Back before I began hand loading, I read about the BOSS the year it came out, and decided to try it with a .280 Rem. Now that I can roll my own and tune the load to the rifle, no need, but back then, it was like magic. I could pick the factory load I wanted to use, tune the barrel to it, and buy as many boxes as I thought I might need because once I had the settings dialed and recorded for each one, I could return it to that anytime I wanted when I switched loads for different purposes. It was always right on and every load I tried ended up under an inch, two of them way under. I used the CR at the range and the ported in the field.
I still own that rifle and I still shoot it, but as I've gotten older, I've decided it's kind of ugly. My boys sure do think it's cool, though. We were at the range one day a few years ago, and a weekend warrior type sits down right next to us, ignoring the empty benches further away, and starts banging away with a Bushmaster M4 style carbine, with the usual porting. The muzzle blast was annoying.
There was no one for two benches to the other side of us, so we could have picked up and moved, but we'd been there a while, were all set up and settled, so I decided to let the guy have some of his own medicine, instead. I had that .280 with us that day and I went out to the truck and got it. I took the CR unit off and put the ported unit on. I pulled out a box of fairly hot 140 gr loads, set up on the bags so that my muzzle was about at the same point forward as his, and touched off a 5 round group in short order. He asked what kind of magnum I was shooting, didn't believe me when I told him a .280 was no different than a .270, and moved a few benches over. I put the CR back on and we went on with our day. My older son still likes telling that story.
