280ai and RL23

[slas]

I've been reading about RL23 for the 280ai for a few months now, and with the improvement in temp stability I've decided to give it a go. I'll be picking up 3 lbs later today. I know many believe RL26 to be the "pixie dust" of powders, buts for my mainly hunting purposes I'll always take consistency over speed. I love the caliber and want to work up loads in my Cooper. To start with I have some 140gr Nosler Ballistic Tip and 160 AccuBonds on hand. I also have a bunch of Federal 215 and 210 primers. There seems to be more info on the 160gr than the 140gr out there but I plan on using to 140's this season on whitetail so looking for some load suggestions from the group. I've spent quite a bit more time doing load development on my 260 and 243 over the previous years, so I'm working on bucking my tendency to grab one of them and instead solely use the Cooper this season for my whitetail hunts. Thinking about using the 10 shot load development process also, but I know that'll start a whole new conversation/debate. All load suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[CTK]

ALLIANT RELODER 23

Seems to be hard to get. Has it been discontinued? Anyone have experience with it in 6.5-06 class cartridges?

www.longrangehunting.com

6 pages with some 280ai content. 140's work great in the 280ai. I used N165 with the 140's years ago. Like many I have gone to heavier bullets. This being a Long Range site there, is probably a bias toward 160+gr bullets in the bigger 7mm's. I am about to try some 160 class bullets in my new 280ai. First test was with 175 Bergers and RL23. Went great but feel the need to tinker. RL23 will be first powder tried on the 160 class bullets. RL26 did well for me with the 165 HVLD.

 

[slas]

ALLIANT RELODER 23

Seems to be hard to get. Has it been discontinued? Anyone have experience with it in 6.5-06 class cartridges?

www.longrangehunting.com

6 pages with some 280ai content. 140's work great in the 280ai. I used N165 with the 140's years ago. Like many I have gone to heavier bullets. This being a Long Range site there, is probably a bias toward 160+gr bullets in the bigger 7mm's. I am about to try some 160 class bullets in my new 280ai. First test was with 175 Bergers and RL23. Went great but feel the need to tinker. RL23 will be first powder tried on the 160 class bullets. RL26 did well for me with the 165 HVLD.

I did some development with the 168 VLD's already and have a few good loads ready to go, but not with RL23.

 

[Bob Wright]

RE23 is an exceptional powder but really likes the Fed GM215M primers in the 280AI case. This load was with a 145 Hammer Hunter and Barnes 145 LRX.
A few other recipes for the 168 class bullets respond well with H4831SC, possibly neighboring powders in that same burn rate.
Sierra Tipped Match Kings in 168 gr work well for paper and hunting

 

[slas]

RE23 is an exceptional powder but really likes the Fed GM215M primers in the 280AI case. This load was with a 145 Hammer Hunter and Barnes 145 LRX.
A few other recipes for the 168 class bullets respond well with H4831SC, possibly neighboring powders in that same burn rate.
Sierra Tipped Match Kings in 168 gr work well for paper and hunting

What amount of powder with the 145?

 

[CTK]

RE23 is an exceptional powder but really likes the Fed GM215M primers in the 280AI case. This load was with a 145 Hammer Hunter and Barnes 145 LRX.
A few other recipes for the 168 class bullets respond well with H4831SC, possibly neighboring powders in that same burn rate.
Sierra Tipped Match Kings in 168 gr work well for paper and hunting

I have 215M's but have never used them before. Start all over on load development? Seating depth stays same usually?

 

[Bob Wright]

I have 215M's but have never used them before. Start all over on load development? Seating depth stays same usually?

Yes on load development; you can baseline RE22 minimum powder number and work up until you see pressure.
Seating depth can be done after you see a node in a 10 shot ladder.

 

[Bob Wright]

What amount of powder with the 145?

I stopped at 3100 fps. Don't have my load data, but 57.6 rings a bell.
The e.s. was crazy low at +/-2 for 4 shots, one went -8 fps. Probably brass problem.
If using Nosler brass, I had a horrible donut problem killing my groups. Neck turn and ream fixed it. Going with Peterson brass soon.

 

[slas]

I stopped at 3100 fps. Don't have my load data, but 57.6 rings a bell.
The e.s. was crazy low at +/-2 for 4 shots, one went -8 fps. Probably brass problem.
If using Nosler brass, I had a horrible donut problem killing my groups. Neck turn and ream fixed it. Going with Peterson brass soon.

Yep, I also had an initial donut problem, only caliber I ever had it on.......thanks for the info.

 

[JMW67]

Without a doubt use peterson brass its great

 

[slas]

Just found a post with some quickload data:

Cartridge : .280 Ack Imp
Bullet : .284, 160, Nosler AccuBond 54932
Useable Case Capaci: 64.303 grain H2O = 4.175 cm³
Cartridge O.A.L. L6: 3.330 inch = 84.58 mm
Barrel Length : 24.0 inch = 609.6 mm
Powder : Alliant Reloder-23

Code:
Predicted data by increasing and decreasing the given charge,
incremented in steps of 2.0% of nominal charge.
CAUTION: Figures exceed maximum and minimum recommended loads !

Step Fill. Charge Vel. Energy Pmax Pmuz Prop.Burnt B_Time
% % Grains fps ft.lbs psi psi % ms

-20.0 86 49.60 2405 2055 31649 9842 97.9 1.586
-18.0 88 50.84 2465 2159 33906 10072 98.6 1.543
-16.0 90 52.08 2525 2264 36333 10279 99.2 1.501
-14.0 92 53.32 2584 2372 38944 10462 99.6 1.454
-12.0 94 54.56 2642 2481 41753 10620 99.9 1.407
-10.0 96 55.80 2701 2591 44781 10751 100.0 1.363
-08.0 98 57.04 2758 2702 48043 10863 100.0 1.320
-06.0 101 58.28 2815 2815 51566 10972 100.0 1.278
-04.0 103 59.52 2871 2929 55348 11077 100.0 1.239 ! Near Maximum !
-02.0 105 60.76 2927 3044 59391 11179 100.0 1.201 ! Near Maximum !
+00.0 107 62.00 2982 3160 63735 11277 100.0 1.164 ! Near Maximum !
+02.0 109 63.24 3037 3277 68408 11371 100.0 1.129 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+04.0 111 64.48 3092 3397 73442 11460 100.0 1.094 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+06.0 113 65.72 3146 3517 78871 11546 100.0 1.062 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+08.0 115 66.96 3201 3640 84735 11626 100.0 1.030 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+10.0 118 68.20 3255 3764 91079 11702 100.0 1.000 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!

Results caused by ± 10% powder lot-to-lot burning rate variation using nominal charge
Data for burning rate increased by 10% relative to nominal value:
+Ba 107 62.00 3084 3379 78085 10879 100.0 1.077 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
Data for burning rate decreased by 10% relative to nominal value:
-Ba 107 62.00 2826 2837 50072 11808 99.7 1.282

 

[slas]

And here's the 140:

Cartridge : .280 Ack Imp
Bullet : .284, 140, Nosler AccuBond 59992
Useable Case Capaci: 66.211 grain H2O = 4.299 cm³
Cartridge O.A.L. L6: 3.330 inch = 84.58 mm
Barrel Length : 24.0 inch = 609.6 mm
Powder : Alliant Reloder-23

Code:
Predicted data by increasing and decreasing the given charge,
incremented in steps of 2.0% of nominal charge.
CAUTION: Figures exceed maximum and minimum recommended loads !

Step Fill. Charge Vel. Energy Pmax Pmuz Prop.Burnt B_Time
% % Grains fps ft.lbs psi psi % ms

-20.0 87 52.00 2526 1984 30590 10007 95.9 1.515
-18.0 89 53.30 2592 2088 32791 10280 96.9 1.473
-16.0 91 54.60 2657 2195 35162 10531 97.8 1.433
-14.0 94 55.90 2723 2305 37715 10758 98.6 1.392
-12.0 96 57.20 2788 2416 40470 10961 99.2 1.346
-10.0 98 58.50 2853 2530 43441 11136 99.6 1.302
-08.0 100 59.80 2917 2645 46650 11283 99.9 1.260
-06.0 102 61.10 2981 2762 50124 11400 100.0 1.219
-04.0 105 62.40 3044 2880 53882 11496 100.0 1.180
-02.0 107 63.70 3106 2999 57948 11588 100.0 1.142 ! Near Maximum !
+00.0 109 65.00 3168 3119 62371 11677 100.0 1.106 ! Near Maximum !
+02.0 111 66.30 3229 3241 67124 11761 100.0 1.071 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+04.0 113 67.60 3290 3364 72258 11840 100.0 1.038 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+06.0 115 68.90 3350 3489 77817 11915 100.0 1.005 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+08.0 118 70.20 3411 3616 83846 11984 100.0 0.974 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+10.0 120 71.50 3471 3745 90397 12049 100.0 0.944 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!

Results caused by ± 10% powder lot-to-lot burning rate variation using nominal charge
Data for burning rate increased by 10% relative to nominal value:
+Ba 109 65.00 3288 3361 76959 11235 100.0 1.020 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
Data for burning rate decreased by 10% relative to nominal value:
-Ba 109 65.00 2982 2764 49043 12113 98.8 1.222

 

[slas]

Without a doubt use peterson brass its great

Of course I started hearing about how great peterson was only after acquiring several hundred nosler cartridges.......

 

[JMW67]

If you can find peterson buy it and sell the nosler you will be much better off people are buying the nosler brass on here all the time