Well reading all this .280 Ackley stuff got me sorta horned up...so beautiful warm day with NO WIND I dusted the ackley off and rounded up 3 powders, and 2 different 140's (Sierra & Nosler BT's)
My rifle is a 24" Nula with a chrome moly barrel.
first N165 and the campfire load of 63.5 gr and the 140 BT..Great accuracy about 3/8" but velocity of just 3000.
Increased 1 gr. and 3060
One more grain and 3100, but sl ejector mark on the nosler brass and the primers were dead flat..group opened up to 1 1/2"
A long way from 3300 and 7 mag territory!
R22 same bullet, went up to 64 gr. & slight ejector mark 3120. borderline too hot IMOP
R17 same bullet up to 59 gr. Too hot ejector mark -2" group and 3140 vel.
So the Ackley is a neat round certainly effective with 140's but IMOP is NOT a 7mm Mag. At least not with anything I am comfortable shooting out of it.
Lefty C
