Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters why is 7mm08 more popular than 280 Remington?

Enough time has passed for folks to appreciate the merits of both cartridges...
OK, so the 280 is caught between the 270 on one side and the 30-06 and 7mm RM on the other; and it was loaded to less pressure than the 270... and Remington made multiple missteps with marketing... blah blah blah...
and the 7mm08 was originally more of a silhouette shooters cartridge and then got picked up by the hunting community...

but if you are a hunter and aren't buying a 270 or a 30-06 or a 7mm RM or a 300 Winmag or a 243 ... and you want a 7... why wouldn't the 280 be more popular than the 7mm08? After all, it offers more velocity than the 7mm08 and American riflemen are all about speed and chasing the 3 with three zeroes...

but the 7mm08 outsells it...

maybe we are more interested in short bolt throws and lighter recoil and handier rifles than we care to admit?

Maybe the future is all about the 243, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm08, and 308 and the long action standards will continue to lose ground? Even (gasp!) the 270, and the 30-06?

Dogger

Part of the answer is way more hunters DON’T handload than do.

In factory form the 7-08 is nearly = to the 280 so...

Obviously us handloaders can make the 280 live up to its potiential.

I’ve never owned a 280 BUT if I had bought a 280 before a 270, I’d probably not bought a 270.
IMO as a handloader, if you own a 270, you have a 280 and vice versa.

Jerry

Well, I started using a 7mm08 to shoot high power silhouette. It was just a Remington 700 BDL with a Leupold 12x and I shot in the Hunting Rifle class. For hunting, I used a 270. That was before it became gay. Then, I decided to replace the 12x with a 3-9 during hunting season and take the 7mm08 as a backup rifle. Then it got used on barbary sheep (aoudad), deer and one hapless cow elk. It worked great! I had the 270 re-barreled to 7x57!. That was back in the mid 80s, early 90s when I lived in NM.

I did a little reloading and testing for a Rem 725 in 280 that belonged to my FIL. It was not very accurate and not much faster than the 7mm08. Also, I always thought that the 270, 280, 3006 kicked too much and had too much muzzle blast. I prefer the 7mm08.

It is amazing that the 7mm08 became so popular given Remington's penchant for abandoning their offspring and leaving them to die. Probably it was the silhouette game that saved it, then hunters picked it up. I also prefer a short action. It's my favorite cartridge. Last one I'd send down the road.

I figured the sold about the same.

I'd love to have a 280, but already have a 7-08.

I may be missing out on some recoil and fps, but the critters I shoot dont notice the difference.

also.... the 7-08 is miserly on powder, and it being a short action, is marginally lighter in rifle form.

the downside to the 7-08 is that my 13 year old son discovered it and has absolutely taken over. little fart shot a buck, two pigs and a bobcat this season. his only miss was a coyote at 150 yds, running. everything else died quick.

every time we hunt, he's carrying it. I'm stuck carrying the 243 or 308, missing "my" old rifle. first world problems.

all that to say..... the 7-08 works.

I’ll start by asking another question. Why would anyone buy a 280 instead of a 7mm RM? I think the same answer works for your question as well as mine. Less powder, hence less recoil. Less expensive factory ammo if one doesn’t reload. Slightly lighter rifles with the short action. And hunters have discovered that the smaller cartridge (with today’s bullets) will perform superbly in the field. Honestly, the 7mm-08 will do an adequate job on anything that is hunted with the 280 within the range that most hunters limit shots at big game. Just my opinion and experience.

You all know that I am not a gun writer, but being a large fan of the 7mm-08, I felt compelled to post the above

To the original question......timing, marketing, and the appearance of better bullets since and during the appearance of the 7-08.
And I prefer the 280,

Neither ever stirred a bit of interest in me at all.

Lower recoil

I think Remington's utter and complete failure in marketing the .280 is just something it will never shake. The 7-08 got off to a good start without all the screwups...that coupled with the fact that it's got no flies on it gets us to where we are now. For my part of it, I prefer the descendants of the .30-06 over the .308's progeny. The .280 is one of my favorites and will remain so.

I have seriously considered this cartridge; all I would need are the dies. Have plenty of 30-06 brass to resize, plus the 7mm bullets, primers and powder. It's just buying the gun. Yet, on the flip side already I have a 7mm-08.

I have a .280 and my wife shoots a 7mm08. They both work great. The .280 shoots a bit flatter and that's nice in open country. It also works a little better with 160 grain bullets. The 7mm08 kicks less and is nicely compact. I'd say any practical difference on game is very slight. A choice between the two would be mostly about the rifle chambering the cartridge and personal preference.

I saw 3 Browning abolts in 7MM08 for sale last weekend. The last 280 I saw for sale was a beat up Remington 740, and its probably still for sale. I have probably seen more 280AI than 280 over the past few years.

As several posters have said, Remington's screw-ups spelled disaster for the 280. It's really a good cartridge, as it will do everything it's main competition, the 270, will do. Also if push became shove, it's got a tad more horsepower than the 7-08. Remington did things right when they introduced the 7-08. It was marketed good, paired with some good rifles, and was a success from day one. The 7-08 is not any better than any of it's main competition, it just shows you how big of a difference marketing can be.

And I've had both.

One thing I’ll tell you. A couple 7mm-08 shells in your pocket while you hike isn’t as irritating as a couple 280 etc shells. The 4 I pull out of the rifle at the end of the day line up perfectly in the ashtray of my Truck but anything 30/06 length (280) and up doesn’t lay in there just right.

ha, thats as good a practical reason as any!

The 7mm08 works in a short action and the .280 not. Perhaps the biggest blunder Remington made with the .280 was renaming it the 7mm Express, this caused lots of wrecked 7mm Magnums from firing the 7mm Express. Remington realized this folly for what it was and pretty quickly changed the name back to .280.

SA vs.LA is probably a big deal to some as the SA has less recoil and still quite a bit of horsepower in a more compact platform

I was actually looking for a 6.5 Creedmoor, 270 or a 7-08 when I bought my current 280. I don't get too hung up on chamberings, mainly wanted something that pushed a heavier bullet and left a bigger hole than my 24 caliber, even though it has never failed on our Mid West deer.

I think I would have been just as happy with the 08 flavor.

Do you have any DATA on that ?

I lived thru the 280 - 7 Express - 280 Debacle and yes, I "heard" the rumor but have never seen and facts. Very interested.


Jerry


per 7mm Express Rem ALSO 7mm Rem Express - I've seen PIX of barrels with BOTH designations. I liked the nomenclature of either.