Originally Posted by GuyM
Why he's so enthusiastic about the .280 AI in particular eludes me, but he is, and it's his money.

I thought I'd explore the issue a little farther here and on the Nosler forum, in case there was something I'd missed. Strongly suspect that he'll have a very nice .280 AI on his hands soon... Despite my urging him towards the .270 or .30-06 instead.

Regards, Guy


In all honesty, it's probably best that you didn't talk him out of a .280 AI. I've seen guys buy something at the urging of friends, who sincerely had their best interests at heart. In nearly every instance, the guy eventually ended up buying what he really wanted in the first place. He just took a more expensive route to get there, via the practical detour.

I personally don't put much stock in the "traveling hunter" argument for cartridge choice. It's talked about quite a bit, but how many people have actually had a hunt saved because of it exclusively? For those who have, what limitations, if any, did the borrowed ammo have on your hunt? If I was that worried, I would ship some extra ammo out ahead of my trip and have it waiting on me. If the perfect storm erupted and I found myself without ammo by some freak occurrence, I'd get on my phone and have some overnighted to my current location. At most, I lose a day. Bad, but not detrimental. There are certainly some extreme scenarios that could be offered up to counter my points, but so could a hundred other crazy events that a guy would never see coming.