We hunt out of fixed stands, so barrel length is no issue. We hike out to the stands which are 15' off the ground, pull the gun up with a rope.
In the 280, I am shooting a load right out of the Nosler #4 manual, 162 eldx with imr 7828, fed 210, at 2960 fps on a 27" barrel with Lapua brass. I don't have the twist to run the 180's. Button I used on the reamer that fit the barrel was a .2774 a tad large as .2770 is normal except with Brux which is .276.
I will start off with a #5 contour and often will get a second chamber when the leade has grown .170 or so. Depends on how washed out the barrel is in front of the chamber. My reamer has the standard throat length, and I just seat the 162's deeper, Lapua brass of course.
I let my buddy borrow the reamer and his 280 is 23" length and he is shooting an Endron powder at 2900 with the 162, and he is running remington brass. He is too cheap to buy lapua and does not care how many firings he gets out of his cases. He works up a load, verifies zero from year to year then hunts....that is it.
