Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 280 and 150gr Partition

Anyone running a 150gr Partiton in a 280 with any luck? What powders are working best. Thanks

Had pretty good luck with both Rel 19 and 4831.

I believe my load was 54gr of IMR4350. Very accurate out of my M700 Mountain Rifle.

When I was shooting a .280 a lot, after considerable experimentation both at the range and in the field I settled on the 150 Partition and 58.5 grains of H4831, for sub-inch accuracy at just under 3000 fps.

Appreciate that, Mule Deer... the 280 seems to always get shortchanged in the reloading manuals... Hodgdon online shows max of 53.7 grains for the 280 for 150 NP for 2709 fps and 49,500 cup. Their 284 data for a 150 (scirocco) is 59 grains and 50,100 cup for 2852 fps... i always thought that a bit odd...

given a 30-06 can push a 150 to near 3000, shortchanging the 280 to just 2709 fps for a 150 is downright silly...

Somebody made a 280 on a weak action, so now SAAMI has to short change it in all the reloading manuals.

In general, in a modern bolt action rifle, 270 WIN data will be closer then the 280 data because the 270 is loaded to 65K PSI. In addition with the same weight bullets (of similar construction) the .270 is more over bore, and will have a longer bearing surface giving you lower pressures with the same charge in the .280. Of course all the usual caveats apply.

Dogger,

As antelope sniper alluded to, the .280 was originally designed for the Remington 740 autoloader, so was loaded to lower pressure than the .270, which was originally a bolt-action cartridge. The present SAAMI maximum average pressure for the .280 is 60,000 PSI (approximately 50,000 CUP) while the SAAMI pressure for the .280 Ackley Improved is 65,000.

This indicates there's no reason not to push the standard 60,000 PSI .280 Remington handloading data a little--unless of course you're handloading for a Remington autoloader.

JerradPelzer: I have had such wonderful results with the 140 grain Nosler Partition on Mt. Goat, Elk, Mule Deer, Black Bear, Whitetailed Deer and Antelope that I haven't even considered trying any other bullet/weight in my 25" barreled custom 280 Remington!
IMR 4831 with the 140 Nosler Partitions gives me speed, accuracy and noteworthy lethality.
If you get a chance I recommend you give the 140 grainers a try.
Best of luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Think I have some 140's as well may try them

The 140 Partitions work fine on game too--as do 160's.

The reason I tried the 150's was that 140-grain Partitions didn't shoot very well in my rifle. 160-grain Partitions shot OK, but it shot 139-grain Hornady Interlock Spire Points noticeably better. I was talking to Chub Eastman one day, who worked for Nosler at the time, who was an old .280 fan. He pointed out there was another Partition between the 140 and 160-grainers, and he'd found many .280's shoot 150 better than the other weights. So I tried the 150's and they shot so well I decided to just use them for everything, which worked great.

If the 140's or 160's had shot as well I'd have been equally happy using either one. I did take several animals with the 139 Hornadys, including my first caribou, and per usual they worked great, but I like Partitions a little more on really big game, and since the 150's shot so well I kept things simple and used them exclusively after finding they shot so well.

MD : What is the sanest way to guesstimate a 65Kpsi max load for the .280 ?
Would you work up from a book max 60Kpsi load ?
or a calculated velocity increment ?

Sincere question,
Thanks

One old rule of internal ballistics for single-based powders is pressure increases at approximately twice the rate of velocity. 65,000 PSI is 8.33% more than 60,000, so we should be able to get about 4% more velocity when loading the .280 to 65,000 when using a single-based powder such as IMR4350.

And, since the velocity of single-based powders increases at the same rate as powder charge, we can also figure an approximate charge. Nosler lists 51.5 grains as maximum in the .280 with 150-grain bullets, for 2870 fps from a 26-inch barrel. Increasing the velocity by 4% would result in 2985 fps. To get an approximate idea of velocity in other barrel lengths, about 25 fps per inch is usually very close, so in a 24" barrel the load would get around 2935 fps, and in a 22" barrel around 2885 fps.

We can also add 4% to the powder charge, coming up with an approximate maximum of 53.5 grains.

Now, with double-based powders, both pressure and hence velocity increase at a higher rate than with single-based powders. But the top velocity would still be safe, especially with slower-burning powders than IMR4350 like RL-19 or 22.

John that 280 load more than a little bit resembles the same load in a 270 with 150's.

Yeah, it does--though I tended to use a little less of that particular lot of H4831 in the .270 with 150 Partitions.

The .280 more then a little bit resembles a .270.

Another good bullet is the 150 bt try them they work great in my two 7mags a stw and a 7mm ultra.

Another good bullet is the 140 grain TTSX. Worked well in two past 280s and works even better in my current 280AI.