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Hello Gentlemen
I own a 280 Ross M1910. Jacketed bullets for this round are .287-.288 in diameter. These can be purchased from specialty manufacturers for a premium price. I have not done any paper patching but I was wondering if it would be possible to patch .284 bullets up to the appropriate size? Thoughts?
With most of the paper I use and at two wraps you will probably have to size your core down to .282 then patch up to .288 but it is most certainly doable . I patch for a 7mm TCU and a 7-30 waters ,my mould drops at .290 I then size it down to .284 then patch up to .290 , works good.
If you are looking at cast boolits, a custom mold may be the ticket. Accurate will make almost anything that isn't a full spire point.
I'll have to dig out my notes, I can't remember what boolit I use in the 280. It's an Obendorf Mauser chambered in 280 Ross. For the life of me, I can't place what I used.
And the note book is in the shed and I'm being lazy on the couch.
NOE has some good moulds in stock that would most likely fit the bill also , you might want to make a chamber cast of your barrel and look for the right mould, paper patching a 7mm bullet is trying on ones fingers at least they do my old stiff fingers. And don't over look the advantages of powder coating .
Actually wandered out to the shed and did a little digging. Found out that I have made no notes on the 280 Ross yet.
I have only loaded up a handful of boolits for this rifle, it belongs to a buddy, I loaded just a few to check function. When he got it, the front sight was missing. We used electrical tape and an old sight that I had to check function and that it would actually hit paper in sort of the place we were aiming before he accepted the rifle.
It's been off to a gunsmith for far too long having a new front sight blade made. Had to be a custom, this was a custom built German rifle and the dovetail used appears to be unique to this rifle.
And perfect timing to bring up about the 280 Ross, we are picking the rifle up tomorrow.
And that gunsmith is never going to get anymore business from my buddy. I was actually surprised my buddy let this dude touch the rifle. I was with him when he dropped it off at the "gunsmith". If it had been me, I would have backed right out of the driveway and moved on down the road to the Two Lakes Tavern and come up with Plan "B" for the rifle.
It was a private residence with the full complement of junk cars, boats, lawn equipment and unidentifiable metal objects. And most of the lawn was cut perhaps some time this century, but I wouldn't bet on it.
I have a NOE mold, 290-137-FN-F3. I cast some up, they cast right at .290, tried them with Ben's Liquid Lube and a gas check. Don't know if this mold is still available. Next thing I need to do is find someone to make a correct H&I die for this. Now that Lathesmith is retired that may take a little while.
Might want to look at "beagling" a mold if you have a standard 7mm mold. May be able to get up to the diameter you need also.
And it's a light boolit for this rifle, but the cast boolits are just for dinger ringing, if he's going to kill something with it he'd go to jacketed.
I have had a Ross .280 ( 1910 R.R. Co.) for over forty years and have always used the common .284 inch bullets and have gotten groups at one inch (five shot, 100 yards, peep sighted) but most average 1.5 inches. I've had best luck with the heavier bullets at about 2,800 fps. Try the .284 bullets before you buy any of the expensive custom .287" bullets.
Thanks for the responses guys. I did some loads using 140 gr .284 jacketed bullets. I wasn't impressed with my grouping. Maybe I need to try some 160s. I have toyed with the idea of casting boolits but obviously I won't be able to push the 3000 fps limit of the cartridge. I just didn't know if paper patching would be an option with jacketed bullets.
There is a thread here , might be in archive by now , that details the journey with a 300 RUM pushing a 180 to 3000 fps with MOA .
I have a 301618 NOE version at 172 gr I didn't get to shoot it as much as I wanted but if I could have pushed it faster in the 308 I'm sure it would have gone .
The catch of course is being able to keep the bullet together with the twist provided. With the 1-8.5 and 9.5 most common in 7mm is where the challenges come in .
I don't think a .284 jacket will size enough for a .007 patch .
At the risk of blasphemy, and possibly hypocrisy, have you considered Powder Coating ? I'm told it's good for .002 per coat . I haven't read about it being used exactly this way but I have read about double coating to get a cast a little bigger . Success or failure might hinge on bore dia more than groove in this case .
Powder coating a cast .284 or even a jacketed .284 a couple coats will get you there.
You could also paper patch a .270 cast bullet. Starting with about .277"-.280" as cast, two wraps of .004" paper will get you in the vicinity of .288", then size the patched bullet, if necessary, enough to work with your seating die and your barrel.
I've been doing something like that for 6.5x55, paper patching a .25 cal (.257"-.260") cast bullet, and it works well enough to put rounds in the black at our 200-yd. Vintage Rifle match, if I do my part.
What brass are you using?
I've got 50/110 converted brass from Buffalo Arms. It stretched a bunch on first firing.
I'm also fooling around with 7mm Mag brass. Rim is a little small for 100% extraction but the brass is free. I've probably got 150+ donor cases.
Full length size in the seater die with stem removed. Next full length size in the sizer die, again with the stem removed. Polish, then anneal. Expand the neck and load. I've done 8 so far seems to work for light cast loads.
Next batch is in the polisher. I'll anneal them tonight after dark. Too much sunshine today.
Way too bright, but it is getting the sap flowing. Probably start boiling Thursday. Oh, no! Thread drift.....
All I use for cases are the 7 Rem. Mag. The brass swells ahead of the belt but I've never had one fail.
You sure can. In fact .278 molds might be a place to start. I commonly patch conventional .30 cal cast boolits for .30 cal rifles as well as 8x57. I patch and size to the needed diameters, preferably the day I cast them, before age-hardening sets in
I find that brass is easily made from 300 Winchester Mangnum cases.I simply fun them into the 280 die and trim to length. Easy Peasy! No need to worry about the belt on the case. Brass function fine.
It would be nice to have a couple pass-thru-dies for this purpose. The idea of a pass thru die is to swage a raw cast a bit smaller in diameter so to paper patch thicker up to the desired boolit size wanting. No monkey business measuring paper thickness's. Perfect sized boolits for wrapping one after the other.
I have an adjustable drawing die for my 8mm (.318 diam) Mauser. Once I determined the proper diameter, it's easy to draw .323 down to the propper size.
I had the Ross out to the range the other day. I had some loads with standard .284 140 gr. Sierra bullets as well as Quality Cartridge Game StopRs in .287. There is a noticeable improvement in accuracy with the .287 bullets.