Found a suprise in dad's gun safe

[Clark33]

My dad and I both archery hunt here in Washington but rifle hunt in Wyoming every year.  My first rifle was a ruger .243 featherweight and then he bought a Tikka .280 from my uncle for me a while back.  We both shoot .280s and he does most of the reloading so I never really paid any attention to the gun safe in the shop.  A couple weeks ago I was bored and decided to go to the rifle range, I open up the safe and see a rifle with no scope on it.  I take it out and engraved on the barrel is " Winchester Model 70 lightweight .30-06 Springfield"!!!! What the hell dad!  I go inside and ask him about it, he informs me that he won it back in the early 90s at a Rocky Mountain Elk foundation banquet.  I did some research and found that they now call this model the "featherweight" so I am assuming this is the earlier version.  We put a 6x Leupold on it and get it hitting paper, pretty fun gun to shoot. 

So heres my question for you fellas.  We handload our .280s so basically all i need to do is buy the bullets and die for the .30-06.  I just bought some nosler ballistic tip 180gr bullets.  We will be using H4350 powder.  Anyone shoot a similar load?  Whats the best powder measurement for you guys?

[carpsniperg2]

don't for get brass

here is the link that will show you a bunch of loads
and give you a good idea.

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

[Cascade Hunter]

If you are gonna use 180 gr bullets and H4350 powder, 54-55 grains is all you are gonna get.

I use 55 grains of H4350 in my buddies 168 gr bullets and it's quite cramped.

[bobcat]

I've had great luck with 56.5 to 57 grains of H4350 in the 30-06. I've used the same loads for my dad's Browning BAR and in my Weatherby Vanguard. H4350 is the perfect powder for the 30-06.

[Clark33]

Thanks for the info, and yes carpsniper... I remembered brass, we're just gonna use the brass from the few times I've shot it this past month, 40 should get us started at least, i was also under the impression that a .280 uses the same brass as 30-06 except its necked down, so couldnt we also use the .280 brass we already have?

[Cascade Hunter]

Thanks for the info, and yes carpsniper... I remembered brass, we're just gonna use the brass from the few times I've shot it this past month, 40 should get us started at least, i was also under the impression that a .280 uses the same brass as 30-06 except its necked down, so couldnt we also use the .280 brass we already have?

No.

.280 case length is 64.5 mm, 30-06 length is 63.35 mm. Even the base diameters are different.

[bobcat]

The 25-06, 270 Win, 280 Rem, and 30-06 all use the same case. You could probably make 30-06 cases out of any of them. If a case is a little too long, that's what they make case trimmers for. I think I would just stick to 30-06 brass though, because it's so easy to come by, and then it will have the correct head stamp. If you use 280 cases, you could end up trying to shoot it in a 280, and blowing up the gun.

[buckhorn2]

Thats a nice find but I have nightmares about the kids getting in my gunsafe they like to get ahold of anything shinny or thats Dads.

[Clark33]

Thats a nice find but I have nightmares about the kids getting in my gunsafe they like to get ahold of anything shinny or thats Dads.

Well I'm 23 so I know where the key is and he doesn't mind, but my 6 year old brother on the other hand, yea that would be a cause for concern.

I dont think we'll try to convert any .280 brass, we should have enough 30-06 brass to at least get started on it.

[270Shooter]

The 25-06, 270 Win, 280 Rem, and 30-06 all use the same case. You could probably make 30-06 cases out of any of them. If a case is a little too long, that's what they make case trimmers for. I think I would just stick to 30-06 brass though, because it's so easy to come by, and then it will have the correct head stamp. If you use 280 cases, you could end up trying to shoot it in a 280, and blowing up the gun.

Thats what I was thinking.