles to drive the superior BC 230 gr bullets fast enough to compete with the 7mm 180's in F-Open.

 

[bill larson]

I shot a 6.5x284 in NRA Highpower rifle, sling supported. My PacNor barrel lasted about 600 rounds before it went bad. Barrel life for a 6.5x284 is short compared to other cartridges based on my experience as well as that of several friends.

I now shoot a 6XC at 1000 or a Palma rifle.

I am trying FTR this year and using a 308.

Mike

i`ve had to set one back at 400 rnds........
bill

 

[sdean]

If you really want a 6.5 consider a 260AI. Or just neck up 6.5- 284 brass to 7mm.. Nothing wrong with 280AI. I find most bullets would rather be under 3000 fps.

 

[rardoin]

I chose a 6.5 x55 Imp. (specifically the Bob Jourdan Ackley Imp.) for F-open. In my research for a 6.5mm chambering it seemed like this cartridge MIGHT offer improved barrel life with the same performance as the 6.5-.284. I now have 1 1/2 years experience shooting 140-142gr bullets at 2950-60fps with very good precision and, at 600yds, competitive with the heavy 6's even in calmer conditions. I pulled my first barrel at just over 1600rds and it was still grouping 5 shots at 300yds under .9" most of the time. I pulled it to test two new barrels but it is still competitive and will be held, along with its brass, in reserve. The throat has moved out about 0.065" in that time. Being new to the game and spinning my wheels testing many different powder/bullet combinations...some at the 3010-20fps range....I suppose the barrel life on my next barrels will be better as I will only be shooting one powder/bullet at 2950avg fps for the life of the barrel. I have not ruled out a .284 as I am going to shoot at 1000yds this season but, for now, I will stick with the 6.5 x55 BJAI / 142gr bullets and see where I can get with that combination.

 

[Rust]

Yes, the 6.5 X 284 is as hard as you've heard.

And I say that as a 6.5 X 284 shooter for many years. In competition 20+ round strings are hard on barrels and typically less than 1,000 rounds of guilt edged accuracy is maintained. I did have a barrel that looked like alligator skin for the first six inches and was still very accurate but that is the exception. Two of my past smiths retired and it's hard to get quality work done in a timely manner looking for a new smith. Last time around I had two barrels spun up so as to have a spare ready to go.

I'll be looking at a straight up .284 for this rifle next time around as I have a considerable investment in brass all of the same lot #, probably enough to last the fifteen years.

 

[Bill in AZ]

All Depends...

Hello Everyone,
I am getting ready to get my new rifle built and really like the ballistics of the 6.5x284 but everything I read says the barrel life is terrible I have seen people saying as few as 700 rounds and throat starting to erode. Most of the post about the barrel life are pretty old now that the cartridge has been out there are people really seeing these very short barrel lives? Also any recommendations for a 600-1000 yard cartridge? The new 30 cal bullets are making the 308 look good again. Just want to see what your thoughts are on the topic.
Thank you,
Jason

Like many high pressure cartridges 6.5x284 has a short barrel life as compared to lets say 308 Win. There are several factors to this and you can get well over 1000 rounds with great accuracy (assuming the barrel was chambered properly in the first place, your optics are good and secure, etc.).

Some of the factors that lead to short barrel life in the 6.5x284 are:

1) Loading to max pressure or above, surprising how many guys are well over the manual max charges for this round. It is safe in a good strong action, but barrel and brass life suffer.

2) Rapid fire. I shoot my 6.5x284 in NBRSA 1,000 yard competition. When the winds are switchy it makes sense to fire as quickly as you can get back on target so as to capture the present condition. 10 rounds (Heavy Rifle Class) in 60 seconds is easily done with good rests, but the chamber temperature soars which accelerates throat erosion bigtime. If you were casually varmint hunting and shot 10 rounds in 20 minutes the chamber would cool between rounds for example.

My practice is to find a bullet with good high B.C., load up a series ammo in incremental powder charge steps (42.0 grains, 42.5 gr., 43.0 gr., 43.5 gr., 44.0 gr., etc (make 8 0r 10 of each to get statistically significant data. Shoot all of this over a chronograph to find which charge gives lowest SD.
In my case 44.5 gr. of H4350 gave a SD of 3.1 which is great and velocity average of 2890 fps with Berger 140 grain bullets.

I get 800 to 1,200 rounds out of a barrel before I cannot win trophies any longer. Then it is time to cut back the barrel a couple inches, re-thread and re-chamber. Sometimes the shorter "used" barrel shoots better than it did first chambering! I am on barrel number 2, chamber #4 right now. I get about a year on a chamber. If you are going to re-chamber an existing barrel don't wait until it is really horrible as you may need to cut off as much as 5 inches to get into good sharp rifling. I start with a 30" barrel, but have had winning results with 25" barrel.

I am now building a 300WSM rifle for Heavy Rifle Class and then will use my 6.5x284 just for Light Rifle which should make it last much longer per barrel. (I shoot both classes with the 6.5 for 5 years now).

 

[Steveb]

The issue of barrel life with the 6.5 x 284 is dependent on the powder used. If you use H4350 or H4831 ADI powders you will get the short life listed. If you use other slower powders then the barrel life is about the same as a 284 using H4831. I routinely get about 2000 average rounds from my 6.5 x 284's and still able to win matches with high round counts on the barrels. My last barrel went 2200 rounds before crapping out. This current barrel is showing issues at 1800 rounds.

I shoot heavy 6.5 bullets of 150 plus grains about 2850 fps or lower. These bullets usually shoot inside the 180 grain 284 Winchester standard loads.

 

[Mike82941]

The post above by Steveb gives me great hope. I have been shooting a Savage 12F 6.5X284 that had its original barrel replaced with a Rock Creek target barrel several years ago. 2 years ago I purchased a 30" 1.250 diameter Bartlein barrel blank thinking that I would need a new barrel around 1,200 rounds because of all the bad press. I planned on having a gunsmith up in Idaho Falls re-barrel it this summer since I had the new barrel, and I was at around 1,450 rounds even though it was still shooting good. I drove the gun up to his shop in April and every time I could get ahold of him to check on the progress, he would tell me that there were still people ahead of me. At the end of August I decided to just go back and pick-up the gun, re-mount the scope, and shoot that barrel until it died and just sell the Bartlein blank if I could not find a reliable gunsmith. Today, with 1,524 rounds already through the barrel, I shot 2 consecutive 20 round 1,000-yard matches with a 200-13X and a 200-12X, my best scores ever (there was absolutely no wind for the first time ever that just might have helped). I am shooting Sierra 142MKs with 52.0grs of H1000 at 2,808 fps, so not very hot. I also only use Bortech Eliminator and patches to clean the barrel, no brushes, and not pastes. I am now happy I canceled the re-barreling this summer and anxious to see when it actually starts "crapping out"!!

 

[rsmithsr]

the issue is you are shooting f class, it has a large target compared to benchrest. what works for you typically will not work in br, pretty simple.

 

[Mike82941]

Sorry, I guess I should not have joined this "Elite Group" of benchrest shooters since I am merely an F Class High Power shooter. However, I was just making a comment regarding the title of this topic that was started way back in 2017,

"1000 yard F class is 6.5x284 barrel life really as bad i hear it is?"​

I will refrain from making any future comments since I clearly don't belong here. My point was that shooting loads with a cooler burning powder such as H1000 and not loading the 6.5X284 to high pressure velocities of 3,000fps may go a long way to extending barrel life.