6.5 -300 Wby. mag. or 6.5 - 378 Wby. mag.

[Catfish]

Is anyone playing with eather of these rounds??? With the high BC of the 6.5 bullets and the velocity of eather of these rounds they should make a heck of a round for long range shooting. Any info on where to get a reamer and dies for eather of these rounds would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Nobade]

I have reamers for 6.5X300wby and also 6.5X8mm rem mag. Have built a few rifles in these calibers. I don't recommend them. Velocity is not much higher than 264 win mag, which is not much higher if at all than a 6.5X30-06 ackley imp. 140s at 3300 without pushing stupid pressures. You can get them up to 3500 but pressures are nuts. Barrel life is short - 500 rounds tops. Accuracy nothing to get excited about. Powder selection is extremely limited. Difference between a working load and an overload is almost nothing. Temperature matters a lot - must have summer and winter loads. I'd be glad to build you one if you want it, but personally 6.5X30-06 IMP is as big as I would go in 6.5 bore.

[Catfish]

Nobade you sure know how to through cold water on an idea. I can get hold of a 6.5-06 reamer so I may just go with that, or with the 6.5-284 as I have alot of brass for that round that I picked up to neck down to 6 - 284. I also noticed that the brass for the weatherby rounds was alot higher. What I really should do is to stick with the 6 - 284 as I have 2 of them now and also have that reamer. Thanks for the cold water, I think I`ll forget it, at least for now.

[Nobade]

Well, sorry to be a bummer but I hate seeing folks waste time and money chasing things that have already been explored. As for that 6.5X284, those work great. Don't last terribly long at full throttle, but usually shoot lights out and go just as fast as the bigger cartridges if you want them to. Run sleek 139+ grain bullets from one at 2950 fps and it'll do anything you could possibly need a rifle to do short of shooting armored targets. It'll last pretty long at that speed, and not beat you to death.

I didn't mention it in the first post, but the first 6.5X8mm rem mag we built has had at least four bolt handles put on it. The guy keeps brazing case heads to the bolt face and using a big hammer to open the bolt. The extra 100 fps just isn't worth that.