Best or Better is very subjective. Better than what ? Better for what ? Better when what ? Etc... There certainly are facts. Facts mean nothing if your preference is either one or the other. This is the case. Yes the 7x57 is great. The 7 mag, 7wsm, 7saum, 7stw, 7rum and 280 are all as excellent a choice IF they are what you want. Clearly all the above do not fit your niche for a cartridge profile therefore they are OUT. Some are close some are not. The two you chose are IMO classics as are some others. They are the only two in the short action non magnum category. Easy to shoot and on the pocket book. Also accurate. Can't go wrong with either.
284 Win OR 7mm-08 OR 7mm-08 AI
- Thread starter AROKHUNTER
- Start date
7MM-08.
If you are hunting game bigger than a deer, and said 24" barrel, I'd say 284.
I have built, and regularly shoot, several 708's and 284's. In fact, they are the only caliber bolt guns I have for BG Hunting. Love both those calibers. I'll recommend a 9 twist barrel.
I shoot 120's and 140's in the 708's, and 168's and 180's in the 284's. The 708 is just plain fun to shoot. And lethal.
Neither are an option for me. Nothing wrong with them, but I already have everything I need to reload for the choices that I mentioned in the opening post.
You have some great feedback and answers to your question in this thread so far.
You have the .284, why not build a 7-08 then build or rechamber to AI then you can compare the three directly for yourself and have an absolute answer to your question..
Well, I am pretty well settled in on building a straight 7mm-08. I believe that it will perform to my expectations and also have the advantage of easy to find components and just being plain simple. I want to shoot the new Hornady 150 ELD-X and also some 120-140 grain bullets. Now I just need to figure out the freebore that will work for all of them, if that’s possible.
Depending on who chambers your barrel, you may want to load the bullet you'll chose to shoot ( Hornady 150 ELD) and load a dummy round to take to your gunsmith. He will chamber it for that setup. Knowing the freebore won't really be necessary. He will let you know what that is. Unless you wanted a certain neck diameter or AI chamber, he may just run a saami reamer and unithroater to get the freebore you'd need for that dummy round.
If I was sitting on a few hundred cases of .284 I would look at improving it, go to 40 degree shoulder and taking it out to .488", this process would shorten the Case somewhat and then you could run a longer Bullet in a Short Action. Just a thought.
(.284 KMR is .484" w/40* Shoulder)
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If not, it's real close
the 284 Shehane keeps the 35 degree shoulder, it simply blows out most of the taper in the case to increase capacity.
PS: my first deer rifle was a 7mm08 out of a 22inch barrel A-bolt. It shot the 139BTSP into cloverleafs at 100. also tried the 150 class bullets, which were absolutely devastating on the biggest 10 pt I ever shot. I have shied away from the 284 in this thread, but I would really like to have one.... in a long barrel target rifle.
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I've been shooting 284 LR prone rifles with 28"-30" bbls since 2006 in 3x1000 any/any matches. 180gr Berger & JLK VLDs performed very well with H4831, even though I was loading for just barely 2800fps. It's still an excellent choice IMHO, since I'm a sling shooter, not into F-Class.
Recently put a 26" sendero contour bbl on a trued SA M700, chambered for 7-08 Improved 30*. Heaviest bullets I've shot at 600 out of this rig are S168MKs, with a variety of medium/slow powders; it shoots pretty well with most of the loads I've tried, and is a very pleasant rifle to shoot. If I were going to hunt with it, I might decide to trim the bbl to 22" - or not. As good as it shoots at 26", I'd kind of hate to mess with it. Recoil is what I consider mild, and I'd bet Sierra 140 GameKings would shoot great through it, which would reduce recoil even further. Much as I like my 284s, I'd prefer to hunt with this 7-08 Imp 30*. Would likely refrain shooting at live game beyond 600 with it, but that's not much of a handicap in most cases.
Recently put a 26" sendero contour bbl on a trued SA M700, chambered for 7-08 Improved 30*. Heaviest bullets I've shot at 600 out of this rig are S168MKs, with a variety of medium/slow powders; it shoots pretty well with most of the loads I've tried, and is a very pleasant rifle to shoot. If I were going to hunt with it, I might decide to trim the bbl to 22" - or not. As good as it shoots at 26", I'd kind of hate to mess with it. Recoil is what I consider mild, and I'd bet Sierra 140 GameKings would shoot great through it, which would reduce recoil even further. Much as I like my 284s, I'd prefer to hunt with this 7-08 Imp 30*. Would likely refrain shooting at live game beyond 600 with it, but that's not much of a handicap in most cases.
Dennis, you could start trimming down to 23". It will still shoot.
Couple of mine are 22" and 23", and they are 1/2 moa rifles (out to 400) all day long. With #4 and #3 barrels. 400 is usually as far as I will shoot game with my 708's, and 425 is the farthest I've killed anything. Flattened a 250# boar where he stood...with a 140 Berger.
Couple of mine are 22" and 23", and they are 1/2 moa rifles (out to 400) all day long. With #4 and #3 barrels. 400 is usually as far as I will shoot game with my 708's, and 425 is the farthest I've killed anything. Flattened a 250# boar where he stood...with a 140 Berger.
Well I know this is an old thread, but I shot an old A-Bolt in 284 for years as my main hunting rifle with a 22” barrel. The A-bolt because of the detachable mag was limited to 2.8” OAL. But the rifle had a lot of freebore and permitted hand loaded 145 Speer BT to exceed 3,000 FPS with IMR4350 and even more with RL17. 120 TTSX really smoked out of it. I would still be shooting it if I hadn’t Burned out the barre! I would prefer it on an action that permitted 3.0” OAL but I never wanted for velocity and the animals didn’t know my OAL! I do love my 7-08 as well for hunting, but mainly now using a 270 with 110 TTSX’s at 3500 FPS and it’s like a 257 WM.
Dave
Dave
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