Sa284

[Fuj']

I'm jumping the gun here (pun intended) and what I have been working on
the last few months will start to unfold in the next several weeks. This wild
cat project actually goes back about 30 years, but like most of us, life gets
in the way. Favorite 2 cartridges back then were the 250/3000 Savage, and
the .270 Winchester. The 250 had me piling up the Chucks, and the .270 put
venison in the freezer.....Now I said to myself, " What if I put these two in a
blender ??" I think back then, the closest I could come to this meld, looked
like the .284 Winchester. And life got in the way.....LOL Fast forward, I had
a friend of mine give me 2 Norma .284 cases to look at, and I said, "Hmmnnnn"

Basically was looking for a short action cartridge, that had a standard .473
bolt face, and did'nt have the word "magnum" attached to it. Just a short and
sweet hammer with ease of execution. The .284 Winchester had been wild
catted in most calibers, but I never seen one shortened to fit within' the .308
style family of cartridges.....I have one now formed ( actually 50 ) to start
further progress......Stay tuned !!

[Fuj']

SA284 pre fire formed

Now what I meant about ease of execution was about reamers
and dies. Nothing special in my book was needed other then
modding existing tools or using off the shelf items. I first selected
a .284 SAMMI reamer for the chamber. You just need to run it in
short. A standard .284 FL die is shortened for the final push.
I do like the LEE collet dies, but it's not available in the .284 with
out having to pay extra to LEE for a custom. Well a die on the
shelf that fits the bill nicely with no mods is the 7mm-08. Thought
I may have had to hone the body a bit but it slid right in with no
effort. I'll keep updating as I go. Heading to my boy's garage later.
I hear the mill is open, and need to work on my testing stock.

[Dave Hoback]

Pretty cool. But you are essentially talking about the 7mm SAW.

https://westtexordnance.com/7mm-saw/

[Robinhood]

Pretty cool. But you are essentially talking about the 7mm SAW.

https://westtexordnance.com/7mm-saw/

The biggest difference is that the SAW is based off of the Lapua 308 palma brass and the Cartridge that FUJI is making is made from the larger diameter 284 brass.

[Dave Hoback]

Oh absolutely... I’m not downing it at all. I think it’s awesome to do. Actually, this would be about the “perfect” thing I’d want. But in 6.5mm. Same thing though. The slightly larger 284 case cut down to 308 length, (or x51mm in other words). I have the same feelings you do Fuj. To me, the 6.5PRC with its magnum bolt face just isn’t what I want. Actually, when I first set out to build my rifle I was torn. The 6.5-284 was exactly what I was looking for. But I went 260 instead, as I wanted magazine fed capability.

You got me thinking now.

[Fuj']

Originally I was thinking hard about a .270 pill, but for some reason
the .270's, let alone the .257 lagged behind in development. The 6.5's
went nuts with every maker and the 7mm has marching orders to be
rivaled. This cartridge has some possibility's especially with the guy's
with magazine constraint. Here's a general idea using H2O fills, and note
that the SA284 has not been fire formed yet !!

Using Hornady cases / H20 capacities

.284 Winchester 66 grs
SA284 59.78 grs
7mm-08 AI 58.29
7mm-08 55.84

Once fire formed, I may get close to the 60.5 grain area.

Fire forming will not be that far away. Savage target action
and Bartlein 7mm / 8.7 twist blank and reamer has been handed
over to a friend and newly anointed rifle smith to handle the work.
Ethan has been doing some great work and had decided it was
time to set up shop. This will be his first Savage nut job from
scratch with a blank. I considered doing it completely myself
but, his lathe is open at the moment and my sons is tied up.

So once I can get this puppy to bark, it can bring up other areas
to explore.....That .257 137gr Black Jack bullet that Sierra made
for them, has me thinking !! Maybe look at some Berger .270 Hunters.
A whole new family line !!

[Dave Hoback]

The .284”s are the way to go. 7mm gives some of the highest BC vs weight of any caliber. To get higher one must drive the largest .308’s or .338’s via the Super magnums.

[Fuj']

The .284”s are the way to go. 7mm gives some of the highest BC vs weight of any caliber. To get higher one must drive the largest .308’s or .338’s via the Super magnums.

Right you are Dave !! Mid South Shooters Supply sent me 100 185gr
RDF blems for cheap. I'll give them a 100 % sort this week. I'll choose
the lower standards for case forming and breaking in the barrel. I have
50 Hornady cases ready to go and they are close. I'll probably start with
R-16, then with them formed work up a few between H4831sc and R-23.
I expect the barrel to finish at or near 26.5"....Not too short not too long.

[Dave Hoback]

Hrrmm..... Rl16 and then up to Rl23? Interesting. I like Rl17 for my 260’s.

Im wondering Fuj, how much are you shortening the 284 cases before going in the die? I’m also confused on which die....are you using a modified 284 die, or a 7mm08 die? But that doesn’t make sense either because of body taper & shoulder.


Edit:
Oh good grief Fuj! Here I’ve just finished machining a couple lowers, one for my son’s build & one for a 16” I’m doing...don’t even have all the parts as of yet, and you got me thinking a doing another 6.5mm wildcat! LOL! (As if we need another:stupid:)

[Fuj']

Hrrmm..... Rl16 and then up to Rl23? Interesting. I like Rl17 for my 260’s.

Im wondering Fuj, how much are you shortening the 284 cases before going in the die? I’m also confused on which die....are you using a modified 284 die, or a 7mm08 die? But that doesn’t make sense either because of body taper & shoulder.


I'm using a standard .284 die that I removed .155" off the bottom, then
honed it just a bit to keep the original case dimensions. The 7/08 die
is just for the purpose of having a working neck collet mandrel sizer.
The honing actually was more of a polish the angle and size does not
change much with a shortening of .155". This actually helps and the
reason I chose a SAMMI reamer. it all ends up like I used a tighter match
reamer.

Just for the first 50 case's. I used a series of straight wall pistol sizing
dies to do a series of steps. Once all these steps met at the shoulder,
my buddy annealed the cases for me on his Giraud, then I gave them
the final push in the shortened .284 Winchester die. From there I cut
off the overly long necks with a hardened trim die and hack saw. From
there, I used my Forster for final trim. I trimmed a little extra knowing
I'll need to final trim after fire forming.

In this pic is the shortened die, the case that is ready to have the excess
neck cut down, and the 185 RDF pill. The mandrel seen going into the
top off the die is inserted into the case from the top of the press. This
helps to iron out any donut being formed internally as the metal gets
pushed in. The hat on the mandrel keeps it in place as the case gets
dragged out. Basically a drawing punch.

[Dave Hoback]

I like it. Ya know I’ve often said that eventually I’ll go 260AI with this. But now I think I’ll end up following what you’ve done. I’d do the same with a 6.5-284 die.

What are you using for checking headspace?

[Fuj']

What are you using for checking headspace?

For the initial start, we'll touch light on a case then cycle
all 50. If we find one that the bolt is hard to close on, we'll
back off the barrel until it does. Repeat the process. So I'll
say were head spacing on the longest case. From typical
case measurements, I already picked 3 to start with, and they
are not out of the main pile by much. I ran these back in the die
and knocked em' back a bit. These might have not been annealed
as good as the main pile. I also checked the case weight on these
3. No real variations on these other then .003 longer then the rest.
I prick punched the head stamp on these 3 to find them after forming.

Good luck on your adventure if you try a 6.5 I'll sure be dragging out
the pop corn on that one !!

[Dave Hoback]

Ahh, ok. Figured you might be doing case headspace. Makes sense.

Well, if I do a 6.5 wildcat it will be a ways off. My 260 is still in “new” condition for intent & purpose. I don’t shoot much at all anymore. In fact I prefer the Gunsmithing, firearms building & custom machining I can do. I even find the various tasks of reloading quite a enjoyable & even relaxing.

What have you decided for a stock? I don’t know your preference Fuj? I’m a Chassis person.

[Fuj']

What have you decided for a stock? I don’t know your preference Fuj? I’m a Chassis person.

Most my builds have been based on chassis. This particular work will go into
a Choate just for testing. I have a thread started in the rifle stock section
for this stock. Once I have proved out the Cat , I'll move the barreled action
onto something else, and the Choate will get something else for testing. I like
using some of the MDT product, but no matter what I get, it gets a make over
for that particular rifle's purpose.

Cut my split case today, and boy are them 185's long. At port length, the upper
edge of the boat tail is below the neck/shoulder junction. We will get some real
numbers as soon as I get the barreled action back.....That's a factory Hornady
6.5 Creedmoor 140 ELD-M next to the SA284

[Dave Hoback]

Yeah they are long! Talking about pills pushing .719BC.. 719! It’s difficult to even grasp the concept of the still heavier 197gr SMK’s... And even a couple speciality .284’s above 200gr. Crazy!

You mentioned that whatever you use gets a makeover. LOL! Heard that my friend... I’m using an MDT TAC21, but I’ve machined the Picatinny rail off the handguard, and made my own custom stock. So I get it. I can’t leave anything as is. :becky:

[Fuj']

Figured it would be at least another week before I got any word about
my barrel and action. Ethan sent me an email, that it's done !! He
kicked the snail in the ass.....LOL Maybe by next week I'll be able to
pop the first cap. Maybe one on a beer also :cool:

[Fuj']

(double post !!)

[Dave Hoback]

Figured it would be at least another week before I got any word about
my barrel and action. Ethan sent me an email, that it's done !! He
kicked the snail in the ass.....LOL Maybe by next week I'll be able to
pop the first cap. Maybe one on a beer also :cool:

Oh, ok. What was he doing? I’m apologize for my ignorance Fuj, I was under the impression you work on your own.

[Fuj']

Oh, ok. What was he doing? I’m apologize for my ignorance Fuj, I was under the impression you work on your own.

Normally I do but my son has the lathe tied up with customer work,
and Ethan's was open this week. Beside's; Ethan has done quite a few
shoulder jobs but never a full on "Nut Job" let alone a wild cat to go
with it. Just adds to his credentials for a smith starting out.....The
whole deal is a Bartlein blank fitted up to a Savage precision action,
chambered, and 11 degree target crown. I had him leave the M24
blank at 1.200, and just give it enough clearance for the large shank
nut.

[Dave Hoback]

Gotchya...very cool. I was sure you did your own. Thought I was taking crazy pills for a sec, LOL!

Yup! That’s exactly what I doing next regardless if I stick with 260 or go Wildcat. Bartlein or maybe a Brux, and one of those Bugnuts. Barrel keeps the 1.2” profile. Which is what Savage should have done from the beginning!


Ya know a Fuj... so much of what you are doing, are some of the same elements I’ve had in my head for at least a couple years. Funny coincidence, or great minds thinking alike? LOL!