Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington 700 Mountain Rifle 280

Hello, have a 280 rem 700 mountain rifle, have some grouping issues(I have rulled out the hot barrel), heard they can be picky on ammo so I was wanting to try some different types, thought i would see what types of factory ammo have worked best with other peoples 280 mountains, so i dont have to buy a bunch of differnt types of ammo

My 7X57 Mountain Rifle likes Hornady 139g if shooting factory loads.

talk to me

Try the low-end Win, Rem, Fed ammo. Own several MR's that are silly accurate.

What are the issues? How big are the groups? What do you have for a scope, bases and rings? Is your rifle bedded and bbl freefloated? And lastly, what is your trigger pull weight?

The first thing I do with a "new to me" rifle is bed the action?/recoil lug, and freefloat the bbl. Then, get your trigger down to at least 3 lbs for hunting. That is where I start. Always seems to make things easier.

Thanks for the sugestions the groups are proably around 2.5 inch Leupold VX-3 4.5-14 leupold mounts, I have checked the parallax on the scope and its fine, trigger set at around 3 pound pull, Im going to free float the barrel, then take it out to the range and try some different factory ammo through it to see if that will get it to around 1 to 1.5, so i figured id see what factory ammo people have had luck with, I heard of a lot of good results out of the federal 140 grain nosler accubond 280 in the mountain rifle but it appears they have been discontinued

Free floating alone is not going to solve your problem.

Im floating it more do to the fact i use it to hunt in all differnt climates including some unfavorable cold weather

You can temporarily free float to see how is shoots as described by JB here:

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/factors_in_accuracy_one.html

I have the same rifle and it is a little finicky is seems. I could get it to shoot well with certain loads, particularly the 160 Sierra HPBT Gameking. I did the temp free float and it did shoot better so I'm bedding and free floating mine now.

I understand, however, you need to bed the rifle.

Not as inexpensive as it once was, but try some Federal Fusion.

Got some great groups out of an old Green & White box of Federal Premium 150 NP's . All under 3/4"
Alas the box is empty

Traded up to a KS w/ a 24" bbl, it'll be an AI soon

I have several Rem 700 Mt rifles, including a 280 Rem. one thing common to all is that they are extremely sensitive to where the fore end is rested on the bag. I found that resting directly under the chamber seems to provide the best accuracy when shooting from the bench.

You may also want to try shooting from sticks or a bipod to see how it likes resting further out on the fore end. My Mtn rifles are all glass bedded and shoot well from bipods.

Can't help you on factory ammo. Mine have only seen handloads.

Thanks for the info that makes sence, what hand loads have you had the most luck with out of your mountain rifle, a good buddy of mine loads a lot of different rifle ammo so I figure if I dont have much luck with any factory loads I might have him load me some 280s to try

140 and 160 grain Noslers of any flavor and Re 19 work quite well. I have a couple hundred of those varieties loaded. Velocities are within 100 fps of my 7mm WSM loads and much more accurate.

I intend to try some TSX and a couple Ramshot powders late this summer.

A friend had a model 7 that wouldn't group. He pulled the barreled action and found the recoil lug was off center. The rifle shot great with the shimming method of free floating. He sold the rifle before getting it sent back to Remington.

Mine likes the Fed premium 140 grain TBBC. Chronos 2900 out of the 22" barrel.

I grabbed 10 or 12 boxes of the Federal 140 TBBC from Midway a couple years ago before they discontinued them..

I had a 280 Remington in a Mountain Rifle and loved it. I had the trigger adjusted and it glass bedded. It is a rifle that you have to be VERY consistant with in where the forearm rests on the bags, how tight you are holding it, and everything has to be kept as close to the same each and every shot. With the light barrel you also have to let them cool for several minutes between shots for best accuracy. You do all that though, and they flat out will shoot! Good luck.
David

Mine put Remington Express 150 CoreLokts into the same hole with 10 shots on its last outing.

After 4 rounds they kept going in the same hole so I kept shooting them. Figured I'd quit at 10 rounds.

Silly accurate is an understatement.