168 gr, Berger VLD in 280 Remington? Load suggestions?

Yes. My nephew's rifle shoots the 168grain Berger Elite Hunter (hybrid) 2800fps over 60grains of H1000. Run the ballistics and you will see it is a legit 1000yard deer killer.
 
I have been using 145 gr Speer BT using 57 grs of IMR 4350 for close to 30 years.Have taken Whitetail,Pronghorn ,Mule deer.Caribou and Black Bear.All one shot kills with my mountain rifle.I free floated the barrel and lost a lot of my accuracy,Had to put back just a little pressure .One hole groups at 200 yards going 3050 fps
 
trebark said:
Yes. My nephew's rifle shoots the 168grain Berger Elite Hunter (hybrid) 2800fps over 60grains of H1000. Run the ballistics and you will see it is a legit 1000yard deer killer.
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I think the elite hunter is 175gr. 168gr is either classic hunter, vld hunter or vld target. Hybrid is a 180gr.
 
I shoot a 280 AI, with 168gr Classic Hunters. Let me tell you. . .Reloder 23 is the 280/280AI powder of choice! Higher velocities, cooler barrel, low ES/SD and no pressure signs up to 61gr. in fire-formed AI Norma 280 Rem brass. RL26 was sweet in the velocity department as well, but living/loading/shooting here in Central Fl and going out west or over the Northern boarder in the winter showed temp sensitivity. You don't get that with RL23. If you're wanting a "reach out and touch something" heavy weight load, give this powder a chance.
 
Bravo 4 said:
Hey brother, I'm not trying to call you out but am rather perplexed by some of your comments. You don't owe me an explanation, I just find some of your posts are contradictory...at least to me.
You say that you used a BAR 7 mag and it was too heavy (which isn't really heavy on its own) but then say you want to add things like a suppressor. A suppressor, especially a QD mount with brake, adds weight.
Then say you might load it down but the 7-08 isn't enough. Doesn't the 7-08 basically give you mild 7 mag ballistics?

Now the whole paragraph you wrote about whacking elk does throw up a couple of flags to me. If I shoot an elk through the lungs and it only runs 60 yards I would be happy and consider that good performance. I've shot more than one deer through the lungs with a 7mag and 150 ballistic tips at relatively short ranges and have them run for a couple hundred yards. You should only expect bang-flops with a central nervous system hit. Not that a lung/heart won't drop them, just don't expect it. That isn't what sends up a flag, this: "I think I have hit other elk by noting the whack but not seeing any go down" kind of sounds like you didn't go look. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, or it's written in a matter that makes it sound that way? I know elk aren't bullet proof, you don't need a crazy super magnum to kill them, bullet placement is key, yadda-yadda-yadda...but the few experiences I have with elk show that they can absorb a lot of lead and sometimes stand there and look at you like you're stupid.

Am I just off on this?
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Absolutely Correct! Had a bull take 3 168 gr VLD from a 7mm mag 26" barrel. Stood there the entire time just wobbly. Maybe total of 2 min before he went down. 300 yrds.
 
Nimrodmar10 said:
I've got a Remington 700 Stainless Mountain Rifle that I'm wanting to work up a load for. I bought it for an elk and mule deer gun before I got too fat to run up and down the Rockies. It worked good on both with the Federal 160 gr. Nosler Partitions.

The biggest thing I shoot now is Tennessee Whitetails. But to make that more interesting, I shoot them at long range. In doing so, I've started using the Berger VLDs and like them. I usually shoot the heaviest bullet possible for the higher BCs. I know from past experiences that I can't reliably shoot the 180 VLD in the Remington 1 in 9 1/4" factory twist, especially with the slower velocity of the .280 Rem. So I thought I'd try and work up a load with the 168 gr. VLD.

I searched this forum for this caliber/bullet combination and didn't find any posts. But I know that some of you guys know how good a caliber the 280 Rem. is. I also know we have lots of Berger fans on here. So I'm betting some of you have some pet loads that you might share.

The gun has a 22" thin conture barrel. The barrel is not floated. There is a pressure pad at the tip of the fore end, but with the whippy barrel and light weight stock, I think this is a good thing. It shoots MOA with the Federal factory 160 gr. Partition loads and the one 100gr, HP load that I worked up for coyotes. That is not a fur friendly load.

I asked this same question about a 6.5-284 about a month ago for a new Savage 111 LRH I purchased. I got some very good load advise from you guys. I kind of ignored it and spent a month and a lot of money on reloading components testing lots of different loads, only to come to the conclusion that the suggested loads were exactly right. I won't do that this time.

I'm thinking H1000, IMR-7828SSC, RE-19 or maybe H4831SC, but if I'm on the wrong track, please set me straight.
Thanks guys.
Click to expand...
Hi,
Had this exact rifle, and after shooting the barrel out, it got turned into a .280 Ackley.

When it was a .280 Rem, I was using H4831 with 168gr VLD's. If I remember correctly it was 51.7gr.
I'm now loading for my friend who shoots that exact rifle, and we found we get more than 100 fps more using H4350- this is likely due to the short barrel not being long enough to burn up all the slow burning H4831. I can't remember how high we got before we started seeing pressure signs- you'll have to do some experimentations there.
 

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