I am confused I recently got my wife a .280 and loaded up some 168gr VLD's and after the time consuming task of finding the perfect load and seating depth she shot it several times and wasn't super happy with the recoil and asked if I could reduce it a little bit. The current "sweet" load for the 168's is 54gr's of IMR7828ssc which produced just a hair under 2650fps I'm sure I could have pushed it farther but I was trying to be generous on the recoil. Now the start load for the 140's using IMR7828ssc is 53gr I am guessing I will be somewhere between 56 and 59 grains when I work up the load to once again try to find the "sweet" one. So my question is will the lighter projectile with 2 to 5 grains more powder produce less recoil or am I just gonna be wasting my time. Any help would be appreciated.......
140vld's vs 168vld's
- Thread starter jabey9210
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cornstalker
Well-Known Member
I would think the lighter bullets would kick less, even with more powder.
Rocky Mountain
Well-Known Member
The 140gr will kick slightly less than the 168gr in your 280 but the small difference I'm picking wont be enough for your wife to be happy I think your better looking at a muzzle brakes or supressors to tame the rifle down.
cowboy
Well-Known Member
Take Rocky Mountain's advice - if there is less recoil you will never notice it. It'd be a lot easier in the long run to just put a brake on it and be done with it. Either that or just start reducing powder until you get down to .243 recoil.
I've shot 139's, 140's, 154's and 168's out of a 280AI and you're a better man than I am if you can tell much difference.
cornstalker
Well-Known Member
Very true. My wife's 7mm RM has a muzzle brake on it and even though it's very light she has no problem shooting it on the bench without padding her shoulder.
Wise words fellers.
Wise words fellers.
That's what I thought I knew it would be reduced some but was afraid it wouldn't be noticeable. She's experienced enough to know she'll never notice while shooting at an animal but when we go to practice she is only able to shoot it a few times before the recoil starts getting to her. This gun will primarily be used for a 500yrd deer gun because of the steep canyons and ungodly amount of pines where we hunt a 500 yard poke is not uncommon so reducing loads is kinda out of the question with the current load I think 600 yards was max with energy it was producing.
I loaded 168's in my 280 AI and they shoot great but, when i compared them to 140 vld's using my Lee Shooter program. I noticed that the 140 VLD would give it the performance very close to the 7mm rem mag, so i'll be going to the 140 VLD's for this season.gun)But a quality recoil pad or muzzlebrake or both would be the ticket to tame the unwanted shoulder smack.
