6.5-284 vs. 6.5 saum

[twmule]

what is the diferance in these 2 as far as barrel life, long range accuracy ease of loading feeding. brass hard to form for saum.

 

[GLC]

The 6.5 Saum will give you an easy 100-200 FPS more than the 6.5x284 if you consider 6.5x284 velocites at 2950-3000 with a 140, the saum is more difficult to form as you have to neck it down, barrel life should be less with the Saum than the 6.5x284 I cannot verify this as I have only just got mine.

All depends what you want it for, if It's for regular F class (long range) I would not use either! any of the 7mm from the .284 up to the 7/270WSM will do a better job, i have mine as an experiment to push the limits and see if a 6.5 at speed can compete with a 7mm (i have a 7mm Saum barrel as well)

The jury is still out, I will use it at long range shortly and see what happens.

 

[camac]

I love the 6.5*284. SUch a sweet rifle to shoot (mild recoil) and great even out to 1000yds. My only issue is barrel life. It takes around 100 rounds to get mine shooting well (load trials, running in etc) and then need replacing around 7-800 rounds. This gives you an effective "sweet spot" of around 600 rounds. We shoot 3 * 13 round matches every weekend plus a few extras here and there so that I use on average around 40 rounds per week. Therefore have to replace my barrel every 15 weeks. Often next barrel isn't ready in time with waiting lists. This is a major issue for the 6.5 barrel burners. To go to the 6.5 SAUM for a little bit extra but less barrel life would be a hard decision. If you use it for a few different ranges, and shoot regularly it will be very frustrating replacing those barrels. I don't own a 6.5 SAUM but could only imagine pushing that extra powder and 1-200fps can only have a fairly bad effect on barrel life.
I am thinking of going the other way back to a 6.5*47 for 600 and a 7mm for 1000yds

 

[42769vette]

barrel life is why i went with the plain 260 rem. it is now the fastest but i can shoot alot longer on a barrel and im new so i need to pratice me more than have the best gun

 

[Rust]

Generally with any of the 6.5s, there is a nice node centered around 2950 fps, and the 6.5 X 284 will hit this node nicely with the various 140 gr range of bullets. But getting much past 1,200 rounds of match accuracy is pretty much a forlorn hope.

But with custom no-turn neck chamber (reamer ground to my spec) I can just load up Lapua brass out of the box and go shoot. Well, I DO check the brass before loading but that's it. Accuracy is as good as the previous setup which required neck turning and all that jazz.

Something that cannot be said of the 6.5 SAUM. You'll need to make the brass. Yes, you can probably reach the next barrel node up from 2950 fps. And be lucky to get 2/3s the barrel life of the 6.5 X 284. While doing a lot more work on the brass which is OTL (ie Other Than Lapua).

And while the SAUM could conceivably reach 1,000 with 3.3 moa less elevation, the improvement in a 10 mph crosswind is only about 0.3 moa. With heavier recoil.