Perhaps I need to clarify something. I was trying to determine the twist rate before I bought the rifle so I wouldn't wind up with a rifle that wouldn't shoot the bullets I wanted to use in it well. After the fact, the old cleaning rod method would have been fine. I also don't trust manuals completely as I have several Remington rifles with twist rates that differ from what manuals suggest they should be.

According to the shop where I bought it and Savage's website, this rifle in this chambering is not a cataloged item. They list several calibers but 6.5-284 isn't one of them and when I spoke with their customer service reps, they indicated that they had to do some research on it as it wasn't a rifle on which they had quick access to information. But maybe the simple answer is that their personnel lack product knowledge and their website is not up to date. With customer service being what it is in this country these days, anything's possible!

For example, when I was ordering the single-shot feed ramp for it, I of course had to know if the rifle would have a short or long action. The small shop where I was buying it is only open Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturdays, so having decided to buy the rifle on Monday, I couldn't check the action length until I actually bought the rifle on Thursday. I thought that Savage's two-digit model numbers were short actions but I also thought that due to the Norma version of this cartridge having a longer COL specification, a long action was required so I called another time to find out which length this action would be and was told it was a long action. Naturally, that was incorrect; fortunately, the company from which I bought the ramp thought that was wrong and kept my paperwork out for an expected return request. They told me that rather than trust Savage's customer service, I would learn a lot more correct information about my rifle from a forum like this one.

So far, it would seem that they were right.

Ed