284 hunting rifle......

[longbow]

Heres my old 25 year old hunting Buddy. A Lilja 24" #3 barrel, Brown Precision stock, Long mag well cut down to take 3.1" loaded round. Bolt release cut back to eject loaded round if need be. Throated for 140 gr Barnes Bullets. 12 elk, one Moose, deer and bear. I dont need anything else. Longest shot 360 yds large cow elk. Everything has been one shot kills, total pass thru, I see no reason to shoot anything larger! Sold my 338,7mm mag,30-06,308,and 243 and built this up. Its been a pleasure packing it all these years. Took the other $$$ left over and started shooting BR. See ya.....

 

[EBaker]

Love traditional style rifles!

 

[Dubbo]

Nice rig, is this built on a short action? If yes how did you get to 3.1" what box, spring, follower and bottom metal are you using?

 

[longbow]

Built by Jim Lutes, Whitewater Kansas. This was his working Man's mtn. rifle for sheep. He took a long mag well and cut it down so A 3.1" loaded round would fit in to compensate for longer Barnes Bullet and alittle more powder. Have to cut the bolt release back for the extra clearance . 9 twist Lilja for the 140 Barnes was my choice, has worked great. Originally a Mcmillian stock blind mag, I restocked in a Brown Precision to drop another pound or more off the gun and added hinged floorplate. Was half the price of a Ultra Lite Arms back then. Brownells Epoxy Paint to touch up every couple years has kept it looking very nice. As I said...no need for anything else, this will do it all. I guess I should post a Pic of my Bat SV ( bought in 2000) 30BR,6 Dasher switch barrel with Suppressor...nice rig also. thanks....

 

[FeMan]

That is the perfect hunting rifle in my book and way before the rest of the world caught on!. I am going to build a 284 for hunting on a Tikka T3 long action for the 168 Barnes LRX and if it shoots like my comp guns, I'll retire the rest of the hunting arsenal.

 

[longbow]

Originally was going to use a Sako Action. Jim advised a Rem 700 , alittle lighter,stainless,could install Jewell trigger in future......

 

[normmatzen]

I grew up hunting in California where the black tail dominate. Started with various Mod 94's and then a.35 Rem Auto. All brush guns but most deer are taken at less than 50 yds!
Got a Savage 30-06 and used it a few years.
Got into long range BR and learned to build my own guns.

Logically, I thought the old 7X57 would make the ideal hunting rifle.
Got a VZ24 Mauser action, added a better trigger and safety followed by machine polishing the bolt in a wooden home-brew jig. Then went bold for a barrel and found a surplus Mauser large ring 7X57. Had the barrel chambered for the action and cut to 24". Microfit laminate stock and 2-10 Weaver scope and I'm good to go.

Gun wouldn't shoot for beans till I learned to jump the devil out of Barnes solid 140 gr bullets and it is a <1 MOA gun!

 

[Beruisis]

[QUOTE="normmatzen,

Logically, I thought the old 7X57 would make the ideal hunting rifle.
Got a VZ24 Mauser action, added a better trigger and safety followed by machine polishing the bolt in a wooden home-brew jig. Then went bold for a barrel and found a surplus Mauser large ring 7X57. Had the barrel chambered for the action and cut to 24". Microfit laminate stock and 2-10 Weaver scope and I'm good to go.

Gun wouldn't shoot for beans till I learned to jump the devil out of Barnes solid 140 gr bullets and it is a <1 MOA gun![/QUOTE]

Normmatzen,
I thought along the same lines, went with the 7x57 (9.5 twist barrel) but still trying to get the 140 & 150 gr bullets to shoot.
Beruisis

 

[normmatzen]

Beruisis,
I don'y know if you are using a military surplus 7X57 barrel as I am, but my barrel has a long leade due to the slop in military weapons shooting dirty ammunition as well as originally the 7X57 shot 175 gr round nose bullets.
I started out shooting A-MAX 162 gr and I got them to shoot real well. Then I shot a small buck and a small pig within 25 minutes and both animals had huge exit wounds! So, I switched to the Barnes TTSX 140 gr. I loaded them long and couldn't get them to shoot! I very seriously considered re-chambering my last 284 WIN bench rest gun's barrel for the 7X57.
Then, I read an article where Barnes recommends large jumps for their bullets. Now, I seat to the point half the bearing bands are in the neck.
Now the old WWII barrel shoots less than half a minute! I use 47.6gr of RL-17 in W-W cases. I skim bedded the action as well as dressing up the original factory pillar bedding. Most folks don't know Mauser rifles were pillar bedded from the factory and remove or eliminate the rear pillar when re-stocking the action. Bad idea!

 

[longbow]

You want to jump a Barnes 50 thou, I still do it with the newer bullets. But you had to do it with the older ones and even the blue ones...really liked those. As long as A guy uses Barnes, a 140 gr will drop anything out the with a total pass thru on both lungs. I will say the 360 yd Cow I killed went the farthest, about 70 yds...but 60 of those yds she was sliding down the Mtn in the snow!

 

[Beruisis]

You want to jump a Barnes 50 thou, I still do it with the newer bullets. But you had to do it with the older ones and even the blue ones...really liked those. As long as A guy uses Barnes, a 140 gr will drop anything out the with a total pass thru on both lungs. I will say the 360 yd Cow I killed went the farthest, about 70 yds...but 60 of those yds she was sliding down the Mtn in the snow!

Longbow, did you ever use that bullet to punch through both front shoulders. I would think it'd be ideal for that.
I intend to try the jumped bullet.
Thanks.

 

[longbow]

Here are the only two bullets ever recovered. The 284 shooting the Barnes old style 140 grain. My worst shot! I had an opening thru thick brush at 70 yds on this Gigantic Roosevelt Cow Elk. Bigger than any Idaho/Montana Bull, killed in Oregon. I hit the ball joint dead on, thru cow and drilled and busted the other ball joint. Should of waited another second, oh well. Still weighs 119 grains...now that is impressive for a bullet holding together! The 150 grain old style Barnes with my Sako 308 before I built the 284 on a Muley Buck 250 yds angle shot skylight on ridge. Hit just in front of rear leg passed thru all vitals and stopped up in his briskit, bullet went at least 3', perfect pedals!

 

[Cakes]

The .284 is a wonderful cartridge! Put on a long action to seat bullets long and one's hard pressed to find something "significantly" better. My f-open rig is a straight 284 and my "mtn" rifle is also a 284 on a early Pierce long action. Do shoot the 160-168 range bullets for hunting and they have so far never failed me. I too love to recover the bullets if able. Dumped a nice bull this fall with a 168 vld that wasn't a pass thru and 2 of us spent 30 minutes dissecting it and had to call it quits. If they would have started this cartridge around a long action instead of the Model 88, It might IMO have outpaced the good ole 270 over time. I guess thou the .270 had about a 38 year head start!! Eric in DL

 

[Beruisis]

Here are the only two bullets ever recovered. The 284 shooting the Barnes old style 140 grain. My worst shot! I had an opening thru thick brush at 70 yds on this Gigantic Roosevelt Cow Elk. Bigger than any Idaho/Montana Bull, killed in Oregon. I hit the ball joint dead on, thru cow and drilled and busted the other ball joint. Should of waited another second, oh well. Still weighs 119 grains...now that is impressive for a bullet holding together! The 150 grain old style Barnes with my Sako 308 before I built the 284 on a Muley Buck 250 yds angle shot skylight on ridge. Hit just in front of rear leg passed thru all vitals and stopped up in his briskit, bullet went at least 3', perfect pedals!

This is good stuff guys. Recovered bullets speak volumes to me as well.
I have easy opportunity to rechamber my 7x57 to 284 but still have a few more loads to test,

 

[Craig Parker]

My old Ruger77 with the tang safety got rechambered to 7X57AI in 1968. It really liked Old style Nosler's, 55gr. H4350. 50+ Caribou later, I found someone who wanted it a lot. I kinda miss that gun.

 

[Beruisis]

If one would rechamber from one cartridge to another, using the same barrel, can you expect a possible increase in accuracy as the bullet is still going down the same barrel???? Just wondering.

 

[loaders_loft]

That is the perfect hunting rifle in my book and way before the rest of the world caught on!. I am going to build a 284 for hunting on a Tikka T3 long action for the 168 Barnes LRX and if it shoots like my comp guns, I'll retire the rest of the hunting arsenal.

Did you build this rifle? I'm considering the same thing. Please tell me about it. 8 twist?
Thanks

 

[longbow]

In second post...Jim Lutes Whitewater Kansas built the gun.He is now seeing Build Bulls everyday! ...he passed on afew years back.A GOOD Gunsmith reading this can decifer how to go about doing this build. The 9 twist Lilja has worked perfectly with the 140 Barnes.......

 

[loaders_loft]

Thanks for the quick response but actually I was asking about the tikka that FeMan was considering building.

 

[Clancy]

Nice rifle OP.

I am to the point now that I may never build another rifle. I’ve got enough to just maintain them.

If I ever did though, it would no doubt be a 284 Win.