Have about three weeks to cook up some deer huting loads for the .280. Using virgin Winchester Brass, Federal Gold Medal Match Primers. Powders on hand are H4381sc, H4350, RL19, RL17

Bullets-Barnes 120 TSX, old 160 grain coated bullets
Nosler 150 BT
Hornady 139 SST and 139 sp.

Shooting a Remington 700 with a pacnor 1/9 three groove barrel at 22 inches.

For deer, of the components you listed, I'd start with Horny 139gr IL's and H4350.

My favorite load has always been 145gr Speer Hot Cores and IMR4350.

But the nice thing about the 280 is that there as so many great bullets available, and the cartridge is generally very flexible as to which powders work.

With your selection of components, I'd use these loads and your choice of either the 120 TSX, 139 SP, or the 150 Ballistic Tips, they'd all make fine deer ammo:

.280 Remington (Hodgdon Data)

Warning! Notes: Case: Remington; twist: 1:10"; primer: Remington 9 1/2; barrel length: 24"; trim length: 2.530"; bullet diam.: .284". NEVER EXCEED MAXIMUM LOADS

120 Barnes TSX Hodgdon H-4831 58.0 2923
Remarks: start load; COL: 3.230"; 43,600 psi

120 Barnes TSX Hodgdon H-4831 63.0 3124
Remarks: max load; compressed; COL: 3.230"; 53,100 psi

120 Barnes TSX Hodgdon H-4350 55.5 3093
Remarks: start load; COL: 3.230"; 49,100 psi

120 Barnes TSX Hodgdon H-4350 59.0 3254
Remarks: max load; compressed; COL: 3.230"; 57,400 psi
______________________________________________________________

(139 gr Hornady SP)

140 Nosler Part Hodgdon H-4831 54.0 2732
Remarks: start load; COL: 3.230"; 41,000 cup

140 Nosler Part Hodgdon H-4831 58.5 2927
Remarks: max load; COL: 3.230"; 48,500 cup

140 Nosler Part Hodgdon H-4350 50.0 2756
Remarks: start load; COL: 3.230"; 41,900 cup

140 Nosler Part Hodgdon H-4350 53.5 2918
Remarks: max load; COL: 3.230"; 48,500 cup
______________________________________________________________

(150 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip)

150 Nosler Part Hodgdon H-4831 50.0 2579
Remarks: start load; COL: 3.300"; 45,100 cup

150 Nosler Part Hodgdon H-4831 53.7 2709
Remarks: max load; COL: 3.300"; 49,500 cup

150 Nosler Part Hodgdon H-4350 46.0 2550
Remarks: start load; COL: 3.300"; 42,500 cup

150 Nosler Part Hodgdon H-4350 49.7 2700
Remarks: max load; COL: 3.300"; 49,300 cup
______________________________________________________________

Take your 150 Nos and put it on top of 58.5 grains of H4831 SC...one of my new favorites for my .280

rdinak,

Ive only owned three .280's but of the powders you have, H4831 and RL-19 were most consistently accurate in all three. Haven't tried any Reloder 17, though.

My current load is 55gr of RL19 and a 140 Accubond. So consistent at 3/4" it is boring. I know it is not a bullet you have, just my experience.

+1
Very accurate in my .280 using the 150g NBT. Played with H4831sc for the first time this spring -- my new favorite, too.

Yeah, I admit.. I'd go out and pick up RL 17 and 140 grain Nosler Ballistic tips or Partitions....for deer, and antelope...

and then RL 19 and 160 grain partitions for elk and big stuff like that here in the lower 48...

Great load and same results in my .280 also.....

I like 150 Horn SP with a healthy dose of 4831, but have also had good luck with 7828.
I have also taken to playing with the 139 Horns but haven't shot anything with them YET!!

I've shot a few mule deer and one black bear with 139 hornady interlocks (flat base), and, no surprise, they worked very well. Haven't recovered a bullet yet though!

RL17 and 120gr TTSX makes my .280 very happy. 3,200+ ft/s 1/2" groups.

From those bullet choices, I'd probably go with the 150 BT's for deer. I believe any of those powders will do well. They all seem to be in the right burn rate zone for the .280. I'd experiment to see which works best for you and your rifle.

The quickload numbers posted earlier in the thread are on the mild side. The .280 needs to use .270 pressures to really shine. You will likely be able to hit 2900 fps safely with the 150's and quite possibly 3000 fps or a bit better. Always work up carefully but holding a .280 to 2700 fps with 150's isn't coming close to realizing its potential.

Just shot a great group today with 58.5 Gr H 4831 154 Gr Horn.
Interlock, Rem 9 1/2 primer RP brass Ruger 280 Rem. 22"

I've settled on the Hornady 139 BTSP over 55gr IMR 4350. 2900fps and accuracy is excellent with five shot average of 5/8". Bullet performance has been great from 15yds to 315 yards. Only bullet I recovered went in a big buck between the shoulder blades going away at 215yds, plowed through a foot of neck bones and ended up at the base of the jaw. The bullet did not shed its core and ended up a bit over 100grains. I'm having a hard time convincing myself I need to try one of the super bullets giving the performance that I've experienced, but the 140/150 Accubond is tempting.

At 2900 fps, the premiums don't offer much over Interlocks.

One of the loads I've taken from Mule Deer....

Dang! You mean I can't use it anymore?

My most often used do it all load for my .280 has been with a 160 gr. bullet, Mostly Noslers anymore with 55 to 56 grains of imr4831 cci 200 or fed 210 with rem cases. From my 22 inch tube velocity hovers right at 2800 fps.

Have worked with 140-150 grain bullets at 2900 to 3000 fps and killed a small pile of animals with them. But those the long, sleek, game cleaving 160 grain spitzers get most of the work from my .280

Interesting stuff

What kind of vels are you getting with this load?
Thanks in advance,
BD

I'm sure John can answer you quicker than I can. I'll send mine through the chrono in the next couple of weeks. Crazy good load in my Weatherby U/L.

With a couple of exceptions, I'm trying to convert everything to "H" powders. If this load keeps shooting as good as it has been, I'm going to buy an 8 pounder....

That is If I can find the stuff...rare as hens teeth around here!

Thanks CLB, would like to hear what kind of numbers you get once you've had the chance to shoot across your chrony. Does mid 2900's fps sound about right.
I know you won't find this load in the books...... Though I like Rel 19 a lot and it shoots extremely well, I have very little left on hand and plenty of H4831......
I thought this load may do quite well with the 150 gr. LRAB's I picked up recently.

Certainly this load would be a smidge north of 2900 with the 24 inch barrel on my rifle. Really accurate and plenty quick for my needs.

I've been getting 2950-3000 fps with the 150 LRAB in my 280 AI with H4831sc that bullet has been accurate in my rifle .5 or less...

That's great, Have you had a chance to use the LRAB on any game yet?
I'm running a 25 " Lilja spout on my standard .280, I'm interested to see if I can hit 2900-2950 safely with the above load and bullet also.
BD

You should move quick before some one patents that load it works so good....

BD, I havent shot any game with the LRAB yet plan on hunting with the 160 AB this year and pick up load development for the LRAB after hunting season..the 168 LRAB has been shooting well for me also with velocities running around 2920...with MRP powder..I have pushed the 150 LRAB and the 160 AB well over 3000 fps in the 280 AI but accuracy goes away..seems like my gun likes to run 2880 to 2950..

Interesting about your vels, is it just with these bullets? Looking forward to hearing what you fellas get worked out with the loads.

RL22 and 154gr Hornady Interlocks shoot real well in my brothers Ruger 280 Rem. that I reload for him. Worked great on his first bull caribou this year.

RL-19 has been a top performer for me in several different .280s.

Looking at Hodgdon's load data, they list 4831 maxing out at 53.7 with a 150 Partition. Nosler lists the IMR version at 55 max, so 55.5 with H4831. I know the 280 was saddled with a low pressure ceiling, but is it really that much?

I'm not saying y'all are wrong or it's a bad load, in fact I'll be working up to see how mine likes it. Just makes me wonder why the the pressure limits were apparently set so low especially in a round that is relatively modern?

About 4,000 CUP low, Remington set the limits on it, supposedly it was because the cartridge was designed for the Remington 740 semi-auto and 760 pump.

Not even a hint of excessive pressure in my rifle.....what are you shooting for a rifle? Work up and see how it responds but you will probably be fine.

BlackDog, the 740/760 reasoning makes sense.

It'd be nice if the manuals would show different sets of data different actions. The 45-70 comes to mind, with data for trapdoors, middle of the road lever actions and then "strong" actions like the number 1.

The rifle is a 77 HE so I guess I'll be putting a bit more gas behind a few bullets.

Yah, the 740/760 reasoning makes sense, but then those same semi-autos and pumps were also chambered for the .243, .270, and .308 cartridges which are loaded to higher pressures.

So, I think they could have raised the pressure limit for the .280, (E.G. .270 levels), but they never did.

Quickload and working up carefully are your friend with the .280. Quickload can give you load predictions for 65000 psi which is what the .270 loads use. It makes a big difference for the .280.

I can't imagine a better all around load for the .280 than 56.5 of RL19 and the 139gr Interlokt by Hornady...unless you use the 154gr Interlokt w/55.0gr. powdr

Now you're talking. I've gotten better results with IMR-4831 than RL-19, but it could be just my particular lot of RL-19.

Anyway, those are very similar powder charges to what I use.

I like IMR-4350 with the 139/140-grain bullets, IMR-4831 with the 150/154-grain bullets, IMR-7828 with the 160-grain bullets, and H-1000 with the heavies.

Yes they (742, 760) were chambered for higher pressure cartridges, ironically and interestingly it was also anemically chambered in the 725 bolt rifle......
The data in the Nosler 7 guide has some very good velocity .280 loads, especially with heavier bullets.
On an aside, since I'm unable to do any shooting for the time being, I've been comparing/measuring shank bearing lengths on some 7mm bullets the last day or so, particularly the 150gr LRAB compared to the 140 gr. Accubond and the 162 A-Max.
As close as I can determine, the 162 A-Max and the 140 Accubond have nearly identical lengths of approx. .475" +or- .005"....the 150 LRAB's are approx. .125" shorter or .350" +or- .005".
Not sure if this is of any help to anyone but someone might find it useful when working with these particular bullets at higher pressures and velocities.

Best,
BD

Reloader 19 and 140 TTSX previously it was Hsc4831 and 160 grain nosler.