.284

[thelastnerve]

Hello all, I am new here to this forum... Thanks for letting me in.
When my dad went home to Jesus, I inherited his model 88 .284 all of the reloading tools, dies and data which is extensive.... among many other guns...
I am very much interested in reloading this caliber, and I have hand loaded for my 30-30 and .308, so I'm not unfamiliar with hand loading. My dilemma is this: the brass he had lying around is badly spotted and suspect at best, I have looked around for more .284 brass, am finding out that its hard to get and becoming more extinct by the day. I have ghosted around the gun shows, and all of the gun stores in my area.
The people I do talk to when looking for a box of ammo or brass here and there say I can shoot 6.5-.284 with no problems.
Is that true?
Isn't it closer to 7 mm mag?
Any help, direction, instruction, suggestion would be much appreciated.
Like I said before, im not unfamiliar at hand loading, but loading up a couple of boxes of 2 calibers doesn't exactly qualify me as an expert. Thanks in advance!

 

[jonbearman]

You can reform 6.5x284 lapua brass and make it back into straight .284 brass with some work. Sometime in june july bullets.com will have new norma .284 brass for sale. This will be match brass which would be worth waiting for in my opinion.

 

[Preacher]

Thats a nice old rifle and it's good you'll be shooting it again.
Check your PM's when you can !!!!

 

[ShootDots]

What Jonbearman stated is absolutely correct. Now if you need it "right away" and you don't have the necessary "tools" to form the 6.5-284 brass to .284>>>there is help. On this site is "DJ's Brass Restoration Services" he is an advertiser here, so he is easy to find. You can buy a 100 count piece of 6.5 - 284 brass sent it to "DJ's" (Darrell Jones) and have him do it for you in record time and with great precision. I have previously used him and know of his work.

I would tell him:
1.) Neck up the 6.5 - 284 brass to 7mm.
2.) LIGHTLY "skim turn the necks" to clean them up to just a touch into the shoulder area;
3.) Chamfer the case mouths and
4.) Anneal the "finished" brass..
Now you have QUALITY brass! And DJ does it in about a 2 day turn around.

If you need it quickly, this is what I would have done.. It would be "approximately" $100.00 (or thereabouts) to have all that done..

 

[Mudcat]

if the OP's brass is just tarnished, clean it up and if it looks good, use it. My guess is its just tarnished from being around for a while. You can always inspect the cases and look for issues once its clean.

 

[thelastnerve]

Thanks for the reply's' and the information!
There is no rush on this. I have purposefully not hunted for a couple of seasons simply because I wanted to honor my dad and hunt (hopefully successfully) with his gun and my loads.
I think my Dad made sure that I got his guns that you can not go and buy ammo for intentionally, and thusly my brother received the ones that you can readily get ammo for... Think he wanted me to learn something?
I'm Trying.
As for the suspect brass, I'm seeing incipient case head separation in quite a few, and I dont know enough to correct that. In others I'm seeing oblong primer flash holes...dented brass (to much case lube?) Maybe im being hyper critical, I just dont to damage the gun and or cause injury to myself.... so yea I can wait.

 

[uncleduke]

I just sold all of my unfired winchester brass on this forum today. I kept some fired brass that have the necks already turned. If you want some to get started, let me know by sending a private message to me.

 

[expiper]

Hi nerve,,,,if you mike the head of a WW ctg and the Lapua ctg you will find that they are ~.004" different,,,the WW being smaller,,,if your Winchest rifle has a chamber that is tight and desighned to fire the original WW ctgs you may have truble getting the moder CIP spec Lapua 6.4x284 ctgs that are necked up,,,,it is dificult to squeeze the brass down that much,,,most people on here have never had a piece of WW brass in their hands,,,they neck up the Lapua stuff and use it in modern day chambers and never know/realize the diff,,,,so I am sayin ,,get some WW brass and if you wana try Lapua brass get someone to send you one and see if you can resize it to go in your gun,,,!!!!the modern day 6.5x 284 is only a few thou, different ,,but enuff to cause issues with your factory WW chamber....Roger

 

[jim_k]

So what if your brass is spotted? Run it in a tumbler for 90 minutes with automotive wash/wax and a teaspoon of cream of tartar. Then shake out the excess water, and heat it in the oven for 20 min at 185 degrees on a cookie sheet. I bet it won't be spotted, and if it has only been fired once, you have perfectly useable brass. Load it and go.