Forming 280 remington from 270 winchester

[JRuby]

I recently picked up a Handi Rifle in 280 remington. It is a new cartridge for me and presents a challenge to form brass for. I could spend some money and buy brand new brass and reload it. I also could form my own from 270 Winchester, which I have plenty of. Yeah I am being cheap but also using this as a learning experience. Holding onto my money for an upcomming elk hunt. I am asking for a sanity check in my process.

I plan to take once fired 270 winchester brass and run the neck through a 30-06 die which will allow me to create a false shoulder when I run the brass through the 280 remington die. I would keep bumping the neck down to create a false shoulder until it just fit the chamber. Reload the brass as normal.

What am I missing? - I have been reading a lot on the web about this and there are more opinions than ......
People cant seem to decide wether 30-06 or 270 form the best

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[bcp]

You MIGHT get necks a little too thick if using 30-06 . Depends on your chamber and brass.

case neck thickness reloading at DuckDuckGo

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Bruce

 

[bcp]

I would use 30-06, even if a little more work.

When I get run over by a bus, and my 280 reloads are sold to someone to use in their 270 (because of headstamp), the rifle may blow up due to wedging the bullet tight in chamber.

If my 280 reloads are in 30-06 brass, the buyer will only wonder why they are so inaccurate.



Bruce

 

[JRuby]

If you have formed 280 brass properly they will not chamber in a 270. The shoulder will have been moved forward. 2 the diameter of the bullet should not allow you to close the bolt. Can't say always but that is the theory. You can't put a 280 remington in a 30-06 the shoulder is too far forward with a properly formed 280 case

 

[DirectDrive]

1) You already have .270 cases
2) .270 brass is same length as .280 brass (30-06 is shorter)
3) I would try the .270 method

 

[NeoBlackdog]

Oorrr... Buy a couple of boxes of factory ammo, shoot it up, and have brass that has the correct headstamp.

 

[JRuby]

Oorrr... Buy a couple of boxes of factory ammo, shoot it up, and have brass that has the correct headstamp.

Whats the fun in that?

 

[DirectDrive]

Oorrr... Buy a couple of boxes of factory ammo, shoot it up, and have brass that has the correct headstamp.

But it's fun to go to a "Sight In Day" where the public is invited to bring in their deer rifles for sight in with cases formed with non-matching headstamps.
I did that once at Tri-County.
My geezer volunteer couldn't understand how I could shoot 30-06 ammo in my 25-06.
I tried to explain....
He stood way back back when it was time for me to shoot.

 

[JRuby]

But it's fun to go to a "Sight In Day" where the public is invited to bring in their deer rifles for sight in with cases formed with non-matching headstamps.
I did that once at Tri-County.
My geezer volunteer couldn't understand how I could shoot 30-06 ammo in my 25-06.
I tried to explain....
He stood way back back when it was time for me to shoot.

I have seen some pretty strange things at sight in days. He should have asked you about it before just assuming. Hopefully he is smarter now.

 

[DirectDrive]

I have seen some pretty strange things at sight in days. He should have asked you about it before just assuming. Hopefully he is smarter now.

He asked all about it.
I explained the best that I could.
He couldn't get the "necking down" to a different caliber thing.
He also wanted to put this giant cheapo hardware store screwdriver on the action screw of my prized 25-06.
I didn't let him do that.

We were from different planets and I stayed respectful.

 

[Nosferatu]

Fire form it?

 

[gmerkt]

Of the many guns I've owned over the years, .280 Rem. (7mm Rem. Express) is one that I've missed. However, I've necked .270 Win. brass up to .30-06 without any problems.

I plan to take once fired 270 winchester brass and run the neck through a 30-06 die which will allow me to create a false shoulder when I run the brass through the 280 remington die. I would keep bumping the neck down to create a false shoulder until it just fit the chamber. Reload the brass as normal.

I like this idea. The .280 Rem. shoulder position (and therefore chamber) is a taste longer than .270 and .30-06. That false shoulder will keep the resized .270 case from falling or being driven too deep into the chamber for a good primer hit. I've done that before with my .35 Whelen. Which is also a Handi-Rifle. A cartridge headspace gauge is useful when doing this.

Did you get the Handi-Rifle made for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation raffles? Those have a laminated stock with checkering and the RMEF medal in the butt stock. These came in .280 Rem. and .35 Whelen. I'm not positive, but I think the .280's were 1995 and or 1996. The .280's were a regular cataloged item for a while. When Remington was winding down NEF and H&R1871, a bunch of .280's with black plastic stocks were made. This is also when they offered the Whelen again, using up parts, I suspect. The .280's came with NEF or H&R markings; I've also seen a .280 with the "Limited Edition" medal in the butt stock. I'm convinced the various limited editions the factory made were also a way to use up excess parts to make non-catalogued guns. The .280 Rem. barrel was also available in the Accessory Barrel Program.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation commissioned many different rifles (and some shotguns) to be made. The single shots I've seen made for their raffles and promotions have had NEF roll marks on some, and H&R on others. My Whelen is marked H&R, but I had a .308 Win. that was marked NEF.

 

[JRuby]

My 280 has a black synthetic stock - nothing fancy. Never had a break action rifle. I had been buying Ruger #1s and a highwall. This was cheap compared to those and a learning experience. I think the 280 has a 24" barrel. Looked like a fun project. It amazes me in today's world a cheap rifle isn't cheap anymore by the time you kit it out.

 

[HighlandLofts]

As cheap as proper brass cost why not just buy 280 brass.
I hate mis-marked cases.
Some times dangerous things can happen.
It's not like 280 brass isn't available.

 

[gmerkt]

My 280 has a black synthetic stock - nothing fancy. Never had a break action rifle. I had been buying Ruger #1s and a highwall. This was cheap compared to those and a learning experience. I think the 280 has a 24" barrel. Looked like a fun project.

My .35 Whelen is marked as an H&R SB2 Ultra. It has a 26 inch bbl. that is like a cannon, very heavy. It has a taper but is still very thick at the muzzle end.


I own and have owned a number of SB2 Handi Rifles. My experience has been, if they have a heavy barrel, they usually shoot well. The light weight, slim barrels may or may not shoot well. Improving accuracy has been much discussed on another site, Greybeard Outdoors, with supposed cures having to do with fit of the forestock being put forth, etc.

A skinny barrel doesn't have to be whippy and inaccurate. I have a little Ruger 77 Mark II, the RL version which is very light. It has a pencil barrel that is very accurate. But you can't get off many shots before it heats up.

One of my other single shots is a Ruger No. 1 in .223; that rifle is what I call "heavy for caliber." The .35 Whelen is probably "heavy for hunting."

It amazes me in today's world a cheap rifle isn't cheap anymore by the time you kit it out.

It's easy enough to spend as much or more on optics as on a rifle. When I got the No. 1, it had no optics on it, only a base. The Ruger rings set me back $70. I still haven't settled on a serious scope; it's got a "place holder" scope for the time being. Another of the unresolved projects.

As cheap as proper brass cost why not just buy 280 brass.
I hate mis-marked cases.

I have to agree on this point, even though I've done it. I don't like having bogus .35 Whelen brass, but until lately it hasn't been available for several years. That I could find, anyway. Lately, I saw some at a gun show, 100 new pieces for $100. Maybe I should've bought them. Where available online now, they run over a dollar apiece. With the Whelen, they wouldn't chamber in a .30-06 so safety isn't an issue.

 

[gmerkt]

Then there is the story with another of my single shot rifles.



This is the Rossi. It is a convertible rifle / shotgun. The rifle bbl. is .243 Win., the shotgun bbl. is 20 ga. I admit, I was putzing around Cabela's "Gun Library" and bought this one on impulse. It didn't cost all that much; I figured it might be comparable to an NEF single shot. And when I bought it, I knew at a minimum that it needed some help with the scope.

It came with a cheap set of those see-through scope rings that allow use of the fixed sights when a scope is fitted. These rings placed the scope way too high for a good cheek rest on the stock. This rifle/shotgun set originally came with a screw-on cheek riser that had been removed. However, when I got lower rings for the scope, this wasn't needed.

The scope was an older Western Field 3x9; which I discovered that the magnification ring on it wouldn't turn. So I decided to pull the scope off and shoot it with the fixed sights. At the range, it seemed to take a long time to get the sights regulated. A lot of .243 Win. reloads went downrange but I finally thought I had a zero on it.

Then I decided to go back to the scope idea. The next time I was in my friendly, local pawn shop I found and bought a $25 scope that looked pretty new. I hadn't looked at it close enough. After I had it mounted and bore sighted, I took it out to the range and discovered that the optics were a bit foggy and affected my being able to zero the rifle. Back to the pawn shop which kindly refunded my money but I was back to where I started.

I was out of spare scopes, so I decided to take another look at the Western Field 3x9 that came on the rifle. Turns out the reason the magnification ring wouldn't turn is because a little screw was missing. One thing I've got is coffee cans full of screws of all sizes, so I found one (Japanese threads) that was just right and restored the function of the ring. Actually, this was a pretty nice scope with a wide field view like some of the Redfields used to have. Back on the rifle it went. With the proper rings, I got a good position on it on the rifle.

Next I burned up more ammo zeroing in the scope again. After two different sessions of this, I am starting to think that this rifle has two different zeros. A cold barrel zero, and a hot barrel zero, and they are not coincident. I'm going to give it one more try. If that doesn't result in a consistent zero, I'm done. The rifle barrel on this outfit would be good enough for shooting coyotes at 75 yards, that's about it. This rifle has a fairly slim barrel; refer back to my comments in Post No. 15, above.

However, all it not lost, it still has the 20 ga. shotgun bbl. which to date, I haven't tried out.

I've had mostly good results with inexpensive NEF and H&R single shot rifles. The shotguns, they don't convey the potential accuracy issues that rifles have.

This year, I bought a couple of new Henry Single Shot rifles, one in .357 Magnum, and another in .45-70. Those are a big improvement in manufacturing quality over previous lower-end single shots. But at $500 each, the Henrys aren't exactly cheap. But then again, there is inflation.

 

[JRuby]

I finally decided I would buy some 280 brass and fire it in the rifle, then try to duplicate the dimensions based off the fired brass. Everything is getting more exspensive including brass - over 1.10 a case. Its only money right?