R-P 280Rem Cases

[William T. Watts]

I opened a single box of MidwayUSA bulk brass (100) rds) last evening, I weighed all cases and found the weight of the cases varied from 192.5 - 203+ grns. I recently purchased a new Ruger Hawkeye 280Rem that I will work up a load for in the next few weeks. Do you think the OCW method of working up a load negate this much weight variance of this lot of brass. I have another 900 plus rounds of bulk R-P brass purchased several years ago from another source that I weighed that was far more uniform in weight. The obvious question is would the intial MidwayUSA lot of brass (without separating the brass in to lots) develope an accurate load just by using the brass as they came out of the box? William

[FrankenMauser]

That depends on what you define as "accurate". Broad side of a barn? 2-3 MoA? 1 MoA? Sub-MoA?

[William T. Watts]

Frankenmauser 1.25 MOA or better, with the exception of a M-1 Garand (2-3")and a Winchester 94 Big Bore lever (1-2"), the rest are Winchester model 70's Classics or Ruger Hawkeye bolt guns capable of 1.25" or better. My 69 year old eyes are the limiting factor, I can still shoot 1' or better groups, just not as often as I would like! William

[FrankenMauser]

Unless you deburr flash holes, neck turn, throw exact charges, and dope the wind with every shot... You probably won't notice a difference.

If it will make you feel better... I would probably weight sort into five 20-piece lots. I had to do so with the last lot of R-P .30-06 brass I bought. (It had a 10+ grain spread, as well. )

[603Country]

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I usually segregate and use cases that are within a 1 grain max/min range. I just weighed out a batch of Remington 260 cases and found 88 of the 100 were within the range. Some Noslers I bought recently were 95ish % inside the range, and some Hornadys were about the same in percentage in the range, but the range weight was different. The Noslers and the Hornadys were both for my 223 and they were prepped exactly the same way and to the same extent. The Noslers shoot a little better. Maybe if I varied the charge in the Hornadys, I could get the same degree of accuracy. Bottom line is that the range of case weight does seem to matter to some degree. Maybe as the case gets larger, the difference means less (that's a guess).

[GeauxTide]

The R-P Brass I buy from Midway shoots fine in my Hawkeye AW in 280. 55gr of RL-19, CCI200, and 140gr Noslers give 2947, SD of 9.9, and ES of 30fps. Shoots under an inch. I have never worried about brass sorting or weighing in my 40 years of loading.

[William T. Watts]

I do debur flash holes and uniform primer pockets, I see no reason to turn necks of cases for a standard chamber, if the rifle I was loading for had a match chamber and lapped lugs etc then maybe. I'm old enough to remember when Jack O'Connor thought a rifle that shot consistent 1 3/4" groups were as good as it got. My thinking has changed to look for and expect and accept nothing less than 1.25" grouping or less, if a rifle won't deliver that at a minimum it doesn't stay around long at my place. Any more I buy a new rifle to give me somthing to do plus a reason for getting out of the house. I will use weighed cases first and the same loading in unweighed cases and compare the groups. At the moment I'm looking for a Leupold scope to mount on the rifle, once the scope is on the rifle I'll start load developement. William

[William T. Watts]

Of interest the max charge of 53.7 gr of H4831 (Hodgdon) seems to be the maximum charge for this particular rifle. The rifle seems to have two undesirable qualities, (1st) a short throat that prevents surpassing Hodgdons max powder charge for this caliber (OAL 3.270" Nosler S/Base Soft Point), (2nd) apparently only one locking lug is making contact. The cases when fired with the max charge of H4831 (48,000 CUP Hodgdon pressure reading) rest midway between the min and max step of a Wilson Cartridge case gage, increasing the charge by .5 gr and the cases are even with the max step on the Wilson gage. This is repeatable suggesting the action is flexing which would explain the increase in length. With that said the rifle does exhibit reasonable good accuracy potential, I used sand bags to steady the rifle while looking thru the barrel and adjusted the scope cross hairs, I fired one round to confirm I was on paper. the first group 1.100", #2 & 3 were fractionally over .600" (all shots were taken at 75yds). William

[William T. Watts]

I usually weigh my cases too within + or - .5gr, since it's my time and I have plenty of it I choose to weigh them, I found out a long time ago bullets/primers are very uniform and aren't worth the trouble! William

[Paul B.]

I think that with a bit of load tinkering a 1.25" average is doable. At least you're looking at a reasonable grouping, unlike some people who are not happy unless a rifle shoots bug hole groups. Please don't misunderstand me because if I find a load the shoots bugholes, I'm not gonna gripe. However I settled on 1.5" or less groups on a consistant basis for my rifles. The key word is "consistant". A solid 1.5" rifle is good enough even for antelope at 300 yards and elk well past that distance.
I realize a tight shooting rifle give one a lot of confidence when having to take longer shots but unless you plan to carry a bench rest out in the field with you because you'd have to as I've never seen any during my 50 plus years of hunting. Sure would have been nice to have one though. Still, I made the shots FWIW, most of my rifles have been tinkered enough with either work on the, or the load or both but I still have a few that barely make the grade.
Paul B.