Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game How many .280 rem users out there... Haviland says its dead!?!

As a handloader, the last thing I'm worried about is factory ammo. My .280 Rem came with a box of Remington ammo - still have 9 rounds left.

I'm only new to the 280rem, but find myself using it more than my old 7mm Mag. Whether that is a permanent situation or not, but loving it for what it is at the moment.

LOL. I bought a .280 about 8 years ago... and still have not bought the 270 or 30-06 as there is no ***justifiable*** need... OTOH, I am lusting for a SC production stainless featherweight in .270... and cannot shake the lust.

there is no such thing as too much ammo, or too many guns...

there is no such thing as too much ammo, or too many guns...


Amen Dogger

Like others, I think the .280 is an awesome round. It will always occupy a special niche for me. Growing up reading the gun rags in the 80s and 90s, the .280 was THE round. All the greats of the era ... Milek, Boddington, Carmichael, Sitton, Wooters, Hagel, Waters... swooned over the round. Friendly press is an understatement. First thing I bought when I had a real job out of college was a .280 700 Mt. Rifle. After years of growing up loading/hunting with my boring old .270 I finally had The Ideal Round. After several more .280s including my latest, which is Mule Deer's old Gentry .280, I came to realize it was nothing more than my boring old .270. A lot of people who didn't read the gun mags apparently realized this before me. I really hope the .280 hangs on and even has another spike in popularity, but the only .280 I see mentioned these days is the .280 AI.

Lou

There was this "spike" in 280 activity about the time I think Lou is talking about...it was always there of course as guys ran around screaming for more factory sporters,and building custom rifles in flossy wood stocks.Carmichael was hunting with a Clayton Nelson M70 all over the world after he took over from JOC as the Gun Editor at OL,so that helped the 280.

I think Carmichael wanted to distinguish himself from JOC....

John Wooters had a very nice 280 on a Mauser built by Joe Bailickie(sp?),and wrote it up quite a bit.....Rifle nuts would run around waiving articles by these guys and that by Townsend Whelen citing passages about the 280 beiing "just a little bit better" than either the 30/06 or the 270.

Those who hunted with and killed game with all three would laugh at them.... It was BS then,and it's BS now, but myths die hard.

I had a few 280 nut pals who preached this,and even as recently as yesterday had another 280 conversation.I found out exactly the same things Lou did about it.....people get bored and want something different which is good....we all do that.... but you have to draw a line when they expect you to take these "differences" seriously..

Yep, I think Bob nailed it.

I have an article from late 70s from John Wooters on the .280. He was giving all the theoretical .280 advantages of slightly bigger bore, minute case increase as to why the .280 should give more velocity from the .270 and was slightly better, etc... He was just having this custom rifle built and chose .280 for all these reasons. Fast forward a bit and I have another article from Wooters in the early 90s on the .30-06 family tree and he states that he has never been able to match .270 velocities with the .280 given the same bullet weights, but is at a loss to explain why. Apparently, the theories didn't carry forward to his custom rifle. We all know the .280 should be faster than the .270, but the point is they are close enough where common/minor ballistic anomalies offset any real differences.

Lou

the ghost of JOC helps push 270 bullets a wee bit faster...

+1

Now, that's a fact...

DF

I own two. One never fired, just in case. Great rifles!

And how long has the German 7x64 been around ?

Orange, good to hear...

Your's are both in the .280 barrel configuration?

2 here.

I love the .280 Remington. It is a stellar hunting cartridge and is very easy to load for. It does all that I could ask of it in my Area of Operations.

Guys I'd put money on this:

IF you gave 10 hunters, rifles with the cartridge designation covered so it's unreadable and X no. were 270s and X no. were 280s NEITHER the hunters nor the game could tell the difference.

Both rounds work so well and are so close together there isn't enough diff to distinguish them.

I have a custom 7mm Rem Mag, no .280. If I was in the market for similar, I would probably go with a .280 AI. It's very efficient, chasing the 7RM pretty hard, especially with lighter bullets, using less powder.

DF

Pretty sure a .280 Rem is kinda like food coloring added to ice cream. Whet ever it takes to make it purdy and attractive. Cotton candy chambering <grin>

You could probably add another Y hunters with 7-08 and Z with .25-06, .308, and .30'06 too.

They're all very close in terminal performance with good bullets, and with appropriate shot placement,
the game certainly won't know the difference.

Both are .280/wood.