.284 for PRS??

[Daddycaddie67]

I have a barreled action leaning in the back of the safe. I’m thinking about putting it in a chassis and trying PRS. It’s a 9 twist 30” Remington repeater. I’m thinking about 168 VLDs but I have a few 180 hunters in the cabinet.
also should I cut it down to a more managable length say 28-26”?? It’s a varmint contour so not too thick.
Thoughts, comments?? Thanks. E

 

[whatsupdoc]

Too much recoil, being able to stay on target to spot hits or misses is important.

 

[xswanted]

I have a barreled action leaning in the back of the safe. I’m thinking about putting it in a chassis and trying PRS. It’s a 9 twist 30” Remington repeater. I’m thinking about 168 VLDs but I have a few 180 hunters in the cabinet.
also should I cut it down to a more managable length say 28-26”?? It’s a varmint contour so not too thick.
Thoughts, comments?? Thanks. E

What are your expectations heading into PRS type shoots?

If you’re going in with the idea of “giving it a try and see” it’d be fine. Recoil will be harder to manage for sure but the cartridge will work.


If your trying to set the gun up as a dedicated PRS rifle, I’d look at another cartridge.

IMO leave the barrel 30” it won’t hurt anything. Lots of guys shoot 28” barrels with a brake or a 24” barrel with a 9” suppressor and are just fine.

The extra weight and balance would be good for you.

 

[Sheldon N]

I think the gun is less important than just giving it a try and seeing if you like PRS style competitions or not. Regardless of what gun you bring you wont' be competitive when you first start out, PRS is mainly a skill game and you just have to do a lot of that style of shooting in order to get good at it.

The matches can be a ton of fun, and if you get hooked you'll quickly burn out the barrel of the 284 and want to build something more suitable. That being said I can recall a match where one of the top shooters used a 284 and did very well. However he also does very well when he shoots Dasher or 6 GT or 6.5 Creed too.

You have a short action - right? I wouldn't build anything on a long action or buy a long action chassis. The PRS game really needs capability to run 10+ round mags. I bet you could fit 10 rounds of 284 into one of the 12 round AICS short action mags with a +2 extension.

284 Mag fed with max COAL of 2.9 is fine, PRS don't care if the bullet is deep in the case. Run the bullet slow and conservative, I'd say 168's at maybe 2600-2700 fps.

If you buy a chassis, get one that takes weights and buy all the weights. Seems silly, but for this game (and with a 284) it would make it much easier to start out.

30" barrel - I'm guessing no threaded muzzle? I'd chop it, just so you can put a muzzle brake on it. No brake would be very tough to shoot and see where your bullet is going. 26-28" is a good length.

 

[Daddycaddie67]

It is a long action with a break installed. It was my BR rifle so at 16 lbs and a break recoil was not bad, but that was on a bench with front a rear rest. That’s a good point about mag capacity and added weights that I hadn’t considered.
Round count is 735 so making a season on that barrel might be a stretch but then again I wouldn’t be shooting a ton of matches anyway. E

 

[SweaterDood]

It is a long action with a break installed. It was my BR rifle so at 16 lbs and a break recoil was not bad, but that was on a bench with front a rear rest. That’s a good point about mag capacity and added weights that I hadn’t considered.
Round count is 735 so making a season on that barrel might be a stretch but then again I wouldn’t be shooting a ton of matches anyway. E

Personally, I wouldn’t spend the money on a long action just to try it out. By the time you buy a chassis, magazines, fool around with the barrel, etc. you could buy a good “more-PRS-friendly” rifle in a more appropriate cartridge.

I do encourage trying the sport though. It’s a lot of fun, and very engaging. I only shoot a handful of actual matches per year. The .22lr game keeps the skills up and saves a lot of time & $$$. I recommend this even more to see if you like the format before putting the $$$ into a centerfire for PRS/NRL

 

[drop_point]

Look more toward a 6mm BR variant. Stick with short-action rounds and avoid barrel-burners. Low-recoil is a good thing.

 

[Sandstorm]

I say go do it and then decide....Use what you got Sir.
Your gonna get hooked and then look out.....

 

[dgeesaman]

You’d need to watch velocity - my local PRS series has a velocity limit of 3150fps “up to and including 308 Winchester” and no magnum base cartridges. That will limit a .284 to 140gr and larger. I can’t recall if that’s just their series or national rules.

Like the others said, being able to track your shots in the scope is far more valuable than having extra spit ballistically. 6BR are awesome for that.