Dad's two hundred and eighty four

[airedale]

My Dad was a big fan of the 284 Winchester, he purchased one in the auto loading 100 model back when they first became available. After a couple of years hunting with that rifle including a successful hunt out in Wyoming for Mule Deer and Antelope he decided he would rather have the Winchester model 88 lever action version and swapped in the Model 100 for one of those. Dad used it frequently for Deer but he also had several other rifles and alternated use between them all. The 284 Winchester is virtually a ballistic twin of the 280 Remington and 270 Winchester, it uses a short fat case with a similar capacity to the 280 and 270 with a rebated rim so it would work well in an auto loading version and the lever model. I loaded the ammo for my Dad and he liked the Hornady 154 spire point bullets using small base dies for reliability in his auto.

Well my Dad passed away some time ago and left me and my brother  his firearms and the model 88 came into my possession, it sat in the safe for many years without being fired so this year I decided to get the old girl out and fire her up. The main problem with these 284s is the unavailability of brass or loaded ammo, all I had was one box of the old 154 spire points I loaded so many years ago and that is the reason the old girl languished for so long. Last spring I found a box of custom manufactured stuff at the Syracuse gun show loaded with 139 gr Hornady ballistic tips. The icing on the cake was when I found a source for new Norma 284 brass, I still have the old die set so I was now in business to get serious and do some shooting.

The 88 has an older Leupold 3.5X10 Vari X3 mounted so I just had to move the scope back to suit me and tighten everything down. I started out with the old 154gr Hornady reloads to get on target and switched over to the 139 gr for final sighting and to hunt with. To be honest the model 88 is really not my kind of gun, it is essentially a rotating bolt action operated by a lever and it really is not that smooth. The drop in the stock makes it feel like it is kicking harder than my 280 Remington bolt gun and it is heavy. That being said the old girl lays them in there real nice and I was getting three shot groups slightly over an inch so I was happy with that and made plans to use it for the first time to hunt Deer late season.

 I decided that when the leaves got off the trees opening the distances to over 100 yards in spots in the woods I hunted, that I would switch from the 44 mag Marlin carbine to the Winchester. To make a long story short I was in the woods just about every day and hunted hard but I got skunked this year, all I saw were Does and had no opportunity to pull the trigger on either the Marlin or the Winchester but that is hunting. Hopefully next year I will get a crack to take something so for now I will do a little more experimenting with load developement and enjoy shooting my Dad's old classic.

Al

Edited December 5, 2016 by airedale