280 Ackley Improved load info

[Forrest Ebert]

Chuck the recoil will depend on how well your stock fits you but it's not much more than a standard .280. I'm getting 2950-3050 fps. with the Retumbo load and very tight groups .179" for 4 shots. at 100yrds. That is with a blueprinted and squared Rem. action Pac-Nor barrel and HS precision stock and Leu 4-14 x 40(AO).

 

[the444shooter]

I can't wait to get mine!!!!!!!!!

 

[freebird63]

My gun will have a 26 inch douglas stock, not sure whats been done to the action, will put a jewell trigger in it when I get it, the gunsmith that will be sending it to me is going to install an M16 extractor and see what the stock needs, its a thumb hole stock. I am getting excited now. I was almost going to sell my 8lb jug of retumbo, glad I didn't now.

 

[Forrest Ebert]

Yeh I put the Jewell in mine also, good luck with your AI.

 

[fj40mojo]

Freebird, my smith is tied up until the end of June but with some luck I'll be working up loads by August. What dies did you get for yours? Maybe we can get together and shoot them sometime. I've got a bench south of town.

 

[freebird63]

I have not got it yet mojo, I traded my sendero with brass and a set of dies for the Ackley and brass and dies. The 280 will be easier on me for packing while hunting, if I am even able to hunt, everything right now depends on my back.

 

[the444shooter]

Forrest,

Is there truly 100fps spread in your velocities, or are those guesstimations with Retumbo?

 

[Casing]

I shoot Nosler brass, Nosler 140 grain Accubonds with 59-62.5 grains of H4831sc. I get the best accuracy with 59 grains and then close to the same accuracy with 62.5 grains H4831sc at 3050 fps. My groups open up a little in between these two weights. I was shooting Federal 210 match primers and seemed to get a slight flier or a shot out of the group every now and then. I switched to Win LR primers and my problem went away. 5 shot groups under 1/2". This is the ultimate caliber, I love it! RL 22 is also a good powder for this caliber but it is so temp. sensitive I got away from it. I was getting good groups in the warmer months and then when cold weather came in my point of impact would move almost 3 inches!...........I would have to say H4831 is the go to powder for the 280 AI.

 

[fj40mojo]

...........I would have to say H4831 is the go to powder for the 280 AI.

Great! I've got a metric **** ton of H4831 all from the same lot that I pay $4/lb for. Good results in my 6.5x55 Swede too. Just ordered the last 2 components for my .280 Ackley build, can't wait!

 

[freebird63]

Hey Casing I have a couple questions for you as I am going to be picking up my 280AI, my smith has to pillar bed the stock then it will be shipped to me, I can't wait. I see your using federal 210 primers. Have you ever tried federal 215 primers??? the reason I ask that is I have like 7000 of them and not much money to go buy a whole lot of supplies as I am disabled and unemployed. I had pretty much decided on 140gr accubonds, but was thinking about either IMR 7828 SSC or IMR 4831, but am not sure how temp sensetive those powders are. Heck I still have almost 8lbs of retumbo powder left, not sure what I am going to do with that stuff. With any luck by this time next week I will be putting my jewell trigger in and nightforce rail on and sightron scope. I have seen where some people claim they are using 215 prmers and they work fine and others say they are getting pressure. Mojo the desert is calling my name, am hoping this one will be the most accurate gun I have ever owned and kill many muleys.

 

[Forrest Ebert]

The velocity is the readings from 3 different rifles of course in the same caliber so to be fair I gave all three readouts which I thought were very close to one another . I have one of the rifles and a friend has another and a guy that we shoot with has the third his being a 24" tube gave the lowest but really not far off from ours as we have the 26" tubes, that is why there is a 100fps difference. sorry for any confusion there with the velocities .

 

[koonazz]

Try 63.0 grains of Retumbo and a 168 grain Berger Hunting VLD and a primer of your choice either reg. or mag. This shoots very well out of a 26" Pac-Nor 3 groove 1:9 twist barrel .

I found the sweet spot with 64.0 grains of RE26 and same bullet. 1:9 Christensen Ridgeline bout 2% compressed.

 

[marioq]

Just tagging in

 

[Troutslayer2]

Hey Casing I have a couple questions for you as I am going to be picking up my 280AI, my smith has to pillar bed the stock then it will be shipped to me, I can't wait. I see your using federal 210 primers. Have you ever tried federal 215 primers??? the reason I ask that is I have like 7000 of them and not much money to go buy a whole lot of supplies as I am disabled and unemployed. I had pretty much decided on 140gr accubonds, but was thinking about either IMR 7828 SSC or IMR 4831, but am not sure how temp sensetive those powders are. Heck I still have almost 8lbs of retumbo powder left, not sure what I am going to do with that stuff. With any luck by this time next week I will be putting my jewell trigger in and nightforce rail on and sightron scope. I have seen where some people claim they are using 215 prmers and they work fine and others say they are getting pressure. Mojo the desert is calling my name, am hoping this one will be the most accurate gun I have ever owned and kill many muleys.

I use magnum primers. They lowered my SD and ES and I hunt in cold weather a lot. There must be like 500 threads asking for 280AI loads so maybe using the search function would get you a lot of info. I presently use RL26 and 168 grain bullets but have had great results with 4831 and RL22 in the past. Haven't had enough experience with Peterson brass yet but I like it so far and I am pretty sure it is cheaper than Nosler.