O dear - the 'never to disappoint' discussion on barrel life for a 6.5x284
6 years of shooting 6.5x284 in hunting and competition has taught me one thing - that the answer to the barrel life question is not a point answer, but a range answer (and quite a wide range at that).
Personal experience, and many discussions on the topic of seemingly very different barrel life experiences for this caliber under different types of rifle application, has led me to believe that barrel life (or more specifically throat wear) for this caliber is driven by two main levers:
1) Heat, or more specifically, the temperature of the throat while firing a bullet through it, and
2) The level of angular torque exerted on the throat/lands when the bullet hits the lands the first time - the higher the angular torque, the shorter the barrel life.
In my experience, limit the above two factors, and you dramatically extend barrel life for a given level of accuracy requirement.
How to limit heat? Other than loading down on your propellant, don't shoot long strings with short intervals between shots! I've seen the impact of this firsthand in the difference in competitive barrel life in F-Class between shooting string style F-Class as in the US, and Bisley style (3 to a target shooting in turns) as in the UK/South Africa - from experience I would give a rule of thumb that you can add 50% to 75% to your competitive barrel life in the latter shooting style compared to the former.
And how to limit angular torque on the lands?
1) Shoot lighter bullets, especially for high round count applications like plinking/practicing at the range - there is a difference in competitive barrel life between shooting 123g Matchkings at mild loads and shooting 140g Bergers 'forced to the max' muzzle velocity.
2) Load down to a lower muzzle velocity accuracy node - on my tactical and hunting rigs I typically shoot 123 Matchkings at 3050fps for plinking and tactical competitions as opposed to the 3180 I can push them to in my 28 inch barrel.
Apply all of the above ideas (ie load lighter bullets to a lower MV and avoid long strings of 15-20 shots rapidfire) and you should keep 0.5 to 0.75MOA accuracy on a competition barrel for between 2000 and 3000 rounds. I've done it a few times.
In terms of the 6.5x284 for hunting, I use nothing else for small game all the way up to Kudu/Oryx. Either 130g or 140g Nosler Accubonds give you a G1 BC between 0.49 and 0.52 and put animals down easily up to my self-applied maximum range of 600 yards. Use it and don't look back.
Enjoy the gun.......