Yep--and why not? It basically duplicates "traditional" .30-06 ballistics.

As an aside, despite the .280 Remington's virtues, I can't believe the .280 Remington it's one of "the most used cartridges on earth." This may be true among among a very small set of hunters, especially those with enough money to travel AND buy custom rifles--in other words, rifle loonies who want to be a little different. If my memory is correct, I've seen exactly four .280's in all the hunting camps I've spent time in around the world, and one of them was mine. Two of the others belonged to a couple of friends from the same town in Oregon, and the third belonged to a Canadian hunter, a museum-quality taxidermist who liked custom rifles.

I do have a good friend here in town who was a .280 nut for a while. In fact he outfitted not just himself but his wife and two teenage daughters with .280's, in order to simplify the ammo situation. But then they went on a hunt in eastern Montana and, due to various unforeseen circumstances, ran low on ammo--and there wasn't any .280 ammo in any of the local stores. So he sold all the .280's and bought everybody .270's. I can't think of anybody else I personally know in the state who uses a .280 right now.

Even 7x57's aren't all that common anymore. Can remember only four of them as well, and again one was mine. The others belonged to a guide in the Czech Republic, an American on a safari in South Africa who had been unduly influenced by an American gun writer, who brought a 7x57 and 9.3x62. And Ingwe brought one on our safari to Namibia in 1999.

In fact, have seen far more .308 Winchesters that 7x57's, even in Europe. That includes a red stag hunt in Norway--where the .308 was by far the most common chambering among the two dozen hunters I met. (There wasn't a single 6.5x55 among them!)

Probably the most common cartridge used by traveling hunters, whether in North America, Africa or elsewhere, has been the .300 Winchester Magnum.


“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck