280Rem loads

B.Ruddick

B.Ruddick

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After mulling over some info in the books, I thought I'd ask you good folks about reloading for the 280Rem.
It would seem some of the books I have seriously underestimate the 280's abilities by the looks of things.
What works for you 280 fans?

What I have in the drawer;
Bullets
145g Speer Boattails
150g Nosler Solid base BT's
162g A-Max

Powders
IMR 4350
RL22
WIN760

Primers
Fed 210 (Some not many)
CCI 200
Fed 215
Rem 9-1/2M

Brass
56 Once fired Federal
50 new Winchester nickel plated (why they sent nickel - who knows???)

What 280 loads would you like to share?
and from the components list above, has anyone worked with any of those components with the 280?
My rifle is a lightweight with a 24" fluted pencil barrel.
 
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I50gr Nosler Bt or 168 gr Sierra matchKings
Noslers Light load 53 4831 53gr .5" in Rem 700 22" barrel, Federal gold match primers
 
what will you be shooting? the 145's & 150's would work on deer, the 162's I'd leave for targets.

I did a bit of loading for my 280, my favorite load was 57.0 grs AA3100 and a 160 gr Nosler Accubond for 2830 f/s in a 24" tube (Rem 700). RL22 or H4831 should provide similar speeds with the same charge, they're very similar to AA3100 in burn rate. A bonded core 160 gr @ 2800 will work wonders on deer, elk, or moose, out to 400y
 
I have a Remington 700 BDL SS
140 Barnes X 58.6 gr. Re19 and CCI Mag rifle primers
150 Nosler BT 50.0 IMR 4350 or H4350 and 53.0 IMR 4831
160 Speer Mag Tip 58.5 IMR 7828
150 Sierra MK 43.0 IMR 4064 fed 210M primer
162 Hornady match 42.5 IMR 4064 CCI BR2
145 Speer Match 51.0 IMR 4350
Sierra 168 MK 42.5 to 45.5 IMR 4064 (from the Sierra Book)

My 280 is short in the throat so some of the longer bullets have to be set back.
 
neither bullet is something I would have much confidence in when shooting a jumbo Van Isle blackie or a big moose if the bullet hits shoulder

if it was me I would pick something a bit more stoutly constructed, my .02 :)
 
Well after some candle work I found that the lands in my rifle are quite close (short throat) and don't allow for the bullets to be seated as far out as directed in the books. Instead of seating the 150's to 3.275"-3.280", they seat at 3.257" not too bad. The 145's seat at 3.165"

So for the time being I've loaded up some 150's using IMR 4350 & RL22
went with the Hornady 6th book and started a bit lower than the max in the book

ex; RL22 started at 56.3g and worked single loads at 0.3g increments to the books max list of 58.4g, this should tell me what load will have the most pressure this rifle can handle by watching for the pressure signs as I go along.

Once I find out which loads of each powder show too much pressure, I'll stop there and start loading for five shot groups at the highest velocity that showed normal/safe pressure, and work back down in 0.3g increments until I find what velocity flys right for the 150's.

Hopefully weather co-operates when I get a chance to fire these.
 
I used to use H4831sc and a 160 speer grand slam if I recall correctly. I have since switched to the 7mm08 but still wish occasionally I had another.280 a great round for all the animals you mentioned
 
Interesting, I was chatting with a friend over the phone retrieving load info from some of his books and my Hornady book 6 say Max load for 154g bullet using IMR 4350 is 50.9 grains, yet his Lee Book say 55 grains and his IMR handloaders guide says the same, 55 grains, but at the same time the IMR guide says 55.5 grains for the 7mm Express, weird.

I wish I had a chronograph.
 
Well I made it out to the range yesterday, tested my pressure loads (@7C or 8C) with a chronograph and found no signs of excessive pressure through out all the test loads, not even a slight bit of sticky bolt and no primer was super flattened, in-fact the factory loaded rounds had flatter primers then my test loads.
The rifle being used is a Weatherby MK V Ultra Lightweight in 280Rem with a 24” Fluted pencil barrel.

My highest powder charge being 55.1g of IMR4350 and with the RL22 58.4g (this one did show a touch more primer flattening)
I am disappointed with the Reloader 22, as the powder charge went up the velocity showed it getting slower or roughly maintaining the same velocity until the highest charge, no matter what charge it was the average was 2840fps, charges ranged from 56.3g to 58.4g, @ 58.4g the velocity finally reached 2904fps @7C

The IMR4350 showed consistent velocity increases as powder charge increased (unlike the RL22), with 55.1g meeting 2950fps with the 150g Nosler Solid Base BT's
Also my target showed that through out the 0.3g increases, a very nice tight line working it's way up the paper.
I'm going with the IMR4350 powder for now; it has proven itself in many other calibers that I shoot.

The RL22 gave me similar readings as today did when I was trying to work up loads for the 340Wby, however when I experimented with it in the 7mmRM it worked great, go figure?
I am questioning if Reloader 22 (or at least this canister) is more so temperature sensitive than the IMR4350? Or IMR7828-(340Wby) for that matter?

As for the Hornady 6th book and it's statements with IMR4350 and the 280Rem and a 154g bullet, max load is 50.9 in a 22" barrel with a velocity of 2800fps, in my findings today using a 24"barrel the velocity was 2660fps, not to mention that the primer had the appearance of a mild load (primer barely flattened still rounded on the edge and no pushing back into the firing pin hole), however the book does say 58.4g of RL22 to be 2900fps and it was.
I wonder if Hornady just didn't take the testing any further with the IMR4350? Or what the reason is for calling it a max load at 50.9g?
I’m thinking about emailing Hornady and asking them about this.
In-fact I believe that I could have pushed it further than 55.1g of IMR4350, but not going to bother with that, 2950fps is plenty fine.

As the outdoor temps rise above 7C – 8C I will have to retest these pressures, just to be sure that they will be safe at the higher ambient air temps, like during spring bear hunts or early fall hunts.

I have found that this rifle shoots great groups with a dirty barrel; I have done an extensive barrel break in with this rifle (60+ rounds), and found from the get go that there was never much for copper fouling and just a bit more for powder fouling-but nothing out of the ordinary.

"EDIT"-Feb 25th 09 9:37pm (PST)
I reduced the load to 53.9g of IMR4350, ran it over the chrono with an average of 2920fps using the 150g Nosler Solid base BT, 24"brl, @10C.
55.1g did show a very faint ejector blemish, that I had missed twice before during inspection, like I said very faint. Hence the reason for dropping the charge down some.
 
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OK, it is a quiet Sunday afternoon, so I will start it.
We have read so much on these threads about the great 7mms from necked down 30-06, or 308 cases.
I can't help but note the really small differences. You have worked up the 280 to 2950 with 150 grain bullet. Looking at my notes, I see that my load with 150 grain Speer bullets in the 270, was 2919 and very little spread, with H4831. The better ballistic configuration of the 277 bullet over the 284, would more than make up for any minor difference in speed.
Or, how about leaving it at the 30-06 configuration? The 150 grain bullet can be safely driven to 3100 fps. Even to quite stretched out hunting ranges, the bit fatter 30-06 bullet starting out 150 fps faster, would at least equal the 280 in ballistics!
Jack O'Connor once wrote that one could use either the 30-06 or the 270, for a lifetime of hunting and not really notice any difference between the two. Had the 30-06 been commercially necked down to 7mm at that time, I imagine he would have tossed it in, also.
 
H4831 said:
Jack O'Connor once wrote that one could use either the 30-06 or the 270, for a lifetime of hunting and not really notice any difference between the two.
Click to expand...

Then I'm in a real good spot, right in the middle.

Hi there H4831, ya it's no land record or Weatherby mag that for sure.

I too can concur:)

I probably could push this pill a bit more, but don't see any need to for my needs.
(not thinking about the 30,06 for a moment)
The 280 does have a bullet selection that allows me to hunt a Bison(if I ever draw one, fingers crossed) so that there reason alone ruled out the 270 for my choice, as I searched around for a 280, many folks made offers with 270's, but that was the key reason I turned them down.

There's nothing wrong with the 30.06 either. In-fact I own a 30.06, but maybe not for much longer.

After several years of collecting different rifles and calibers, getting to know the ins and outs of reloading, ballistics and what not.
(Not saying I know everything, I'd be a silly to say that:redface:)
Now getting into the light weight rifle syndrome:D
I think I found a very good little light package that will do all I need it to, between Van Isl black tail to breaking cervical vertebrae-(neck) on a buffalo,
recoil is very manageable in this package, and is a dream to carry.

and single most important reason for choosing the 280, Jack said it himself somewhere, that the 280 was a better caliber than the 270, or something along that line.
No I was just joking there about the reason:D, but I did read somewhere that Jack did say that.

Ganerite,
I'm not sure of that theory as the Federal brass I have is non-plated regular brass.
Do you think it's just Winchester thing?
I would have thought it was an option to the reloader,(non-plated or plated) I'm guessing that who ever grabbed it off the shelf for the order just saw 280Rem and stuffed it in the box, as the item description didn't indicate Nickel plated.

Doesn't matter though, that batch will sit in the drawer for 5-10 years, probably longer before it ever sees a die.
With the 60 pieces of brass I have going now, a bit of neck sizing and annealing every now and then, I should be good to go for a quite awhile.
Thanks for the input.
 
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