280 Ross

woodchopper

woodchopper

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So I'm heading off into the obscure cartridges again

325 WSM, easy.
577/450, no problems.
310 Cadet, a bit of a challenge but I got that sorted.


280 Ross..... Ummmmm, that's a bit of a problem. Brass, 7mmRM with the belt removed, that's going to take a lot of work. then I need forming dies to squeeze it down to chamber.

.287 bullets. Hope .284 work or I'll have to look into bumping them up, so more lathe work to make some dies for that.

What am I missing ?
 
Most people don't remove the belt of belted magnum cases to reform to .280 Ross... it looks weird but it works. Then, there's also the 375 Ruger route. It needs a bit of reforming to get the neck to 7mm, but it worth it to my POV.
The Ross case head is .535" Max (and usually they have generous chambers)...

0.287 Bullets are easy to find if you look at Woodleigh selection.... Buffalo Arms used to sell quite a veriety too but they don't ship here anymore...
 
Ganderite said:
I once needed some odd-ball diameter bullets. I phoned Barnes and they offered to bump them up (or size down - I forget) for me.

No charge for the service. Just paid the ordinary price.
Click to expand...

Not quite the same, but they made 350gr .416" jacketed bullets for my 416 Chatfield Taylor many years ago. They were not a catalogued item, but gladly made and shipped them for the same price as their 400 gr.

Ted
 
I don't have pics but I have made .280 Ross two ways.
Initially I used my sizing with the decapper removed and sized Hornady .300 H&h brass, well lubed. I then trimmed to length and resized a second time with the rod back in place. They chambered well without turning the belt. I fireformed them using 7 mm bullets. The case will flow out around the front of the belt and the case length will decrease slightly. I did not need to anneal the Hornady brass and lost no cases in the process.
The second technique used .375 Ruger brass. I partially sized the cases in a .348 Win. die. I cleaned, annealed and then ran the case through the .280 sizer die with the decapper out. I trimmed and checked the chamber fit. I found that I had to screw the sizer well down as the base of the case was a tight fit in my chamber.
I have the Porter peep on my rifle and can usually group just under 2" consistently with .284 bullets.
I ordered the .287" Woodleigh from Tradex and found my group opened up drastically and the barrel was considerably hotter after 3 rd than with the .284".
In my rifle at least there was no need for the larger bullet and accuracy decreased. I would try and see first.
 
thanks this is all excellent information.

the nosler forum had some good pictures and information as well.

I will pick up the rifle shortly and look at getting set up to load for it. I have a fairly big pile of 300WM and 7mmRM brass to work with.
 
so looking at dies CH 4D seems to be the only economical choice.

or I may see what I can spin up on the metal lathe for case forming dies.

I guess I'll have to go to the next gunshow and scour the tables.
 
A chamber cast may be best because I read they vary and any old .280 Ross dies may not fit your gun? A couple of fired in your gun brass would be best to send to C+H if they can get by Homeland Security.I'd add a note in the box labelled inert cartridges.I did this with some defective Hornady 286gr 9.3 bullets the Hornady lab wanted to have for testing.
 
I have 3 M10's in 280 Ross. Only one of them shoots .284 dia (175 gr Hronady) well. The other 2 prefer .287 dia 160 Gr Woodleigh bullets. As mentioned, Tradeex is the source for these.
I posted this on the Ross Rifle Forum a while back- Making 280 Ross from 300 H+H

I haven't used 375 Ruger as a parent case for 280 Ross. My first attempt at loading for the 280 Ross was just this month. I picked up some new Hornady 300H+H brass to use as the parent for the 280 Ross cases.
I have reloaded for a long time including for a wildcat cartridge (340Gibbs) that I need to fire-form from 30-06. Followed a similar process to make 280 Ross. I had initially just resized the 300 H+H and stoked the brass with light charges. Then I thought better of it and pulled the bullets and started over.

Here is what I did to make 280 Ross from new 300H+H.
1- trim 300 H+H cases to 2.6 inches
2 camfer case mouth
3 install 30 cal expander on the decapping rod in the 280 die
4 lube case and inside case mouth- run it through the die - you will have a 280 ross case with a 30 cal neck
5 install 28 cal expander on decapping rod in the die
6 re-set the die so it is about 1/8 to 3/16 inch higher in the press- should be a gap of 1/8 to 3-16 between shell holder and the bottom of die
7 run 1 case through the die again- the neck will be 280 for about 2/3 to 3/4 of its length and then will remain at 30 cal just above the shoulder- This bump, in essence a false shoulder, is what will hold your case firmly between the bolt face and the chamber when fire forming. Feed a case into your rifle (unprimed). You should feel resistance but bolt head should turn and lock. If not, re-set the sizing die lower(reduce gap between die and shell holder) until the brass will feed into the chamber with resistance and bolt will lock up.
8 Re size the rest of your cases.
9 prime cases- load with 13 grains of 700x powder-
10 fill remainder of each case right up to the case mouth with cream of wheat- stuff a wad of Kleenex in the end to hold it in there
11 go to range . carefully feed each case into chamber and fire down range- you now have fire formed brass
12 Trim, resize and reload your brass again as you normally would with a starting load ( I am using 52 grains of IMR 4350 behind 150 gr bullets)
13 fire these rounds
14 anneal, trim, re-size and reload

I have seen different suggestions on how to go about fire forming cases. Some suggest trimming parent brass to length, resizing in the 280 die, stuffing a long bullet like a 175 gr Hornady RN into the case over a starting load and seating the bullet far enough out to jam into the lands. This process will work as well but I have a preference for the Cream of Wheat method.

The one thing I noticed about the 300H+H brass is that it re-sized very easily because of the similar taper of the case walls as compared to 280 Ross. Some have used 7mm rem mag as parent but it ends up too short (2.5 inches). Others suggest 300 Win Mag. Easy to get and cheaper than most because it is so common. But there is a lot of case to squeeze down to 280 Ross dimensions.

I have a 280 Ross die with a crack in it which I am sure is the result of resizing something really big into 280 Ross.
As stated at the outset, I have no experience with using 375 Ruger to form 280 Ross. Hopefully your 375 Ruger brass will re-size easily. Once you have it squeezed down to a 280 Ross case, the rest is pretty easy.
 
Before the Ruger .375 came out, a lot of people tried to resize .300 RUM to form .280 Ross but it can't be done without swaging down the RUM base....
 
I do have a couple pieces of .280 Ross brass somewhere at home but im away at work for a while. I could have sent them to you to help get you started
 
woodchopper said:
so looking at dies CH 4D seems to be the only economical choice.

or I may see what I can spin up on the metal lathe for case forming dies.

I guess I'll have to go to the next gunshow and scour the tables.
Click to expand...

I have 280 Ross dies if you want to borrow them. So far I've only use factory ammo and brass in mine, though I do have some made from magnum brass, somewhere. - dan
 
woodchopper said:
so looking at dies CH 4D seems to be the only economical choice.

or I may see what I can spin up on the metal lathe for case forming dies.

I guess I'll have to go to the next gunshow and scour the tables.
Click to expand...
I was fortunate that I received a sizer die with the gun. I use a 7mm Rem mag die as a seater.
I have never had the fortune of seeing a set of .280 Ross dies at a show but even a set that aren't perfect should help.
I have several boxes of factory Kynoch loads but it is Berdan primed and often split necks when fired due to it's age.
I haven't fired any in my rifle for that reason.
 
dan belisle said:
I have 280 Ross dies if you want to borrow them. So far I've only use factory ammo and brass in mine, though I do have some made from magnum brass, somewhere. - dan
Click to expand...

Thanks Dan that will be a huge help.

I'll keep this in mind when I get the new shop set up for reloading.

been very busy the last few months trying to get the new place up to the livable standard that my wife is accustomed to.. :)



I did get out to sight in the 325WSM over the weekend. I'm impressed, recoil is stout, I really need to get the chrony set up.
 
woodchopper said:
Thanks Dan that will be a huge help.

I'll keep this in mind when I get the new shop set up for reloading.

been very busy the last few months trying to get the new place up to the livable standard that my wife is accustomed to.. :)



I did get out to sight in the 325WSM over the weekend. I'm impressed, recoil is stout, I really need to get the chrony set up.
Click to expand...

Just send me a PM when you're ready. - dan
 
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