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Eagleye

Eagleye

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A friend offered me a rifle that he acquired in an Estate sale.

It is a Remington 700 BDL, and in 280 Remington, but is one of the ones marked "7mm Express Remington"

It came with 1½ boxes of ammo, and RCBS reloading dies. [Also stamped 7mm Express]

It appears to be virtually unfired, so I set the BDL stock aside, adjusted the trigger to 2¾ lbs and hung it in the Boyd's Walnut I got from Tomochan.

Looks good....I will load some ammo and see how it works. [Not much of a lover of old factory loads for the 280]

Pictures added below.......

I'll report later. Dave.





 
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Sounds nice Dave, I look forward to your followup report. I enjoyed hunting with the 280 mtn rifle I got from you and ended up selling it to my nephew who was starting to hunt.
 
Boy, it's sure nice to see after all the years you've been shooting that you still get excited about a new gun.
I'm waiting on the delivery of my son's first gun, got him a cz 452 LUX. Can't wait to share that moment with him.
 
Congrats on the great find and nice cartridge. I hope that it's a shooter, then I'll buy it from you. He He!
 
horseman2 said:
My Model 700 BDL SS is stamped 280 Rem., but I have 7mm Express LEE dies, and RCBS marked 280 Rem.
Bought new in 1998 but manufactured in 1994.



Click to expand...


I have the twin to your rifle in 7mm-08, made in '94 also.

I've seen a few of the 7mm Express marked BDL's. A friend's Dad in Ontario has one he bought new in '79.

I have a 280 and a 280AI. At a gunshow a couple years ago I bought two boxes of RP Coreloct's in 7mm Express, still using the brass.
 
I have had several, and every once in a while the cartridge calls my name again...................I have a high rate of recidivism. When I got my first rifle in this chambering, an old friend sent me the following quotation from Jim Carmichael (of Outdoor Life fame) about his pet load for the .280, that being 57.0 grains of IMR 4350 and 140 grain Nosler Partitions. Jim wrote this:

"This load is a jewel, I rate it as one of the best all-round medium game loads, regardless of calibre. I lost count long ago of the world's big game that I've taken with this superb load. It often makes me wonder why I bother with anything else."

I tried that load, except I had no IMR 4350 so substituted H4350. Those loads were wayyyy too hot and I pulled a bunch of them.

My most accurate load was with CCI BR-2 primers, 56.0 gr H4350 and Barnes 130 gr XBT, OAL 3.275" and killed a white-tailed deer with one of those. It went down like it had been struck by the Hammer of Thor, did not even twitch. BUT I had a terrible problem with copper fouling, after only perhaps a dozen rounds, so I went back to Nosler Partitions.

Enjoy!

Doug
 
Dave, I had one of the same rifles you describe with the 7mm Express stamps. There weren't a lot of them made and if they are in excellent condition can bring a premium dollar from collectors of Remington 700s .

I bought mine as new old stock, still in the box appx 20 years ago. A few years later, I traded it to a Rem 700 collector for a 280 Rem with a 3-9 VXI Leupold mounted in Talley rings.

I never did shoot the Express. Not sure why but that isn't unusual for me to not shoot a rifle. The 280 was excellent.

The 280Rem is one of my favorite cartridges. It is capable of very good velocities and doesn't beat the hell out of you with recoil. I have been seriously thinking of building another. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and buy one????


Doug, I am very surprised at your results with your loads for this cartridge. IMR 4350 is slightly faster than H4350 and should give you pressure signs before H4350. Mind you only one grain to bring the pressures to your happy spot isn't a big deal.

I used Jim Carmichael's pet load of IMR 4350 in my 280 without any pressure signs and CCI 250 mag primers which are very similar to BR 2,

I finally settled on 58.5 grains of RL19 with CCI 250 primers under a 140 gr SSTIL which gave me a very consistent velocity reading average of 3000 fps from a 26in barrel. It shot very consistently at all of the ranges I was capable of using it at with my abilities. It never let me down once.

With RL22, I could get 2850fps out of 160 grain flat base bullets as well. The load was 56gr and it was stout. Recoil was noticeable and flattened primers were a given. No case swelling or face marks/scrapes though. I suspect this load would be considered to hot in todays manuals. I am taking these loads out of my own private notes and would not suggest anyone use them.
 
bearhunter said:
Dave, I had one of the same rifles you describe with the 7mm Express stamps. There weren't a lot of them made and if they are in excellent condition can bring a premium dollar from collectors of Remington 700s .

I bought mine as new old stock, still in the box appx 20 years ago. A few years later, I traded it to a Rem 700 collector for a 280 Rem with a 3-9 VXI Leupold mounted in Talley rings.

I never did shoot the Express. Not sure why but that isn't unusual for me to not shoot a rifle. The 280 was excellent.

The 280Rem is one of my favorite cartridges. It is capable of very good velocities and doesn't beat the hell out of you with recoil. I have been seriously thinking of building another. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and buy one????


Doug, I am very surprised at your results with your loads for this cartridge. IMR 4350 is slightly faster than H4350 and should give you pressure signs before H4350. Mind you only one grain to bring the pressures to your happy spot isn't a big deal.

I used Jim Carmichael's pet load of IMR 4350 in my 280 without any pressure signs and CCI 250 mag primers which are very similar to BR 2,

I finally settled on 58.5 grains of RL19 with CCI 250 primers under a 140 gr SSTIL which gave me a very consistent velocity reading average of 3000 fps from a 26in barrel. It shot very consistently at all of the ranges I was capable of using it at with my abilities. It never let me down once.

With RL22, I could get 2850fps out of 160 grain flat base bullets as well. The load was 56gr and it was stout. Recoil was noticeable and flattened primers were a given. No case swelling or face marks/scrapes though. I suspect this load would be considered to hot in todays manuals. I am taking these loads out of my own private notes and would not suggest anyone use them.
Click to expand...

VERY interesting, and thanks for that. From my notes, the shots were high, and scattered; they were fouling the ejector with copper shavings; and there were heavy extractor marks on the fired cases. I see that the brass I used was Federal, and in one other load with Federal cases (54.0 gr H4350, 150 gr Nosler Partitions) I remarked that the spent cases were burning hot and one primer was blown right out. Perhaps the issue was Federal brass, and maybe it had a diminished case capacity? I did not consider that variable when I was loading..................

Doug
 
Funny, that. I bought a 700 BDL a little while back that came with a .280 rem barrel. It's sitting in a cardboard tube right now, but it'd be nice to find another action to screw it into. Never shot a .280, but it looks like a real nice cartridge.

Sean
 
OK, for all those giving me a hard time about the pics...I have added 5 pictures to the first post. :)

By the way DOUG. That Federal brass is crap, lol. Very soft, especially in certain chamberings, 280 being one of them.

Regards, Dave.
 
Bearhunters load: I finally settled on 58.5 grains of RL19 with CCI 250 primers under a 140 gr SSTIL which gave me a very consistent velocity reading average of 3000 fps from a 26in barrel", is very close to mine.
I use the Barnes 140 grain TTSX at 3000+ fps.
With the data, the Leupold VX-6 scope has turret cut for the load.
Great load, great cartridge and a great rifle.
 
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