[quote=szihn]Physics?
I am to a point in my life that I enjoy the gun more then the caliber. If I have enough to do the job, that's all I care about as far as caliber goes, but the gun I carry has to please me in the hunting and carrying. So I don't really care what caliber I have as much as what bullet it's loaded with.
I'm at the same place "Young Man", ha. I love a lively rifle so I also match the size/power of the scope I put on it. My all time favorites are the 1x5 or 2x7, 2.5x8 size. We are talking elk hunting of course. Out on the short grass prairies where the wind blows me around, I like a heavier rifle with a bigger scope....but that's a rarity for me...most of my hunting is in mixed cover. I've only shot 3 cow elk out here, one at 135yds (running,I hate running shots too!) one at 200 and one at 250...that's it. I have shot Plains game in Namibia right at 375yds, and one Black Wildebeast at 347 in south Africa. All the other PG I took was between 30yds and 100yds or under. Yes, a couple at 250 but I could have gotten closer. But a rifle is ( or should be in my opinion) a very personal thing and a man should know his limits, not just for range but for the 'type of shots" he is most likely to get where he hunts. How quickly can he get in a solid shooting position, on target then pick the spot he wants to hit, squeeze instead of jerk the trigger and then keep shooting until the elk stops moving ,etc.? I call it "taking your time in a hurry". I personally just "like" to hit elk size animals with a lot of thump, I like to break them down "right there" if at all possible. For me, my favorites have been 300 Win Mag/180 Barnes; 338WM; 340W, 338 RUM, 35 Whelen AI and .375 H&HBut, but most of my hunting pards all use .308 (150gr), .270 (150gr), .280 (150PT) 30-06/180, 7mm Mag/160-175, 8x57/200gr, 7mm08/140, 6mm Remington/100gr, 240W/95PT, .243/Barnes 100, a couple 30-30s thrown in, ha. My personal rifles "right now" are a .270 BAR ( my "heavy" rifle), a 7x57 Mod 700 Classic, Ruger 77 All Weather a 338 Federal and I have another Ruger 77 in 338WM coming. So, the OPs 280/7x57 are most likely in a lively rifle that they are familiar with. I just am not aware of many choices in factory ammo in 7x57 with a strong bullet (like the Partition) at good speed
except the Norma 156, Nosler 140E-Tip and the Hornady SF 139GMX',which is readily available via Internet ( I bought some Norma 156 through Cabela's but the two mono bullet loads are just fine IMO.) My one friend used the Federal Premium .280/150PT for years. Good luck and have a ball!
