Welcome to the forum. I couldn't help but notice your name.

The 280 is sort of a magical round and have always had great success with it from Wyoming to Africa, even though its sales have wained of late.

If you jump into the fray here just remember that everyone has an opinion about everything, so don't take it personally!

Will

I have a 280 and it's a nice rifle--Kimber made it, and it has a fluted barrel and composite stock.

I'd like to hunt with it and would even entertain taking it to Africa for plains game.

However, I haven't found a load it "likes" yet. I've tried factories and handloads, some of which showed marginally acceptable accuracy, but I want a smaller-caliber firearm to shoot MOA. Just a quirk I have.

The 280 has a reputation for being a hard caliber to load.

I realize each rifle is an entity unto inself, but do you (or anyone else) have a load that's been especially accurate?

Nitro, see the thread in the med. bore section. I have had good luck w/ 150-160gr bullets & slower powders (4831,Rl22,7828).

IMO, the 280 Rem is what the 270 should have been. With the same weight bullets, it is the same but slightly less chamber pressure for the same speed. It's advantage over the 270 is it's ability to handle heavier bullets!

Nitro E, is this the first fluted barreled rifle you've owned? If so, then you may not be aware many of the fluted barrels do not shoot well. Some can be helped with being stress relieved. The milling in of the flutes causes a lot of stress in the steel, but you say Kimber made it so it should have been checked for it's accuracy. May be just touchy. Hope you find a load, because this is a very good chambering, and the Maker of the rifle is OK as well.

Good luck hoss!

[ 01-10-2003, 00:32: Message edited by: MacD37 ]

Nitro,

Assuming its a free floated barrel, have you tried adding and moving a pressure point under the forearm? If not try an 1" wide by 6" band of inner tube rubber..it might need a double thickness depending just how much gap there is. Pick your best current load "as is" and try firing it with the band in a couple of different places. I know reading this is making all the serious accurracy nuts flinch, but it actually works quite well.

Regards

Peter

I have a Kimber with fluted barrels in 338 winchester and it shoots 18 mm with 225 grain Hornadys at 100 m I have not tried another load

Hi Will and thank you for your welcome greeting.
I have been a regular visitor on AR for a long time but did not register until now.
I have a Sako75 Hunter in 280Remington with a 3.5-10x44 Zeiss Conquest mounted in APEL detacable mounts. It is quite accurate, 1/2-3/4 groups with many bullets (120grn NoslerBT, 140grn BallisticSilvertip, 130grn SierraMK & 150grn SierraGK) using VihtaVuori N160 & N165 powder.
I have used it once for hunting here in Iceland, shot a reindeer (the only big game we have) at 160 meters.
This is my only rifle (for now) but I had a Savage in 7mm-08 before but wanted something of a better quality and a litle more powerful.

I have a Blaser Rifle, one shot, cal 7x65 r whit Zeiss Scope 6x42.
7x65 r and 7X64 are the same calibers of 280 remington. I used this rifle in six hunting safaris in Africa, in Canada for caribou, in USA for deer (mule and whitetail), in Ungary for red deer and roe deer, in Italy for, chamois, roe deer, fallow deer and mouflon. Probably I shot over 50 animals. I never had problems. Normally for big animals I use the bullet of RWS mod. TMR 173 grains. For small animals I use RWS KS 123 grains.
The most bigger animal I shot whit this caliber is a Cape Eland in Namibia. Was over 800 kg. Died whit only one shot.
I think the 7X65 r (and 280) is one of the best caliber for big game hunting.
Mario