Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 280 AI and RL23 info

Hard to find load info. Looking to load 139/145 LRX to 3000-3100.

I have some regular 280 data with H4831 and expect a dose of 63 is going to work but may be on the hot end. I will start lower but was looking for any confirmation the experts may have.

Yes I have gone to Alliant and Barnes but to little avail.

My 280 AI loves Re23 under a 160 Accubond. 59 or 59.5 grains works well and nets me 2900 -2950 from a 24" barrel. I've run it to 60 gr under 160 gr but my rifle shoots better at 59 or 59.5. It's a toss up which is better.

I'd pontificate you could run 62 gr or so with 140ish gr bullet.

My 280 ai likes 58gr H4831 pushing a 175gr eldx. Velocity is averaging 2740fps

Thanks guys going with 62-to 62.5 and see where that takes me.

Looking forward to your findings. Please report back.

My AI is currently rocking 139 grain Hornadys at 3,000 via 59 grains of Imr 4831. I'd like to pump that up a bit. My pet load these days is the 120 grain TTSX over 58.5 grains of rl17 and a cci 200 for 3,290 fps. Ought to smite whitetail I'd think.

Data is scarce for the 280AI, you can use almost the exact same loads listed for the 7mm SAUM for the 280AI. I also looked on the Alliant site and by averaging the data for the standard 280 or 270 and the 7 WSM it get's you quite close to a max load for the 280 AI. I did not try this across the board just for R23 and came up with 62.4 grains which sounds about right or slightly on the hot side.

Been playing with R26 and it smokes them out there but R23 is very close and more temperature stable in hot weather, so it will be next up.

63.0gr is fine for a 139gr copper. Should give you right about 60KPSI. With the 145gr I'd look more in the 62.0 range as max.

Load to velocity with either bullet up to 3100 in a 24" should be perfectly safe regardless of the exact charge weight that gets you there.

Thanks for info guys.

I have shot the 63.0 but with H4831 SC. It was on hot side with 145 and ok with 139 with new nosler brass. Dropped back to 62.5 with once fired and seems good to go. Had heard the RL 23 might get me faster with same or a grain more. So it appears we are close to good.

Will load the RL 23 and see how they shoot.

If you split the difference in charge weights between H4831 and R22 or less reliably 7828 you will be in the ball park for R23. Please post your results as next time I load for the 280 ai I might try r23.

N165 gives me 3200 fps with 140 AB’s in my 280 AI

I consistently use about 2gr less RL-23 than my RL-22 charge weights, across many different bullet weights, to get similar accuracy and velocities.

In my rifle, 56.5gr of RL-23 gets me a little more than 2900fps with the 162 ELD-X. I use 58.5gr of RL-22 to get similar results.

I got 1 hole groups at 3070 with 162's and 3240 with 140's using RL23

My 280AI loves RL-19 @ 140 grains. I have shifted up to 150’s and it only “likes” 19 with them. I’m going to try RL-23 and see what happens.

TAG

I've heard great things about N165 and the 140 AB, are you using Hornady or Nosler brass? The guy that's installing my barrel has a lot of experience with N165 and the 280 AI.

RL 23 and 280 ai range report.

145 LRX - 61.0 HOT in my pre 64. Dropped back to 60.0 -60.5 and work up.

139 LRX - 62.0 HOT. Dropping back to 61.0-61.5.