Is this good enough for deer and elk??

The Hedgehog

The Hedgehog

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Dec 19, 2000
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Last night I shot my rifle at 100 yards, one ragged hole (under 1/2") 4 shots. They were 2.25" high and dead center. The software says based on all the conditions you put in about the environment and the rifle/load.. this is what comes out. A 200 grain Nosler Accubond. Is this good enough?? :D

Range Velocity Energy Path
(Yards) (FPS) (FT-LBS) (Inches)

0 3100 4267 -1.50
50 3032 4082 0.87
100 2965 3904 2.30
150 2899 3732 2.75
200 2834 3567 2.16
250 2770 3408 0.47
300 2707 3255 -2.35
350 2645 3107 -6.37
400 2584 2965 -11.60
450 2523 2828 -18.10
500 2464 2696 -25.98
550 2405 2568 -35.22
600 2347 2446 -46.03
650 2290 2328 -58.48
700 2233 2215 -72.63
750 2178 2106 -88.53
 
Just cause it did that at 100, doesn't mean it follows the rest, right? Aren't you supposed to check it out farther too? I mean, yes, that's great, but I'd check it farther out, since it can do that and you'd like to actually shoot farther out too, probably.
 
Tom, I'm just going to trust the numbers and start blazing away at running elk at 750 yards. :D
 
Just hold 88 inches high, and 47 inches Left....
Click to expand...

What if he's running to the right?

Greeny, I'd say that group's ok to start with. ;) What caliber? I'd like to see you recover that Accubond from an elk and weigh it. Probably won't be able to find it after it goes thru a deer. I'm thinking about trying some, although I've been very satisfied with Partitions for the last 30 years. I've had some incredible performances from them.
 
1/2" thats it? You must be shooting a Winchester or something... :)

From what I hear on the net, Accubonds are junk. The 7 animals that I've seen shot with them had something diffrent to say. ;) Just a mater of time before all I shoot are accubonds. Partition like performace , slightly better accuracy for roughly half the cost. Now if they'd hurry up and make them for the 6.5mm and in 358...

Ithica I seem to remember you shoot a 280?

Recovered weights of a 160gr out of both a 280 and 7mm is around 110 grains. I've so far killed two elk with them, my wife shot a big wildebeest bull, and I shot a couple little critters, like bushbuck, impala and warthog last fall in Africa. All were one shot kills but the second elk, he soaked up some lead... Out of 8 hits on 6 animals, only 3 we've recovered.

The 280 load is traveling about 2900, and the 7RM is at about 3050.

The wildebeest was, quartering away, entered at about the third to last rib and was found lodged under the skin on the oposite point of the shoulder. Penitration was about 30" or so. The bull ran about 50 yards, from what I gather wildebeest are "supposed" to be one of the hardest animals pound for pound to put on the ground. Shot with the 280 at about 125 yards :D

The first elk I shot was a yearling cow, I hit her high broke the spine and exited. The shot was with the 280 and the distance was about 330-340 yards.

The second elk was the bull I shot last year. Good sized bull, got 240lbs of cut meat off him. The first shot zipped right through the lungs, second shot through the shoulders found in meat, the last shot he spun and was standing facing me... found that bullet in a sirloin steak about 2 months ago. Penitration? Stem to stern, you tell me... All shots were from about 50-60 yards and out of a 7RM

In the little animals it just zipped right through. Average run distance was about 20 yards. The bushbuck never got out of his bed, the impala ran straight at me for about 40-50 yards and died less than 20' from me, and the warthog went about 10 yards. Both were quartering toward shots, both broke the facting shoulder and exited at about the point of the top rear knee joint/gut.

I also shot a deer with 140's a couple years ago. The shot distance was about 80 yards, again with the 280. The bullet was found in a softball sized crater under the hide. The buck took two steps and it was over. Recovered weight was right at 100 grains. That one suprised me a little. I think it dead centered a rib on the way out and kind of 'blew' up. Either way... he was dead.

I've got a batch of 200 grainers loaded up for my 338-06AI, they shoot dang near the same hole, and I have a feeling that there will be a couple elk sucumbing to thier wrath in the next month or so.

To be honest, I really don't think there is much diffrence between the Accubonds and Partitions. Penitration is pretty much the same as is retained wieght. Either one is a winner and if you have a load that works with partitions I woudn't bother switching, I really don't think you'll see any diffrence in performance.
 
Bambi, Thanks for the info. Yes, I shoot a .280 and a .257AI. I have high velocity handloads for each with Partitions in a few different bullet weights that shoot 100 yd groups of 7/8 inch or less. My goal when developing a load for Partitions is always to be under one inch, and I've been lucky enough to do it, although I gotta admit it took a lot of experimenting a few times with different powders and primers. In the .280 I have loads for 140 and 160 grain Partitions and in the .257AI I shoot 100 and 120 grain Partitions.
 
Took me a long time to get my handloads shooting worth a crap. I've been shooting this load for 3 years. 92 grains of RL25, 215 Match Magnum primer, bullet seated out to the maximum length for the magazine.
 
It, my best loads for my 280 are...

57gr of RL 22, CCI 200 primer and a 160 accubond, 0.02 off the lands and Winchester nickle brass.

Same load with the 140's only with 2 more grains powder.

I also had great luck with IMR 4831, and 1 grain less with each bullet weight.

I might have gotten lucky but I really didn't have to futz around with loads in that rifle. I also have shoot a few boxes of Sierras of like wieght out if it with the same loads. All shoot really well.

This was the last 'test' load out of my 7mag. My 280 will shoot about the same. The 7mag is probably the most accurate rifle I own... straigh out of the box and she'll shoot just about anything like this. It will shoot a touch better with 62gr of IMR 4831 and a 160 Sierra SPBT

group.jpg
 
I am a nosler fan my self.
I like reloading but I have some thoughts about Barnes X bullets. Has anyone had good accuracy and bragging right on kills with these bullets?
 
I worked up a load in the spring for my .280 and the x-bullets shot fantastic.

they are loaded hot, over 3100 ft per, maybe on sunday I'll get a chance to see how they perform on elk.

I also loaded up some triple shock in my .223 wssm and it shot outstanding, will let you know how dead a coyote can get.
 
Haven't checked velocity. As long as they shoot well I don't worry about wringing out the extra velocity. I figued the 140's would be about the same, maybe 50fps more. Not hot, but very accurate, and shoot with in half an inch of the 160s POI. I'll have to check my notes, but it seems like I had pressure signs with 61 grains, and not nearly as good of groups, so I back it off two grains. Some cases are on thier 6th loading and the primer pockets are still tight so it must be abot right. I prefer 160's in .284 caliber so I'm happy.

To many rifles to work up loads for and not enough time. I'm going to ask Santa for a new Chrony, hopefully she'll come through. The bad thing about seeing actual velocity is it makes me second guess my loads. I don't get too wond up over velocity, out of countless animals, I can think of two that might have been shot over 400 yards. Inside that the diffrence in trajectory is minimal, as I'm sure you know. Heck the diffrence between a 300WM and a 308 is only a few inches at that range.

My buddy has a 7mm and he chronyd the same loads out of two diffrent rifles and if I remember right the 62gr of IMR 4831 was 2950-2975ish. And the RL22 was just a hair over 3000. I figued mine should be pretty close. I would like to see what the 280's are doing though. The first cow I shot was a pretty good poke. My rifle was sighted in 2" high at a 100, and I figued at 330 yards it would drop about 4-5", so I held a little high on the ribs, and thats where I hit. I shot a baboon out of a tree at about 350 yards with the same load, held right on him and folded him so it must be pretty close. :)

Another buddy of mine has shoot a couple critters with 110 Accubonds out of his 25-06. They zipped right through a buck antelope and young buck deer.

What loads have you had good luck with in your 280? I have a box of partitions on the bench that I've thinking about tinkering with. Seems like a 150 would be about perfect in it. Although I don't see myself spending anymore time at the range futzing around with it since what I have works. I have about 4 other rifles that need some bench time/load development. I've heard that RL25 is supposed to be very good in both the 7RM and 280.
 
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