Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Finn Aagaard on the 280 Remington

Not really as there is plenty of 270 ammo available locally here...good luck with purchasing 280 off the shelf.

Ironically enough there are a few box' of 7x64 on the shelf, now what are the odds of that.

Yeah, as I mentioned in my previous post, ammo availability is often very much a local deal, whether in another country or even in different parts of the same country.

As an example, there's no problem taking a 7x57 or 9.3x62 to South Africa, for instance, because ammo for both is common in stores. You can even find both in some stores in larger towns in my part of Montana, but in eastern Montana (which has been losing population for a while now, and never had many large towns in the first place) you'd be out of luck. You're not going to find much .375 H&H ammo in small country stores anywhere in Montana, but you will in Alaska.

One of the things I try to do when traveling is go to at least one local sporting goods store, and is possible 2-3, just to see what's available, and not just ammo. This can be very interesting and even surprising. The very first place I ever found a box of Swift A-Frame .416 bullets (not loaded ammo!) on a store shelf in Bergen, Norway! Also found far more .308 Winchester than 6.5x55 rifles both in stores and in the hands of local hunters while there.

Of all people to lecture about using a commonly available cartridge. You carried your 9.3x62 to hunt moose in Canada,you carried a 257 Roberts all over the west,and you let your wife carry a combination gun in a 9mm oddball cartridge that no longer really exists. Just what is your latest drilling chambered for anyway? I heard you sold the one in 12 gauge and 30-06.

But the 280 is just too oddball to fool with? Somewhere a pot has offended a kettle about ethnicity.

HA!

Take a look at my more recent, longer post, and you'll see even larger transgressions--but also why I dared the fates. One example being taking a .300 Winchester along with my 9.3x62 on that trip to Canada.

Must note that Eileen's old combination gun and my 16x16/6.5x57R drilling have never traveled farther than 200 miles from home, and that in our own pickup.

Must also confess, however, to just putting together another .280 Ackley Improved. Dunno where it will travel, however, as I don't travel as much as I used to--and probably won't take anything weird if I do.

I do the same. Carry at least one rifle when traveling in a common cartridge. I also have a 280 Improved being built. Actually asked for a 270 or 280 and let the gunsmith talk me into the improved. He said it was way better. (That means he already had the reamer)

Like a true loon, I said sure, go ahead.😊

When traveling to Zimbabwe for a buffalo hunt, I took half of my buddy's .416 Rem ammo, and he took half of mine. I also chose the .416 as my buff gun because he already had his, and that gave us a measure of redundancy. Schit happens when you mix airlines and firearms.

You won't be sorry.

Well, at least, now, the good news is that you can buy brass if you don't want to enjoy the range time doing lots of fire forming.

MM

You have too many guns! LOL!

I just picked up a copy of "Guns and Hunting". A tip of the hat to MD for the very fine forward. There is a chapter devoted to the .280 but the .275/7x57 keeps popping up all over the place. It seems FA liked the mid-weights (139-154 gr) at about 2600 fps. As MD points out, he was more concerned with bullet placement and proximity to the animal than he was with absolute velocity and half-inch groups. I guess the old 7x57 just fit the bill.

Too bad he never got to hunt with the B-29. Danged ATF!!

Just grab a 270 and go kill shidt.....

Short and to the point.

Been doing that since 1976...

WITHOUT all the melodrama ! !













Still like the 280

Jerry

This thread reminded me to take finger nail paint and mark my 280 Rem cases so I can keep them separate from my 270 cases.

If it's black nail polish paint the 280 cases . . . if it's pink paint the 270's

MD,
By the same logic, you must not travel much either if it hasn't happened to you, and I know that's not the case. Luck, odds, planning, it all goes into it. I've been at camps where people showed up without their ammo and it was completely preventable. As I said, I know it happens. I just don't let the worry of what might happen control what I do. Sounds like you don't either. In fact, you're sending very mixed signals about the whole thing. Talking about how important traveling with a standard chambering is, and then not doing it yourself. Talking about how likely it is you will be separated from your ammo, and then admitting it's never happened to you.

I know it's good advice to shoot the most plain jane, common round available where ever you go, and I'm sure most people do just that. I guess I'm just too hard headed to listen to logic. Sounds as though I'm not the only one either.

Let's get real?? You're the one that brought up the BCs of 30 caliber hunting bullets.

Kodiakisland,

Yeah, I'm sending mixed signals--partly because I often HAVE to hunt with non-standard rounds, as part of my job. Many readers aren't very interested in hearing what the .270 or .30-06 or .375 H&H will do, because they're rifle loonies and to them the rifle is as much a part of the story as the hunt.

But also as part of my job, I don't often pay full price for hunts, and sometimes nothing at all, though quite often there's still quite a bit of money sunk into travel, licenses, tips and other incidentals such as motels/hotels while going and coming from the hunts. For many years I averaged spending at least $10,000 a year, and sometimes considerably more, while flying somewhere just about every month. (I don't travel nearly as much as back then, by choice, both because I did just about everything I'd wanted to, and because I wanted to stay closer to home to hunt with family and friends.)

But because of traveling so much, and got to know so many other people who did it frequently, that I also learned pretty quickly how prevent problems, or have a solution ready if something did go wrong. I also know damn well I've been lucky not to have my ammo go astray on any big trip, because I've seen it happen to so many people, often through no fault of their own.

But knowing what I know now, if I was somebody who didn't work as a hunting writer, and instead saved a bunch of money from their regular job to go on a few dream trips in a lifetime, I probably wouldn't take a .280, or whatever cartridge some rifle loony has persuaded themselves is superior to so many world-wide standards that do the same things. In fact, I probably wouldn't dick around with nearly so many cartridges, instead sticking to a very few standards and thus saving money to spend on more hunting, whether near home or far away.

Now, if I owned some heirloom rifle that would add real meaning to a special hunt, but was chambered in some hard-to-find cartridge, I'd do it--but I'd also take along a second rifle in a standard chambering, just in case. In fact, as mentioned earlier that's what I often do when "field-testing" some oddball round. This can be a PITA, because I much prefer to travel with one rifle inside a take-down case, with a spare scope (though have also done some iron-sight-only hunts in both North America and Africa, which tend to be far more relaxing, because there's no worry about whether the scope might go bad and need to be switched, or rifle might get rolled on by a horse.)

Part of my job is to entertain, but part is also to provide readers with the benefit of my experience, whether with cartridges, rifles, game, travel or whatever. That's why I try lots of stuff, including taking oddball cartridges to strange places. But that doesn't mean it's not risky for somebody who saved for years to go on that that ONE dream to take a rifle in an oddball chambering. That's their right, of course, but it's also part of my job to say it's risky, and why.

Yeah, I get it, as I've tried to say in every post in this thread. That still doesn't stop me from using what I want instead of the most common whatever. Sure, I only do 2 or 3 trips a year and sooner or later it will catch up to me, but I take precautions and also figure things will work out one way or the other if something does happen. Hell, if I worried about all the things that could go wrong, I'd probably never leave the house.

I certainly didn't mean or try to get on a nerve, but it seems I have. It's great advice to consider all the things that could happen while traveling and what can be done to decrease the chances. I've got no problem with you or anyone else saying consider using the most common thing, I just don't. I'm also willing to take whatever happens and make the best of it.