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.284 Super Bush Pig
Greetings from New Zealand as this is my first post on this forum I thought I would enlighten you on a project we recently completed.
I've been a big follower of Tikkas having owned a few now and modifying them to my needs often reaming out existing chambers like one of my last Tikkas where a 7mm-08 was reamed out to .280 Remington. Most of my hunting is in the bush/forest where shots are often well inside 75 yards.
My favourite gun I like to use on Sika & Fallow deer is my Tikka .223 which drops them like a stone however I do have other guns in the cabinet like a .243 Model 7, 7×57 Winchester M70, .44 Ruger Deer feild, .50 cal Lyman Deerfeild blackpowder.
We use the term “Bushpigs” which refer to rifles with short barrels which isn't something new to hunting when you look at the Remington Model 7 as an example.
Typically we have been shortening barrels to 16 inches for the likes of 7mm-08, 308 and putting on over barrel suppressors to help with noise reduction.
Here in NZ we aren't bound by stupid laws and regulations surrounding sound suppressors so we can freeling through our barrels and put on a suppressor of our choice without any documentation.
When suppressors first started getting built here in NZ over 20 years ago they were looked upon as a poachers tool but over the years the ignorance surrounding such choices has deminished as people really started seeing the benefits of using suppressors such as not scaring game, not damaging your hearing and the fact suppressors tighten and improve accuracy on your rifles.
The “Super Bushpig” refers to something a little bit bigger than using a 7mm08 or 308 calibre and in my case I saw a fellow kiwi (New Zealander)… kiwi is also our national bird which is a flightless bird which likes to eats shoots and roots but not necessarily in that order.
Anyway, my fellow country man built a 284 Winchester on a Tikka T3 with 16 inch barrel.
Anyway a seed was sown so my good friend decided he wanted one so the gears of motion were set, the build started off with obtaining a Tikka T3 stainless synthetic in 7mm-08
The magazine which is a medium was swapped for a large magazine in order to fit the .284 Winchester.
The rifle was then sent off to a well known gunsmith Robbie Tiffen of Canterbury Gunworks here in NZ who had done good work for me in the past where they reamed out the existing 7mm-08 chambered to .284 Winchester, fluted the bolt, installed the large bolt stop so the bolt could be pulled back far enough, put a half cock where the safety can be engaged and disengaged so you can unload the gun on a live round while the safety is engaged.
The action screws on the action were changed out to stainless ones aswell as stainless screws for the tikka rings.
I know what some people might be saying… why didn't you use optilocks or Talleys as alternative rings and to be honest I haven't had a problem with the Tikka rings to date so at this stage I can't see why I'd want to change.
When the rifle came back I was impressed by Robbie's work as its small things which really count.
On the barrel after reaming out the new chamber he threaded the barrel another 1/4-1/2 turn and stamped .284 Win on the barrel so all the stamping which says 7mm08 ins hidden under the stock… minor detail but a really nice touch.
We mounted a Leupold CDS VXIII 3.5-10×40 which is really nice glass and allows us to shoot out to some range as the 284 Winchester does pack some punch down range.
For the last touch we took the rifle into Darren at “DPT suppressors”, Darren cut the barrel down to 16 inches, threaded and put on one of his over barrel suppressors which are light weight at just under 200 grams.
We obtained some .284 dies, but getting our hands on .284 brass was none existant so we got some 6.5/284 Lapua brass and neck sized the case up which is as simple as lubing and running the cases through the sizing die.
For powder there really is no other choice for the .284 which is Reloader RE 17
The last thing we did was put on a limbsaver recoil pad and we were ready to go.
With the first few shots I was pleasantly surprised at the recoil and down range power of the rifle shooting 140gr Ballistic Tips & 162gr Amaxs while the barrel was still being broken in.
I found the rifle shot really well with the BT's & Amaxs shooting groups as tight as 1/2 inch at 100 metres but I always find barrels need more than 20 rounds to be broken in with more the better and quite often its not until you've shot a good 100 rounds through a barrel things things start to settle in.
I have all sorts of 7mm projectiles here at home with 140 gr Ballistic Tips, 140 gr Accubonds, 162 gr Amaxs, 139 Interlokts, 140 Sierra Game King, 150 gr Sirocco's but I was keen to try some Sierra 150 gr Game Kings as I love a good lead tip.
Everything shot well through the rifle but in the end I settled on the 150 gr Sierras Game King (#1913) with 56 grains of RE17 which gave me a speed of 3005 fps which I think is impressive for a 16 inch barrel.
When shooting the rifle down range I would also play with it by shooting some gongs where I found the punch factor to be quite high for a cartridge of its size.
While I haven't shot it that far with the longest distance to date being 300 metres, the accuracy has been under 3 inches at that range all shot off a bipod.
Now that the gun is back with my mate I took out my Tikka 7mm Rem Mag for a blast the other day and while it might rule with authority… it got me thinking… I'm missing that .284 Super Bushpig!
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