280 Rem & 140 gr Accubonds

[wvchevy3]

Dr.Mike,those look great.Lee

 

[DrMike]

Both of these 280s have been shooters. The older one is a Winchester Featherweight. My preferred load for it shoots Hornady 139 grain SP at ~2800 fps. It has accounted for a good number of whitetail and mule deer. The newer one is one of the Remington Anniversary models. It shoots quite a variety of 139/140 grain bullets well. However, since last fall, I'm focused on 150 grain LRAB. With that load, I managed to tag a mule deer and a fine elk.

Dan, you'll have to educate shooters in Saskatchewan about the 280. You certainly have the tool to educate.

 

[M7025-06]

With all of the .280 talk ,i had to take mine out of the safe to reverify my load.My hunting load has always been 140gr BT w 59.0gr of RL-19 and WLR Primer.This load has done well in the past,this was from 100yds today at the bench . Breezy 70 degrees F.Rifle is an older Remington mountain rifle w 22inch barrel.2963 fps.Lee

Not too shabby. Good shooting.

I'm hoping I can find a good load with the RL-22.

 

[M7025-06]

Nice Dr. Mike. Can't complain about those results.

 

[PJGunner]

I'm still trying to find a load with the 150 gr. ABLR in my .280 Rem. I got great velocity (3010FPS) but poor accuracy with IMR7828SSC. I'm thinking tweaking the seating depth may make a difference. Rifle is a 1909 Argentine with 24" barrel and shoots MOA with Remington 150 gr. Corelokts. (2800FPS in that rifle) The ABLR's did 1.25" at 2800 FPS but I feel they should do much better with that 200+ gain in speed. I'm using Winchester nickel plated brass BTW.
If they don't work out, I still have 160 gr. Speer Hot Cores and Grand Slams to play with plus some 140 gr. Barnes TSX bullets. Got plenty of 150 gr. Noasler Partitions as well and won't be doing anohter elk hunt until next January so have plenty of time to try and find something that suits my fancy. Powders I have are H4350SC, H4831SC, WMR and IMR 7828 /7828SSC (both types).
I do welcome any ideas though.
Paul B.

 

[SJB358]

Paul, if you are getting the speeds you like with 7828, do a seating depth run. Start them around .010/.025 off, back the next ones up .040, and so on. The ABLR's I have shot seemed to like more travel into the rifling. I bet if your powder charge is consistent, you'll find good accuracy.

 

[M7025-06]

Got to the range this morning. I ran through a 6-3 shot test groups with R-22 & Barnes TTSX's (140 gr.) @ 200 yds....none of those were worth a darn. They were all grouping anywhere from 2'' to almost 4''.

I moved on to the Accubonds and since I only had 11 (that I had to borrowed from my buddy), I started at 55.5 gr of R-22 and worked up to 59.0 gr (in 0.50 gr increments). with 3 shot groups at 58.5 gr & 59 gr. All bullets were seated 0.030'' off the lands.

58.5 gr grouped around 1.5''. Not too bad.

59 gr. printed a perfect clover-leaf measuring 0.635'' @ 200 yds. If I can get my hands on some more AB's, I'm gonna retest this load. If it does this well again...I'll have a box of 140 gr TTSX's for sale.

Same target:

 

[SJB358]

That right there is BEA UTIFUL! Very nice. When you get stuff like that at 200 it's usually not a mistake. Talk about a great load in a 280!

 

[M7025-06]

I a little surprised since these were the last 3 shots of the morning (#40, 41, & 42) and I was starting to get a little twitchy.

 

[DrMike]

Very nice. Yeah, I'd say, "that'll do."

 

[sask boy]

Man that is some fine shooting for 200yards I hope that I can get close to that MOA with my 280AI. I need my new to me spotting scope to see that far :wink:. Which I might add worked perfect last Friday :mrgreen: Thank You Bill.

Blessings,
Dan

 

[BD1]

That's some fine shooting and an interesting thread on REL. 22 under 140's in the .280 Rem.
I've been considering trying it under some 150 gr. LRAB's in my .280

 

[M7025-06]

That's some fine shooting and an interesting thread on REL. 22 under 140's in the .280 Rem.
I've been considering trying it under some 150 gr. LRAB's in my .280

I would think R22 would work really well with a long heavy bullet like a LRAB. I didn't think it would shoot as good as it did with the 140 gr's. Guess you don't know til ya try.

If I can find a combo with the 90 gr AB's & R22 in my 243, I'll only need 1 powder for all 3 calibers I reload for (but what fun is that).

 

[SJB358]

That's some fine shooting and an interesting thread on REL. 22 under 140's in the .280 Rem.
I've been considering trying it under some 150 gr. LRAB's in my .280

Bob if you need a QuickLOAD chart for it let us know. It'll give you an idea of what to expect.

 

[BD1]

That's some fine shooting and an interesting thread on REL. 22 under 140's in the .280 Rem.
I've been considering trying it under some 150 gr. LRAB's in my .280

I would think R22 would work really well with a long heavy bullet like a LRAB. I didn't think it would shoot as good as it did with the 140 gr's. Guess you don't know til ya try.

If I can find a combo with the 90 gr AB's & R22 in my 243, I'll only need 1 powder for all 3 calibers I reload for (but what fun is that).

Yeah, I think it may work well also. I've been getting outstanding accuracy with 55 grs. of Rel. 19 under 140gr. Accubonds. It was the first load I put together to try out in my new custom and it shot 5 rounds damn near into 1 hole. I nearly fainted at the range...... Chrono'ed vels are consistently hovering at 3k out of a 25" Lilja tube, I've yet to fiddle with any other deer loads for the rifle yet because it shoots so well with that load.
I still have quite a bit of H4831 on hand that worked extremely well under a variety of bullets in some older .280''s I used to own, I thought I might as well give'er a go also along with the Rel. 22
I also need to quit screwing around and get some elk loads worked up, I have quite a few boxes of component moly-free 160 gr. Fail Safes and Partition Golds sitting here that need some test driving.
I'm kinda curious if you chrono'ed your loads and if so, what sort of vels were you getting.

 

[M7025-06]

That's some fine shooting and an interesting thread on REL. 22 under 140's in the .280 Rem.
I've been considering trying it under some 150 gr. LRAB's in my .280

I would think R22 would work really well with a long heavy bullet like a LRAB. I didn't think it would shoot as good as it did with the 140 gr's. Guess you don't know til ya try.

If I can find a combo with the 90 gr AB's & R22 in my 243, I'll only need 1 powder for all 3 calibers I reload for (but what fun is that).

Yeah, I think it may work well also. I've been getting outstanding accuracy with 55 grs. of Rel. 19 under 140gr. Accubonds. It was the first load I put together to try out in my new custom and it shot 5 rounds damn near into 1 hole. I nearly fainted at the range...... Chrono'ed vels are consistently hovering at 3k out of a 25" Lilja tube, I've yet to fiddle with any other deer loads for the rifle yet because it shoots so well with that load.
I still have quite a bit of H4831 on hand that worked extremely well under a variety of bullets in some older .280''s I used to own, I thought I might as well give'er a go also along with the Rel. 22
I also need to quit screwing around and get some elk loads worked up, I have quite a few boxes of component moly-free 160 gr. Fail Safes and Partition Golds sitting here that need some test driving.
I'm kinda curious if you chrono'ed your loads and if so, what sort of vels were you getting.

I haven't run them over my chrony yet. I only had 11 rounds loaded at the time and just wanted to see if there was any potential. According to QuickLoad, they should be in the neighborhood of 2950-3000 fps. As soon as I get my hands on a box of these bullets, I'll definitely check the velocity on em.

 

[BD1]

Looking forward to hearing what you find out! Thanks,
Bob

 

[Alderman]

Looks good for a 100 yard group, much better at 200. I'd be very happy with that if I ever do as well.

 

[M7025-06]

Got out to retest the 140 gr. AB load from a couple of weeks ago. The results weren't quite as good as last time. After readjusting my rest at the bench, I was able to put this 3-shot group together at 200 yds. It's a tad over double the size as last time (0.635'' to 1.435''), but still acceptable...just a little disappointing.

Thursday night I tore the rifle down and lightened the trigger up a tad, but I couldn't remember what I had torqued the action screws to when I put the rifle together after the rebarrel. I'm wondering if that contributed to the larger group this time around. I think next time out I'll play around with the action screws to see if I can find a sweet spot there.

I ran 5 of these loads over the chrony with an average of 3030 fps (I like that).

All in all, can't complain too much.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Action torque...last week, before sighting in my wife's model 70, I torqued the action screws to 25 in. lbs.

They were a little loose out of the box...maybe 15 in. lbs...probably due to compression of the wood.