Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What can you do with a 280 that you cant with a 270

I don't know who "O'Conner" is but Jack O'Connor had the 280 from 1960 on and he stuck with the 270.

Probably true, but he didn't and the rest is history.

Find better bullets for LR.

The 7 X 64 Brenneke existed long before the 280 or the 270. O'conner should have had access to one..

Funny ..... I have the same in 280 also build on a M78. I find them to be smooth actions and cheaper than 700s.

The only advantage for me with the 280 would be heavier bullets for moose.

.375 Sunrise,

I have addressed that very claim in one of my books.

The problem with it is the .280 did NOT exist before the .270. If Henry the Eight had never existed then somebody else would have been the King of England. But he did exist, and therefore nobody else was King of England during that period.

Similarly, the .270 did exist, and therefore became the king of its "cartridge category." And the .280 did not displace it, because the .280 was designed as a lower-pressure substitute for Remington pumps and semiautos.

You can't change history--and you also can't change the fact that the .280 doesn't kill big game any better/deader than the .270--no matter how much you wish it were so.

As a Scot once noted a few hundred years ago, "If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride."

Get your 280 and hand load it with 130gr Speers...best of both worlds


BTW, I think I recall reading that JOC had a custom 280 on order, but he passed away before it was delivered. Is that correct?

LMFAO.... 🤣

And then he dropped the mic and walked off the stage... Well done John. 👏

I think that JO'C wrote about a Ruger 77 in 280 that was smithed by Lenard Brownell.

Yep, and the rifle was delivered before O'Connor passed away--but as I recall he never got a chance to hunt with it.

6.5 PRC!!..?

The ONE was a Steyer in 6.5X57, very few ever imported. Still looking.. The Sauer in 7X64 is working out pretty good however. I even use 280 loading data as not much in the US for the 7X64.

"What can you do with a 280 that you can't with a 270 "

Put a .007" bigger hole in what ever your shooting at.



John

I think it was finished after O'Connor died. IIRC,his kids told the gunsmith to finish the rifle at Jack's funeral.


Found it,it is in the book JACK O'CONNOR THE LEGENDARY LIFE OF AMERICA'S GREATEST GUN WRITER By Robert Anderson. In the chapter written by Eldon "Buck" Buckner on page 202 with the heading Jack's Last Rifle: Ruger Model 77-Biesen Custom in .280 Remington. Quoting from the book "At the time of Jack's death in January 1978,Al Biesen was working on another of Jack's projects. At the funeral,with all present,the family instructed Al to complete the rifle."

The completed rifle was then to go to Henry Kaufman at the cost of Beisen's work.

You very well may be correct. Will ask Bradford about that.

But do know that Jack O'Connor could not see any difference in "killing power" between various rounds of about .270 ballistics, due to reading THE HUNTING RIFLE a number of times--including the 7x57--at what were then considered normal hunting ranges, out to 400 yards or so.. Neither have I, and have seen plenty of animals taken with such rounds, including some others such as the 7mm-08 Remington, .308 Winchester and .280 Ackley Improved.

Yes, heavier high-BC 7mm bullets to drift less in the wind. At ranges much beyond 400 this can make a difference.

Yup,in the book THE HUNTING RIFLE he has a chapter with the .270 Win,.280 Rem and the .284 Win lumped together saying they are peas-in-the-pod (or something like that) in the hunting fields.

The .270 is the real 7mm.

Could be, but then the .280 could be the real .270.

Quien sabe?

Shoot .28 caliber bullets?

The more I shoot deer and read about shooting deer, the more I am inclined to stick with one .3o/o6 and be done with it. But I did pick up a gently used .270 Win a few weeks back, my first. It will be fun to compare it to what I’ve already had over the past thirty years.