Hey guys,

Seen a Savage 99 for sale in .284 Winchester, that I'm keen on purchasing. I own a 6mm/284 so I'm familiar with the case.

I've always understood that because the Savage 99 is a rear locking action, you need to FL resize your cases as they stretch. Now, just a thought but because the .284 has a 35 degree shoulder and minimal body taper that is similiar to PO Ackleys Improved cartridges, where there is minimal case stretch, do .284 cases actually alter in length after firing?

I read an article a while ago where a shooter had his .243 Savage 99 rechambered for .243 AI and it made a huge difference in case life.

Cheers,

Michael.

Guess it would depend on how well the individual chamber would accept neck sized ammo only. The addage of FL sizing all fodder in pumps, autos and leverguns generally holds true, yet there are some that willingly take once-fired reloads shot in that particular chamber. Any headspacing problems would be corrected with the once-fired casing. The M99 action has a lot of camming action for a levergun.

What's you favorite load in the 6mm/284? Load mine for medium game hunting and limit the loads to the 95 - 105 gr bullets. So far, the 100 gr Hornady SP's and the A-Max's are giving less than MOA at all ranges.

Kdub,

I had my 6mm/284 built as a long range varmint rifle. My favorite load is the 87gr Hornady Vmax in necked down & neck turned Norma 6.5/284 cases. With 51 grs of H4350 & a Winchester large rifle primer my best group to date is .274 at 125 yards with a velocity of 3600fps (30 inch barrel).

I had half a box of the 95gr Berger VLD's given to me. They are a very accurate bullet out to 1000 yards, and stabilise in a 1:10 twist barrel, so this is my next bullet to work up a load for. I am going to give these a go for a bit of 'F' class.

Best wishes,

Michael

I partially full length size my brass in my M99 in .300 Savage, and have had no feeding/chambering problems. By partially FL size, I mean I back the die off of the ram just enough to size the neck and part of the body of the case, but not set back the shoulder. I smoked a case with soot, and adjusted the die until I got the results for which I was looking, and locked the die. In my Redding press with RCBS dies that's a little more than an American dimes width in thickness that the die is off of the press ram.

Any firearm with a rear locking action is going to be harder on brass. It's the nature of the beast.

When steel or any material is subjected to stress, like 50-60 kpsi pressure of firing a modern cartridge, that material moves. That movement is generally proportional to the "thickness" of the material between the acting force and it's point of restraint. The movement in a rear locking action is that of compression of the breech bolt and stretching of the action. The breech bolt is the link between the cartridge and the locking bolt (the restraint). The longer the distance between the stressing force and the locking bolt, the more steel in the breech bolt to compress and the more steel in the receiver to stretch. In a front-locking action, the restraining materials (receiver locking lugs) are right there next to the cartridge.

Whew! I was going to explain the strain on the cartridge case itself but I need to take a break! :)

Back in a few

A Savage 99 in .284 is a rare rifle. Buy it quickly and take good care of it.

I have a Browning BLR in .284 with a 2x7 scope on it. This is the best all around rifle that I've ever owned. I have had good luck with the Hornady 139 and 154 grain spire point bullets. Last fall I dropped a huge buck right in his tracks with the 154 grain bullet. I would also use it on elk with confidence.

IMR 4350 has produced the best results in my rifle. I only go up to the next to maximum load to insure that the fired cartridges will eject smoothly.

Finding brass is getting to be a problem. Stock up whenever possible.