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My dad introduced me at age 10 to the 375 Win with a great old Ruger No. 3 carbine! I imagined myself as a big game hunter with Teddy Roosevelt! I commented earlier on this thread about the .38-55, which is almost the twin sister to the 375 Win...love both cartridges! I'd love to have another Ruger No. 3 in 375 or similar. My dad still does all the reloading and bullet casting for us both to probably outlast us both!
 
.38-55 is a good one that is making a comeback in the straight-walled cartridge arena. It can be loaded up and down the bullet weights and powder charges with low recoil throughout. Cast boolits shoot well too! There are some decent rifles still made for it.

Being a Marlin fan, especially the Marlin Ballard single shot rifles; I love the .38-55 Ballard! Marlin developed the .38-55 especially for their Ballard rifles, and it was an instant hit among shooters, whether for deer sized game, or for competitive shooting. And other gun makers quickly adopted the cartridge and offered guns in this Marlin cartridge!
I've got 6 or 7 .38-55 rifles, and they all shoot excellent.
But I like all the old "hyphenated" cartridges from the 1800's.
 
In addition to being lesser known, the rated pressure for cartridges is often a mystery to some.
Did you know the 22-250 max pressure is 65K PSI while the 6.5x55 is only 45KPSI?

I shoot a version of the 243 called 6 SLR (super long range). Whidden makes dies. It has a 30 degree shoulder but is basically a 243 with a longer neck.

20 years ago I picked up a big bore long range round 338-378. It's the cartridge on the right of my avatar.
I shot it a few times without the muzzle brake. The recoil shattered the butler creek lens caps on my scope.

The OPs 6.5-284 has an interesting history. Shooters necked down the 7mm 284 to make 6.5-284, a zippy competition wildcat. Lapua started making brass. Shooters will buy the Lapua brass and neck it back up to 284.
What's changed? the Freebore in chambers is getting longer so higher BC bullets can be reloaded.
That's the big difference between the 6BR Remington and 6BR Norma is the longer chamber.
 
Two that have already been mentioned, but that I have always thought were great are the .257 Roberts and the .284 Winchester.

The .257 Roberts is one of those cartridges that i heard my father's hunting buddies talking about while I was bouncing around in the back seat of our '74 Bronco. Probably has more of a literary romance to it than anything else, but I have always wanted one.

The .284 Winchester is really about the original Short Magnum, before the craze caught on a few years back. I have one in a Winchester model 100. Didn't really catch on due to the fact that it was kind of strapped to the Winchester model 88. Had they chambered it initially for the Model 70, who know where it might have gone. I love that round and I think it is a great choice if your looking at something that is in the .270 Winchester and .280 Remington realm. I am probably outdated on this information, but I beleive it is currently the F-Class world record holder.


I currently have a 257 Roberts in a 722 Remington and also a 300 Savage in the same model. These are great deer load with a light recoil. The first real rifle I ever had as a 12 year old, not counting a 6.5 Italian military (no wonder they lost the war), was a Savage 99F in the great 284 win. load. I loved that rifle and I sold it to buy a magnum for a moose trip to Canada. What a fool I was.
 
I recently picked up a .284 Winchester in the Winchester model 100 and have shot it a few times. I'm trying to figure out a jamming issue with it, but am looking forward to getting it reliable and using it. I have always been enamoured with .284 and the opportunity missed by Winchester in not promoting it better.

Another missed opportunity by Winchester SHOULD have been the .284 Win Mag. based on the .338 Win Mag case to fill in the hole between the .300 Win Mag (another missed opportunity that at least turned out pretty good) and the .264 mentioned earlier in this thread. Remington filled that void with the 7mm Remington Magnum that basically uses the .338 WM case. Back when it was introduced it would have done much better labelled as a .284 magnum as most of America wasn't ready for the dewey decimal system for cartridges lol. Now I'm just rambling!
 
I did forget to add that I feel your pain in getting rid of the Savage 99 in the .284! What a great combination that would be and a fairly rare bird too! I have a 99 in .308 Winchester.
 
I currently have a 257 Roberts in a 722 Remington and also a 300 Savage in the same model. These are great deer load with a light recoil. The first real rifle I ever had as a 12 year old, not counting a 6.5 Italian military (no wonder they lost the war), was a Savage 99F in the great 284 win. load. I loved that rifle and I sold it to buy a magnum for a moose trip to Canada. What a fool I was.

A Lady owner of an outfitting business that I worked for as a teenager called me on her last year of outfitting (Age 74) and invited me to hunt. I would pay frieght (at an undisclosed discount). Her working gun for the entirety of her career was a Savage 99 in .284. It finished many client's game, but its best employment was toward the Grizzly that had Mary Faith off her horse, but rifle in hand.

All alone.

She was mauled. She shot the bear.
 
What a marvellous thing to be able to say...so totally incomprehensible to anybody who doesn't live in the US of A.

I do keep good records, so I can pull my book out of safe #1 and immediately look up everything I need to know about my collection.
 
One of my favorites is the 257 Roberts. This is a great old caliber. A great deer rifle with light recoil. Very accurate and a great gun to start a new hunter out on. It can also be used very effectively on varmits with the lighter bullets.
My first rifle given to me by my dad at age 13 was a Winchester Model 70 XTR Featherweight in .257 Roberts. I took my first deer, first antelope, and first elk with it.

I bought dies for it a couple of months ago and was just online tonight looking for brass and some 117gr bullets for it.

I retired it decades ago and loaned the original scope out to my brother in the 90's. He lost it. So I've been wanting to get a period correct glossy scope for it to get it back to it's former glory. But, those old scopes are now apparently in high demand and I hate to pay over $100 for an old scope when I can get a brand new decent matte scope for under $200.

SUBWaarISUyvz9XTMNXBLg.jpg

I have two other hunting rifles in odd calibers, one that was previously mentioned in this thread as well.

The .35 Whelen. Basically a .30-06 necked up to a .35 caliber bullet.

Mine was built as a rifle specifically for moose hunting in Alaska and is based on a Pre-`64 Model 70...

UCRyiJr9R6W6EGXY2tBM0A - Copy.jpg

My last oddball caliber rifle is another Pre-`64 Model 70 with an Al Biesen stock and is in .30-06 Ackley Improved.

wBSBch5sRNSAt5rPZrmkBg.jpg
 
My first rifle given to me by my dad at age 13 was a Winchester Model 70 XTR Featherweight in .257 Roberts. I took my first deer, first antelope, and first elk with it.

I bought dies for it a couple of months ago and was just online tonight looking for brass and some 117gr bullets for it.

I retired it decades ago and loaned the original scope out to my brother in the 90's. He lost it. So I've been wanting to get a period correct glossy scope for it to get it back to it's former glory. But, those old scopes are now apparently in high demand and I hate to pay over $100 for an old scope when I can get a brand new decent matte scope for under $200.

View attachment 752201

I have two other hunting rifles in odd calibers, one that was previously mentioned in this thread as well.

The .35 Whelen. Basically a .30-06 necked up to a .35 caliber bullet.

Mine was built as a rifle specifically for moose hunting in Alaska and is based on a Pre-`64 Model 70...

View attachment 752202

My last oddball caliber rifle is another Pre-`64 Model 70 with an Al Biesen stock and is in .30-06 Ackley Improved.

View attachment 752203


As I own a 257 Roberts in old 722 Remington I know just how hard it can be to find bullets and brass in this caliber. I don't how much luck you had on line, but if you are interested, I could spare 50 new cases in R-P nickel and a box of 117 gr. bullets from my stash. I have enough stockpiled so that i will never be able to use it all before I die. The bullets that I have are in Remington, Hornady, and Sierra in 117 gr. and I also have a box of 120 gr. Speer spire point boat tail. The 120 gr. don't work well in the short action of the 722 as they have to be seated very deep in order to fit in the magazine. They should work fine in the longer action of the Model 70. You could have a box of 50 cases and a box of 100 bullets for $40 if interested. I live in Beaverton, Oregon. I would love for you to be able to get that old rifle back in service.
 
6.5 JAP - to me it looks like a derivative of the 6.5 Carcano. The Japanese should've selected the Swedish dimension.
7.7 JAP - it is really similar performing rimless 303 which is actually a 311 or 7.7 mm. When that cartridge was developed Japan and England had a close relationship.
 
As I own a 257 Roberts in old 722 Remington I know just how hard it can be to find bullets and brass in this caliber. I don't how much luck you had on line, but if you are interested, I could spare 50 new cases in R-P nickel and a box of 117 gr. bullets from my stash. I have enough stockpiled so that i will never be able to use it all before I die. The bullets that I have are in Remington, Hornady, and Sierra in 117 gr. and I also have a box of 120 gr. Speer spire point boat tail. The 120 gr. don't work well in the short action of the 722 as they have to be seated very deep in order to fit in the magazine. They should work fine in the longer action of the Model 70. You could have a box of 50 cases and a box of 100 bullets for $40 if interested. I live in Beaverton, Oregon. I would love for you to be able to get that old rifle back in service.
Thank you so much for the offer, but I was able to find plenty of cases and bullets. Last time I checked, I saw boxes of it still on the shelf at my LGS, too.
 

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