Oldtrader3
Ammo Smith
- Nov 6, 2009
- 8,406
- 5
For the past 25 years or so during which I have owned and handloaded for the .280 Remington, first in a Mountain Rifle and now in an A-Bolt Browning since 1995. I have stuck pretty much with using 140 gr Ballistic Tips and other brands of 140 gr bullets with the opinion that I was using the best balanced weight versus velocity for this caliber at about 2940 fps with the 140 gr bullets. Then on this past Sunday, I was reading my old Nosler Number 3 manual and it listed a load that exceeded 2900 fps for the 160 grain bullet in the .280 with IMR 7828.
I had never really paid much attention to the 160 gr weight of bullet in the .280 Rem because I also own a 7mm Rem Mag which I have been loading to approximately 3060 fps with the 160 Partition since the early 1960's. I had just always figured that I would just use the .280 with 140 gr bullets and the 7mm Mag with 160 gr bullets.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I finally was able to find and buy a sufficient quantity (3 boxes) of 160 grain Accubonds to try in the 7mm Mag and figured that it was time to also see what I could do with load development of the 160 AB's in the .280 Rem as well and testing for velocity and accuracy.
I ended up making some test loads ramping up to 58.0 grains or IMR 7828 with a Federal 215 Mag Match primer. I never expected the results that I got with this load and bullet combination in the .280 Rem. Not only did I get over 3000 feet per second muzzle velocity but I also got (3) 100 yard, 3-shot groups of 1/2 to 3/4's inch accuracy with this load.
This is within 50 fps of what I normally get for velocity with the 160 Partition in the 7mm Mag with the 160 AB in the .280 Rem, talk about surprised! Others must have experienced this same power range with the .280?
I had never really paid much attention to the 160 gr weight of bullet in the .280 Rem because I also own a 7mm Rem Mag which I have been loading to approximately 3060 fps with the 160 Partition since the early 1960's. I had just always figured that I would just use the .280 with 140 gr bullets and the 7mm Mag with 160 gr bullets.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I finally was able to find and buy a sufficient quantity (3 boxes) of 160 grain Accubonds to try in the 7mm Mag and figured that it was time to also see what I could do with load development of the 160 AB's in the .280 Rem as well and testing for velocity and accuracy.
I ended up making some test loads ramping up to 58.0 grains or IMR 7828 with a Federal 215 Mag Match primer. I never expected the results that I got with this load and bullet combination in the .280 Rem. Not only did I get over 3000 feet per second muzzle velocity but I also got (3) 100 yard, 3-shot groups of 1/2 to 3/4's inch accuracy with this load.
This is within 50 fps of what I normally get for velocity with the 160 Partition in the 7mm Mag with the 160 AB in the .280 Rem, talk about surprised! Others must have experienced this same power range with the .280?