Primer assistance

[Hunt4Meat]

Question, I am reloading a new cartridge (280AI). Working up a load with 143 HHT hammers. They suggest using magnum primers with 4350 to get the best speed for bullet performance. Lacking magnum primer, I’ll use cci200.
My question, once magnum primers become available, how much powder should I scale back, 1,2 etc grains to start looking for pressure signs? Never did the back and forth. Thank you, Happy New Year.

 

[Addicting]

Question, I am reloading a new cartridge (280AI). Working up a load with 143 HHT hammers. They suggest using magnum primers with 4350 to get the best speed for bullet performance. Lacking magnum primer, I’ll use cci200.
My question, once magnum primers become available, how much powder should I scale back, 1,2 etc grains to start looking for pressure signs? Never did the back and forth. Thank you, Happy New Year.

You start your load development over.

Zero reason to switch now that you have a load done. The 280ai doesn’t need a magnum primer. Gains if any at all with 4350 will be insignificant.

If you want gain FPS you will need to switch powders. N555 is great as well as RL26 with a mag primer.

RL 26 is a slower powder that works well with 150 or above. That 143 will be a tad light and the Mag primer will make up for it with RL26.

 

[Durango Mike]

You start your load development over.

Zero reason to switch now that you have a load done. The 280ai doesn’t need a magnum primer. Gains if any at all with 4350 will be insignificant.

If you want gain FPS you will need to switch powders. N555 is great as well as RL26 with a mag primer.

RL 26 is a slower powder that works well with 150 or above. That 143 will be a tad light and the Mag primer will make up for it with RL26.

N555 Norma or Vitavhouri?Just started working up load with 140 Accubond and thought 555 VV was a possibility. I have never needed mag primers in 280AI, been loading it for 36 years.

 

[Addicting]

Vitavhouri

Yep! I use it for 140 and below and RL22 for anything above. 26 works well too but 22/23 seems to be the sweet spot for 160 grain.

Only use the Mag primer with 26.

 

[blackbeard]

I use RL 26 and match grade primers with zero issues and great accuracy.

 

[std7mag]

N555 Norma or Vitavhouri?Just started working up load with 140 Accubond and thought 555 VV was a possibility. I have never needed mag primers in 280AI, been loading it for 36 years.

It's Vihtavouri N555.

Norma for the casings & bullets.

 

[MThuntr]

Hammer bullets suggested mag primers to me for the 280ai to build pressure faster in a longer case. Surprisingly they suggested standard primers in 6.5PRC using nearly identical powder charge of RL26.

 

[BRI]

I was loading 143 HH in my 280AI and RL23 powder. I was using cci200 primers and the load was good. Then tried cci250's and the group tightened up.

 

[Hunt4Meat]

I was loading 143 HH in my 280AI and RL23 powder. I was using cci200 primers and the load was good. Then tried cci250's and the group tightened up.

Cool, did you try RL 26? Trying to save my mag primers for my 300wm. May have to sacrifice some and try to find rl23, I’ve got rl 26 and h4350 as well as h4831.

 

[BRI]

Cool, did you try RL 26? Trying to save my mag primers for my 300wm. May have to sacrifice some and try to find rl23, I’ve got rl 26 and h4350 as well as h4831.

No I never had any RL26 to try. I tried RL22, H4831sc but 57.5 grains of RL23 was the best in my gun. It was relatively slow at 3050 fps. I got it up to 3150 fps before pressure but accuracy wasn't nearly as good.

 

[Addicting]

Cool, did you try RL 26? Trying to save my mag primers for my 300wm. May have to sacrifice some and try to find rl23, I’ve got rl 26 and h4350 as well as h4831.

If you don’t already have 23, don’t buy it. It’s extremely hard to get now and not worth the cost for what you can get with 26 and mag primer.

I would advise you to try a pound of N555. It really does well with that class bullet and standard primer. You will gain enough FPS to justify it.

 

[Addicting]

If you step up to a 160 grain + bullet then buy the RL23.

 

[Hunt4Meat]

If you step up to a 160 grain + bullet then buy the RL23.

I have bought 160 accubonds, 162 eldx and (143 hht to hopefully hunt with) to work up and see which one is the most consistently accurate. All 3 should perform well in the gun as well on critters.

 

[BRI]

I’ve been loading my 280AI since 2013. It seems to be easy to load for and all bullets I tried grouped well with H4831sc and RL19 too. I’ve shot 140 and 160 grain accubond, 145 grain Barnes LRX, 143 and 131 grain Hammer Hunters with good results. This past year I moved away from the 143 HH to the 150 grain Hornady CX also behind RL23. Performance on a bull elk, 2 deer and Antelope were quite good.

 

[Hunt4Meat]

I’ve been loading my 280AI since 2013. It seems to be easy to load for and all bullets I tried grouped well with H4831sc and RL19 too. I’ve shot 140 and 160 grain accubond, 145 grain Barnes LRX, 143 and 131 grain Hammer Hunters with good results. This past year I moved away from the 143 HH to the 150 grain Hornady CX also behind RL23. Performance on a bull elk, 2 deer and Antelope were quite good.

Thank you, I’ll add the 150 to my journal for future consideration. Yeah, I’m looking for this to be my tinker gun, 300wm is really heavy, 7mag needs updating (cheaper to get the 280AI that I picked up) and my 7mm08 lever will probably be handed down if this works out. Still like the lever for thick woods and tracking.

 

[Addicting]

I have bought 160 accubonds, 162 eldx and (143 hht to hopefully hunt with) to work up and see which one is the most consistently accurate. All 3 should perform well in the gun as well on critters.

It is really hard to beat a 160 accubond in the 280ai. With RL 22 I’m at 3050 fps. RL 26 got me to 3020.

Buddy shoots the 162g ELDX and RL 23 at 3000. It makes a mess of an elk. It looks like a grenade went off inside. I won’t let him grind his burger with mine. He looses a lot to blood shot but they don’t go far.

I’ve ran Hammers, Barnes, and Noslers in different calibers. My go to is the Barnes LRX or the Accubond. Both performances have been outstanding.

 

[Hunt4Meat]

It is really hard to beat a 160 accubond in the 280ai. With RL 22 I’m at 3050 fps. RL 26 got me to 3020.

Buddy shoots the 162g ELDX and RL 23 at 3000. It makes a mess of an elk. It looks like a grenade went off inside. I won’t let him grind his burger with mine. He looses a lot to blood shot but they don’t go far.

I’ve ran Hammers, Barnes, and Noslers in different calibers. My go to is the Barnes LRX or the Accubond. Both performances have been outstanding.

I hear ya, wasn’t able to get 160s until Christmas, they are on the way. Thank you for the insight.

 

[old roper 42]

Question, I am reloading a new cartridge (280AI). Working up a load with 143 HHT hammers. They suggest using magnum primers with 4350 to get the best speed for bullet performance. Lacking magnum primer, I’ll use cci200.
My question, once magnum primers become available, how much powder should I scale back, 1,2 etc grains to start looking for pressure signs? Never did the back and forth. Thank you, Happy New Year.

I talked to Hammer about loads for my 280AI. They gave me some loads using mag primers. https://hammerbullets.com/load-data/.

You might want to use their data.

 

[Hunt4Meat]

I talked to Hammer about loads for my 280AI. They gave me some loads using mag primers. https://hammerbullets.com/load-data/.

You might want to use their data.

Thank you for the info.