Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 280AI vs 270 Winchester

Why not have both? You absolutely, positively, cannot have too many rifles.

Easy Faux Stick......

hate is easy to acquire when O'Connor made more money as a gunwriter than Keith, and got more free hunts.
That O'Connor in print also said a certain well known gun writer hunter( Keith?) was a liar would not have gone down well either...

O'Connor also wrote that a certain very famous bowhunter was a fraud, because he would shoot game with a centrefire
then stick an arrow in it for the photographs.

reference : 'Hanky Panky in the Boondocks' by Jack O’Connor, 1977.

Haven't read much of either Keith or O'Connor, doubt I ever will, and their personal animus for each other is of no particular interest to me.

There is no doubt that big fat bullets and fast smaller ones can both get the job done. I'm not stuck with their options in bullets, rifles or chamberings. I like my Ruger .44 Mag revolver, Marlin .45-70 and .33 mag bolt gun. All have proven very deadly. Same with my steroidal .270 Win (.280 Rem) and other rifles chambered in .30 and smaller.

Doesn't matter a whit to me if Keith, O'conner, other gun writers - or anyone else, for that matter - would approve.

The best of both worlds works for me.
Read a LOT of JO'C, and quite a bit of Keith.
I chose an M98 FN Mauser and barrelled it with a .270AI.
I've used it for a LOOOng time, now, and am not a bit sorry.
Have fun,
Gene

Good thing you’re a rifle looney (not a bad thing, BTW), because for the average hunter/shooter there really isn’t much of a difference between the .270 Win and a .280 Rem or .280AI when it comes to bullet selection, especially for use inside 300 yards.

If high B.C. is the quest, why not go with a WTC 198g .30 FLP with a B.C. around .846? (There are some other pretty good options for .30, too.)

If more common bullets are the measure, Midwayusa currently lists 91 options in .277" and 106 in .284”. Hardly a dearth of options for the .277 fans.

If long range is really the goal, why not get a short-fat instead of a long-skinny?

When I built my 6.5-06AI, it was with the specific goal of having a rifle capable of shooting supersonic out to at least 1200 yards. Bullet weight helps keep recoil down to very comfortable levels – low enough my daughters love to shoot it. Bullets are available with B.C. values around .7, although I stick with the 130g Scirocco II (B.C. .571), which beats the Sciroccos in both .277” and .284”. [Edited to add] Another parameter in my choice of cartridge was the action I had on hand for the build - an Interarms Mark X with .30-06 length, bolt face and follower. [End edit]

If recoil and loading cost are no issue, why not go for the looney ring and get a .338, .375 or .50?


More important than cartridge is finding a rifle you like.

Scott,

When are you gonna build or buy you're 280AI ?

Well this got way more comments that I thought it would, stirred up a pretty big [bleep] storm too. Thanks for all the info guys.

The more minute the difference the more opinionated folks become. Had you started a "223 vs 45-70" thread it would've struggled to get into page 2.

If you shoot heavies in the .223, it has equivalent knock-down power to the .45-70. It's a toss-up.

Fair enough.

or/ ..'more important than the rifle is finding a cartridge you like' - is a no less feasible approach to some folks.

some procrastinate over rifles , some over cartridges, some over both.

then theres the largely irrelevant 'push feed vs controlled feed' which draws out the loonies as well..

I'd rather have the rifle I liked regardless of headstamp than vice versa.

Boxes of factory Weatherby ammunition get more attention , but so does pimping oneself by wearing designer clothes
with the labels conspicuously on the outside.....

How does a guy with a cheapo factory Howa make a custom Nosler 48 owner feel when his targets print
just as accurately?...

Would it be blasphemous to ask D'Arcy Echols to build a Legend on a Push-Feed M70...?..

Over the yrs, I wonder how many orders Echols has received for .270win vs .280 A.I......??...

I give up. How?

Dunno, but pinging the same 500 yard steel between some numbnuts 50 BMG "show" was funny as schit...


But yeah....I'll take the right rifle in the wrong caliber all day long.

My $295 (purchased used) plastic Savage FXP3 in 43 Win bangs the 500-yard steel with boring regularity, yet I see people with pretty expensive rigs that hit it only when they get a little luck. On the other hand, I watched a guy with a .308 and a NightForce scope kill 12 clay pigeons on the 600-yard berm after I asked him if it wasn't a little windy to be trying for them. His response was "We'll see."

It isn't a good rig unless it shoots but even then it's up to the shooter to make good with it.

I love those old .43 Wins, a classic!!

the right rifle in the right chambering...can amount to nothing in the wrong hands..