anyone with 6.5-284 experience

[ted]

I have a Steyr prohunter that was originally 260 remington and had rechambered in 6.5 -284. Has anyone had any experience with this round and what kind of loads did you use? It has a 25 inch barrel.

[ajj]

There will be tons of information wherever long range competition shooting is discussed. This is a very popular 1000 yard cartridge. I gather that most people use powder in the H4831 SC range. You might start with the 1000 yard board at Benchrest.com.
I'm using a .260 ProHunter in silhouette. Very interesting rifle. Do you have your trigger set as a two stage? Not everybody wants this, I know, but some owners don't realize it can be easily done. By the way, don't take the bolt apart and be careful using a lug cleaning tool. There are two, steel safety rings at the base of the chamber that can be rotated out of place so the bolt won't go in. Easily re-set but not 'til you know they're there. Since your rifle has been re-chambered you probably know all this stuff. Good luck and good shooting.

[charlesshort45]

Thanks for the benchrest.com tip. I knew about the safety rings but not about resetting the trigger to two-stage. What's this about? The standard trigger is another lawyer-prevention tool that are far too common these days.

i am setting up my initial loads with Lapua brass, Federal primers of both standard and magnum varieties, and VV165 behind the sierra 107. I will load about five of each flavor until i find the sweet spot and then develop from there! I'm also looking at 140 gr range bullets for deer, antelope, and perhaps something a bit bigger.

I intend for this to be my last field rifle for awhile. I have found that unless you shoot something for long enough to get really good with it, there isn't much point in going hunting. And when I mean good, I mean Expert scores or better. After all I am using a scope on this thing too!

(just to settle any confusion, I own the rifle. Ted introduced me to this site and we posted the first message from his place. Thanks Ted.)

[ajj]

Now I'm on the spot. I know the two-stage can be done easily and quickly but I've not done it myself. I should just tell you find a more knowledgeable person or a gunsmith but I started this so I'll share what a silhouette shooter told me after figuring it out himself with his own rifle. I hope I don't insult anyone's intelligence by pointing out that none of us should work on triggers without knowing what we're doing and taking proper safety precautions. Here goes: "There are two screws that do all you need.One is the weight of pull spring set by the big set screw under the trigger. The little set screw on the trigger changes the length of the first stage. The other screw is hidden under a rubber plug. You have to remove the bolt and the screw is in the sear that actually releases the firing pin. The screw runs through it and controls the amount of engagement of the trigger. Now I have a 2lb 2oz trigger with no creep."

[ajj]

By an interesting coincidence I was just corresponding with a friend who explained that a "true" two-stage trigger, as designed by Mauser some time ago, begins changing the sear engagement as the first stage is taken up but that some, like the Steyr, use the first stage only to add weight. The moral is to be CAREFUL that you don't get the sear release too light. We don't want the sear to break when we slam the bolt home or bump the rifle. Mine was done by the very experienced shooter who sold me the gun and it's used only on the silhouette range (and the "second stage" is not set super-light.) If I were a hunter, knowing what I just learned, I'd consult a gunsmith.

[charlesshort45]

well AJ, surgery is now complete and successful. I used the one screw to take up the 2000 miles of first stage creep and then made one other adjustment to bring the trigger to 3.2 pounds and reasonably clean. It passed a twelve-inch drop test with a primed case, so i'm pretty sure its still safe for field use,etc. This won't be a target gun, so I wasn't aiming for whisper-light or super-crisp, but respectability.

Based on the word of Those Smarter Than Me at benchrest.com, I won't need magnum primers in this cartridge, even with slow powders. Seems as though combustion is fine because of case volume and geometry. Bullet selections seem to be similar to what I had been looking at too, so I'll keep you posted on how the experimentation goes. Thanks for your help.