.280 mountain rifle. can I reasonalbly push the 168gr berger?

[wannahuntmo]

looking to take advantage of the bc of the 168 berger. My rem mtn rifle has only a 22" barrel. Is this to short a barrel or is the 168 just to much bullet to push in my barrel/caliber?

[Jordan Smith]

You should be just fine. I was pushing the 162gr A-Max in my 22" Ruger .280 at 2950fps with more than a half dozen loadings on the brass, and no pressure signs. That's plenty fast, IMO.

[wannahuntmo]

what was your recipe and how was your grouping?

[Jordan Smith]

I used a max load of IMR7828ssc (60gr, IIRC, but work up in your rifle), Fed210 primer, RP brass, and accuracy was always sub-MOA, but ranged from about 0.5MOA to 1MOA at 200 yards, depending on the day. It proved to hold accuracy well out to about 700 yards, which is the farthest I shot that load, and I could stay on a 1MOA plate consistently.

[wannahuntmo]

that is impressive. If i can get that kind of accuracy out of my mountain rifle it would be the ultimate light long range gun to pack up the hill. when i was originally working up loads for this gun, it was before the custom turret craze. I thought i needed to soup my rounds up. and did. but couldn't get the accuracy i wanted.
guess i'll try it again. this is sweet. like getting a new rifle to play with.

[TannerGun]

Yep, Jordan turned me on to 7828ssc in my 280 too with the 162 AMAX. I've got the same rifle you're shooting, and have shot it out to 1,000 easily with a 3-9x40 Leupold. I'd try the AMAX first.

[wannahuntmo]

what is your take on the thin contour barrel. can you keep 1moa in a 3 shot string? because of barrel heat?