Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles How Good is the .280 Rem?

Well, I have been wanting one for yrs and now getting ready to pull the trigger. This will be a matching rifle to my 338-06 and figured become a "Generalist/Deer Rifle" while the 338-06 will be saved for larger game. Both are Weatherby's ULW's. I figure to have them both scoped the same for familiarity and handling.

So who uses one and how does it perform?

I have shot one for 15 years and love it. It is still shooting sub MOA with 140 gr TTSX and this year did perfect on Antelope, Mulies and Elk. With the TSX I am comfortable with about anything I hunt. If I had to sell all my guns and only keep one, this would be it.

You'll hear very little in the way of negatives about the .280 Remington. I think the main complaint is usually that it is a cartridge that should be handloaded if it is to reach its' potential. Other than that, it is a dandy.

I bought one for my son when he was four or five years old. He is 11 now, and still mainly hunts with his Ruger 77 Ultralight in .257 Roberts, but the day will come when he picks up the .280.

By the way, I have taken a couple deer with his rifle, and it kills like lightning for me.

Good luck with your pair. It sounds like you are all set.

My son took my 280 Mountain Rifle a few years ago. I missed it so bad I bought a 1988 model this spring. I have killed a ton of deer with the 280 and it just works.

Good as any and better than some

Mine has shot Whitetail & Mule Deer, antelope, goats, sheep, caribou, Red Deer, Sika Deer, & hogs. Mine is a reworked Remington 700 Mountain Rifle converted to switch barrel 280/7MM Gibbs killer.

To be honest, it's CRAP.

The 270 WFC or 270 Winchester, is a much better cartridge.

The .270 Win. shoots with 17.5% greater velocity and has up to 11% more energy than the .280 rem. given certain loadings and ballistic contexts. The 270 was also used by famous people like Jack O'Connor, who didn't do much with the 280.

Jim Carmichael liked the 280 to some extent, but he may have been told to like it by powers that may potentially be, if it's what was said by someone?

The 270 Winchester, with the right bullets, is also more benchrest accurate and has greater angular momentum propensity and drive on animals, especially with the latest bullets that are not available in the 280 due to factory crap loads.

In all, with what was said previously, the best of all worlds resides with the 270 Winchester and not with the 280 win. which was called, "the ...280 rem...often an also ran cartridge with poor ballistics and fading fast against the resurgence of the almightly 270 Winchester. Day in and day out, I'd rather have the hard hitting power and flat trajectory of a 270 Win. in my hands when a trophy Mule Deer appears at 300+ yards".

Obama in the whitehouse is CRAP. The .280 remington is a fine shooting, mild recoiling, game killing, honey of a cartridge. It is so close to the .270 and the .30-06, that it has to be good.

One more thing, I own both, a .270 and a .280, and there is no tropy mule deer on the face of this earth that could stand 300 yards distant and discern the difference, "greater angular momentum propensity" aside.

I have taken several of my best whitetails with a 280 as well as a pile of wild hogs.

It shoots plenty flat,tends to be very accurate with good loads in a good rifle,a real killer without excessive recoil or muzzle blast.

It is pretty close to perfect for a lot of the hunting that I do.

I've killed a dozen or so deer with a heavy barreled 77 in 280. It's a wonderful round.

Dude,

We have several rifles in 270 and 280 in my family and I have handloaded and shot plenty of factory ammo in both.

I suppose you could fill a school bus with the big game animals that I have taken with these two fine rounds,the 280 is in no way inferior to the 270 in field performance. In fact,I have had better luck getting exit wounds which I prefer with nonpremium bullets with my 280. This is perhaps due to slightly tougher contruction of 7mm component bullets which are generally designed for magnum velocity.

If a guy likes his 270,he should use it,but to kid yourself that it's better in the field on game animals than the almost identical 280 is silly.

The two cartridges are very close in almost every practical respect except ammo availability,since I handload and order factory ammo online and get it delivered to my house,that is a nonissue for me.

So......

How good is the 280? Just as good as the 270,maybe a little better in a very few subtle ways. For anything to be as good as a 270,it's gota be nearly perfect,and the 280 is just that.

You will never be dissatisfied with the .280 Remington-no matter what anyone says about the .270 win, there is a better bullet selection for the 284 cal., can be loaded with 175gr or 160gr for a good elk cartidge, or a 100gr light varmit load, but my Rem mountain rifle spends most of the time with a 140 gr Barnes TSX at about 3000 fps. Very accurate, flat shooter and easy on the shoulder. There is not much "real world" difference between the .280 Rem and the 7 Rem mag. Good luck

gotta go along with that. I've taken quite a bit of game with the 270, the 280, & the 30-06. While I haven't used the 270 or the 06 near as much as the 280 (my all time favorite) but when I have I can't tell a bit of difference. I prefer the 280 for the versatility it offers over the others especially when I do the loading for it. 163bc

Great round.........I've had 5 of them.

Equal performance to the 270 & 'o6 with a better range of bullet selection.

You'll never go wrong with the 280 but just be prepared to search a bit more for factory ammo if you don't handload.....you won't find a lot of choice on most (small, remote) dealers shelves.

If you handload, the sky's the limit.

MM

Me thinks you are full of 280 Rem.

g

I have used the 280 and 270 a lot. I refer to them both as the "275". I have shot out two 280 barrels. I can't tell any significant difference. However, I quit the 280 after I ran out of ammo and couldn't find a single box and this was after stopping at every gunshop and other likely stops across southern Idaho and Wyoming.

Be careful if you get a .280, you may never need another rifle.

brooksrange:

Please explain just what "angular momentum propensity and drive" are and how they might be relevant. thanks

Sounds like bull schidt to me.