I have a remington mountian rifle in 280 i have been trying to find some good rounds to reload for it. i shoot blacktail deer, rosevelt elk and the occasional black bear. I have been working with 140 gr nosler partitions and 54gr of Reloader 19 that has been the most accurate round i have created so far it puts a triangle around the bullseye about the width of a pop can. it is decent but i am looking for a tighter pattern and advice is welcome bullet type, powders, technique anything will help thank you

My 280 will not shoot the 175 grain Noser Partitions accurately. I have purchased the 160 grain and the 140 grain but have not worked them up. I am curious about the poundage of your trigger pull. I reduced mine to around 3 lbs from the almost 8 lbs when I purchased it. Good luck with finding an accurate load.

What was the best shot group you ever achieved with factory ammo?  Maybe it's the rifle and not the loads?

I have a Rem 700 Mnt LSS in 7mm08. I assume yours is similar, with the thinner barrel, you get more "barrel whip" and it is really picky on the load combos. After trying factory, and 4 different powders I had on hand (smallest groups were 2" up to 6", may standard is MOA) I tried Varget. I had tried it before and didn't do it for me, but the 4 test loads I started with, all were MOA. I tweeked it from there. Try Varget. Change only 1 thing at a time. Do the basics, like everything tight? Barrel free floating, etc?

Go down to the 'favorite 270 loads' thread and skim thru there. 270 and 280 are very similar, the 4350's seem to be a popular powder choice in the 270.

Dale

I am not exactly sure the trigger is set at it is one of those new x mark adjustable triggers. also keep in mind that i was not at a range with a bench rest i was at a rock quarry using my tailgate and a sandbag. so there is some definite human error involved. and as far as factory loads i used remington 165 gr factory ammo and it was a better pattern. i know from what i have heard about this gun is that it is picky. i am kind of new to reloading so i was just looking for some tricks or tips to find the right round

OK, as you mentioned, shooting test loads without a solid rest is a no-no. I have made many shooting benches out of scrap or damaged counter tops. Check you local building suppliers. Purchase a folding leg kit. I cut a notch on the rear left (like the old school desks)Make sure it is long enough for you. Get a pail and a swivel seat. As far as a rest, I use a sand bag on the butt and a non-swivel bi-pod. On my targets I use a small (pea-sized) dot to aim at and use high magnification on the scope. If you start with a clean barrel, shoot a fouling shot. If you have 4 test loads, set 4 targets and shoot 1 shot from each test load, let barrel cool, shoot 1 more from each in the reverse, etc. May sound funny, but with a picky gun, your test loads will be ~at the same temp, so that will eliminate more variables. Any questions re the loads themselves?

thank you for the advice. i am going to a site in range this weekend. one more question does the Overall Case Length change the accuarcy of the round. i used my calipers and measured a factory round then based my reloads off of it

Yes, OAL length will affect the accuracy.  Although it's really more a matter of how much 'jump' between the case and the start of the rifling.   It's generally the last thing I mess with, preferring to change powders or bullets until I get close to something good, then I change seating depth to see if makes any difference.

Dale

Re COL(Cartridge Overall Length). You manual should tell you the COL. I use that as a guide. I seat the bullets so they are .05" off the rifeling. I have found this is the most accurate way and I base all my test loads on this. I will let you research this further and find out how to do it as this falls in the realm of "not in the manual" and I won't go any further than that. Make sure if you do this, the rounds fit in the magazine. I have several guns that the bullets can be set longer than what will fit into the magazine.

Saw your post on the 280. I have 25 rounds of once fired factory brass. If you're interested I'll get them to you real reasonable.

hunterdteacher@yahoo.com

MAF0730, I have a Remington Mountain Rifle in .270 Winchester. I tried four different powders before I started working with COAL. Read the last post on, "270 Win Pet Loads" in this thread for what I did. IMR4350 is one of the best powders for these cartridges and would probably work well for you with the 140gr. bullet. I have talked with several people that shoot Remingtons and almost to the man they say they get the best results with the right powder and the bullet seated about half way between the manuals suggested OAL and the actual OAL. It was that way with mine as well. We'll talk more about establishing COAL later if you don't already know how.

I do not own a 280 but do own a 270 and a 7mm mag. I have found the slow burning powders like H4831 and IMR 4831 gives me the best accuracy with both calibers. I also have found the 160 grain nosler partition to work best in the 7mm for accuracy and for performance on game. My reloading manuals list IMR 4350 and H4831 as the best powders in the 280/7mm express/280 which is all the same cartridge but Rem stumbled around trying to popularize this cartridge.

I still suggest trying different powders, start with a "pet load". I tried 4831, 4350, 4895, H380 until I tried Varget, which made all the difference.

As gaw says, try some different powders. The280, although designed off the 30-06, is different than it's brothers. The shoulder is slightly moved and at a different anle to prevent the 270 & 280 from accidentally being mixed. One result is that unlike it's brothers the 280 needs a 24" barrel to optimize whilst the others survive with a 22" barrel. As a result, what,s good for the goose is NOT good for the gander in this case.

i just went to the range last weekend. the loads that i made with using reolder 19 were all over the paper. the instructor at the range recommended H 4831 with hornady sst bullets. i am going to give this combo a shot and see how she does. though as of now i will be using factory remington 140 gr core lokts at the range i put 3 bullets in the bullseye the size of a 50 cent piece. i cant ask much better than that but i want to be able to load my own. i am sure that i will find a combo that will work. thanks for the help fellas.