My Experiences the past year with the .284 Winchester

[FroggyOne2]

Last year I had a .284 built, the chamber work was done by Randy Gregory. He used a reamer cut to Lapua brass specs and with the SIE 175 SMK. The bullets that I used last year were Berger 180's and Hornady 162 AMaxs. So what loads did I use last year, well with the Berger bullet, moly'd, 51.6 grs of RL17. This load shot good till the temp reached a solid 80 degrees, then the load was too hot. As for the Hornady bullet, 51.8 grs of H4350. This was the load that I took to Perry. It did ok, but ran into some elevation. Don't know if it was me or the wind, though I did shoot some of the left over ammo on a calmer evening and shot a 200-12X at 1K with it. So I have a feeling that there were other circumstances that created the elevation. As for brass, I have been using Winchester brass. The one thing I have seen is that the Winchester brass will not last as long as I would like in my chamber, unless you use a soft load due to the diamentional differences of the Lapua vs Winchester brass. I have found that in order to get the best performance out of the rifle, the case prep of the Winchester brass include turning the necks, polishing the inside of the neck, uniforming the primer pockets, deburring the inside of the flash hole and also reaming the flash hole.

This year with the rifle having approx 1000 rounds on the bbl, I switched to the SIE 175 SMK bullet. The load that I started with was 49.7 grs of RL17 and 50.3 of H4350, the RL17 won out again with the heavy bullet. I have hence reduced the load to 49.0 grs due the temp getting a lil warmer and I expect that I will have to reduce it again later in the summer. But now at least I have a good idea of how much I will have to reduce the load. As for the current load, 49.0 grs of RL17 is giving me 2825 fps with a verticle dispersion of 4" at 1K.. pretty nice if I may say so. The bbl now has approx 1250 rounds on it. Now all I have to do is stay ahead of the wind and favor center.

 

[schumi]

Thanks for the info. Good shooting at Perry! Might see you there!

 

[jayran]

Hi froggy I am new to this site but I am having a 284win built with a 28" pacnor 1 in9 to shoot the 168 bergers. Im so excited to get it and start reloading and shooting it. My gunsmith thinks we should be able to get 2900fps with rl17. What do you think? Is H4831 or 4350 a better route to start with or am i not going to be able to achieve decent velocity with those?

 

[Dgd6mm]

jayran, I ran your barrel and bullet with R17 on QL and it will be close to 2900 at max pressure. I did not play with OAL. R17 was the highest FPS and the best BC out of the three powders of choice. Hope this helps.

 

[TonyR]

Give IMR7828SSC a try as well. It will often give higher velocities when some of the other powders you are considering show pressure problems.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Hi froggy I am new to this site but I am having a 284win built with a 28" pacnor 1 in9 to shoot the 168 bergers. Im so excited to get it and start reloading and shooting it. My gunsmith thinks we should be able to get 2900fps with rl17. What do you think? Is H4831 or 4350 a better route to start with or am i not going to be able to achieve decent velocity with those?

If you want speed and accuracy, try N560, it has proved accurate in my 284 Shehane with 180's. Very good speed too!

 

[FroggyOne2]

Jay,

If your looking at using the 168's, I would look at H4350. What I have found is that the RL17 really shines with the heavier bullets. When I was shooting the 162 Amax, I was getting out of my bbl 2920 fps and my bbl is a Rock Creek 8.5 twist. So with your running a 9 twist (though I would reconmend a longer bbl than the 28" that your planning) could prob get there. My bbl is 32 inches long. I already know that after I have gone through the supply of Sierra bullets that I have on hand (total was 1200) that I am planning on pulling this bbl off and will prob use it for a hunting rifle or a tomato stick.. not sure witch yet.

 

[jayran]

Thanks for the info guys I appreciate it!

 

[Switchbarrel]

If the reamer was set-up for Lapua brass and Sierra bullets, why start out with Winchester brass and Berger & Hornady bullets?

When you switched to Sierra bullets, did you get any improvement over the others?

I don't see it mentioned, have you tried the Lapua brass (esp. w/Sierra bullets) yet?

Just getting started with my .284's and looking for insights. Thanks.


-Rick

 

[FroggyOne2]

Well when it came time to buy, all that was available was the Berger and the Hornady bullets, the Sierra bullets were sold out. Just like this year, when it came time for me to buy bullets, the Bergers were too expensive and the Hornady were sold out, but there were Sierra available. And as for the brass, I only had enough money to buy Winchester.