Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 280Rem vs 280ai

Load the 280 brass shoot the 280 brass - bingo..

Save powder on the fire form by using the charge 10% higher than minimum at any bullet weight - I use 120's because I have a bunch , load the bullet into the lands... Shot away..

His thinking is surely going to be that the difference between the two is usually a fair bit more than 50 fps. The fact that the AI is usually (rightly or wrongly) run at higher pressure (which a lot of AI owners for some reason seem to be able to get away with) doesn't change the fact that the difference is usually more than 50 fps.

Dude,

SAMMI

7mm Mag 61000 psi

280 AI 65000

280 REM 60000

280 AI can be safely loaded to 65000 PSI... If anyone is getting 50 FPS less from a 280 Rem vs the 280 AI they are the ones pushing the limit- not the 280 AI users.......

My 280 AI will shoot 140's all day long at 3150 FPS over two different chronographs and 150's at 3000 FPS, using data from reloading manuals below max charge with NO sign's of excessive pressure..

280 Rem will shoot 140's all day at 2890 FPS and 150's at 2850 ....

Last point..
With the 280 AI I will only trim a case one time after fire forming the batch of brass... That batch of brass will never be trimmed again in it's life span - which I retire them after 20 reloads- why? SAFETY...

I was summarizing what I considered XBOLT's argument to be. Conversely, there are several on this thread who argue that the difference is only 50 fps between the two when at similar pressure.

Only 2890 FPS with 140's in a 280 Remington??

I've run 140 partitions at 3000 FPS in a 22" Ruger tanger in 7x57.

I run 160 Accubonds at 2860 in my brother's 24" 280 Remington.

I run 150 Accubonds at 3100 in a 26" 280 AI.

A 7x57 handloaded hot is faster than a 7mmRM book load?


As Mark Twain said, there are white lies, lies, dam lies, and then there are 7mmRM published loads.


7mmRM 3.34" 140 gr nos bal tip moly 70 gr H4350 3400 fps chrono 26" barrel

Try doing that with 7x57

In my first .280, a custom built by Dave Gentry with a 23" barrel, I used initialltl worked up two handloads, all using the original mil-surp H4831, partly because I figured if it worked well in the .270 Winchester it would work well in the .280. I based my expected velocity not on 60,000 PSI-based manual data, but a formula predicting how much more velocity can be obtained at the same pressure as the .270 (SAAMI maximum average pressure 65,000 PSI) with the larger-diameter 7mm bullet:

139 Hornady Interlock Spire Point at 3111 fps.
160 Nosler Partition at 2927 fps.

The brass was NOT Lapua, but plain old Remington, and I was still using the same batch of brass a decade later when I traded the rifle to a friend.

Ive never had an issue running 140 Accubonds at 3300 FPS in a 24" 7mm RM. Can go faster but that's where the accuracy node is.

MD : Thanks for these example extrapolations. I remember ( vaguely, ha ) reading about that one.

Ok, back to Big 7 brag loads,
Could Someone please dredge up some of BobinNH’s MashBurn Super Magnum loads ?
160’s for varmints, and 175’s for game. I miss that dude.

my 280 ai will push a 162 grain eld x out of its 24 inch barrel @ 3068fps
i can't come anywhere close to those velocities with a standard 280 rem
it will push a 150 grain projectile @ jus shy of 3240fps haven't seen a 280 yet that can come close to those velocities lol so your 40-50 fps is bull shot

Not BS if both are loaded to the same pressure

Fill up(not literally) your .280 Rem with RL22 and buckle your seat belt.

I read thru this post until I got a little bleary eyed over the minutia differences tween a 280 & 280 AI. At my 77 year old age and no more foreseeable major surgeries planned, I've got time for mebbe one more new to me rifle project.

Couple years ago I had picked up well kept M70 Fwt 7x57 and thought that "mid range caliber" box was X'd off and sold the too heavy for comfort Wby SS 7Rmg that had been sitting in a corner for a couple years, but have always been intrigued by the 7mm's as a do all caliber for most Texas critters. I spent 13 years repping gun lines in the late '70's thru the mid '80's so am/was at one time more than a little conversant with trends and factory issues than some folks.

I've not used the 7x57 enough on game to make a final decision on the caliber but it makes more sense to me to sell/swap it for a 7-08 & pickup another 7Rmg and be done with the satisfying that class caliber, and forget getting into another 300Wmg. I've owned more 270's than any other caliber - still got a k+ bullets left over to reload, usually paired with a 300Wmg for any distance hunts I only occasional got to make, and since I'm not hunting anymore where the +3-400 yard shots are common I can forget the 300Wmg too...but another CZ 9.3x62 could be fun.

Keep up the "if this then that" conversation on 7mm's 'cause past their prime old folks like me can still learn something.
Ron

sakoron,

I have used the 7x57 on a wide variety of game in both North America and Africa. Offhand can think of feral pigs, Coues and "standard" whitetails, mule deer, caribou, elk and Canada moose in NA, and several species of African big game from springbok and impala to elk-sized wildebeest and kudu.

Jack O'Connor once wrote that the 7x57 works on big game from javelina to moose, so eventually I had to take a javelina too, just to see if he was right, even though I don't consider them big game. It worked.

MD, what in your opinion would be the best overall single bullet out of my 7x57 for every day average Texas sized critters, not to include Sambar or Gray Ghosts ?. I'm leaning towards 139/140 gr'ers but will need to shoot enough to decide on a given bullet. My 1st thought is NAB's or Partions, and would rather have the MV over a heavier projectile. Right now I got enough 7mm Hdy's in SST& BTSP's to get started, only because I could not find any Nosler's in that weight range in the last year or so. At my age & state grace I can't afford the time to work thru the mishmash of bullets & powder combinations like always, that I have in left over 270 stuff to come up with a go anywhere anytime for anything on 4 feet piece of ammo, and stumbled into the Hdy's at normal old days pricing.

Last January I had won a SP Axis Hunt for the last week of the season, and the only thing I saw before the weather blew us off the SP was 150/160 lb hog that went bang flop at a little over 150 yards in a brush pile from a Marlin X7S 270 & a well placed factory Federal 130 gr'er. Everything was easy peasy except to drag him out to the parking area and load him up by myself. That's the kinda job I want for the 7x57 Fwt.
Ron

In my experience the Hornadys you mention work fine for "deer-sized" game, whether SSTs or BTSPs.

I have killer many deer with a 7x57 using either 139 gr Hornady SP or 140 gr Nosler partition bullets. Both loaded over 53 gr IMR4350 to 3000 FPS. Both worked without issue but the partition seemed a little better and never caught a partition in a deer but did catch several Hornady bullets.

YMMV.

As Bart Bobbitt says, he kills deer with a bullet, not a cartridge.

Have "caught" at least three 140 Partitions in deer, but all were on angling or full-length shots--and included one pretty big mule deer buck. The most interesting recovery was from a smaller mule deer buck killed in thick lodgepole timber at around 30 yards. The buck faced me head-on, and I put the bullet in the "dimple" at the base of the neck. He dropped right there, and while field-dressing him I traced the bullet's path through the diaphragm into the guts, but despite searching some never found it.

Did the next year when I bit into a round steak, into what I thought might be a piece of bone--though we butcher all our own game and are pretty careful. Instead it turned out to be an expanded Partition. Apparently while slicing the steaks, it was right between the slices--and when they end up that far from the entrance hole do very little damage to the surrounding meat. (Have seen the same sort of thing several other times, though in those instances always found the bullet during butchering.)

AU338 Bingo ! That's what I wanted to hear, was a personal experience about how something did or did not fulfill the scheduled goal. Thank you for that.

Got another ? what brand brass were you using ? American made or something like PPU? I had bought a box or 2 each for the rifles I was taking on the SP Hunt , in PPU & S&B ammo when time got short for the SP hunt in late January in 270, 6.5x55 & 7x57. The PPU brass in 270 out of one box had 4 pieces where the spent primer dropped out of the fired round, and accuracy was not great but usable at shorter ranges under 50/100 yards in all 3 calibers... except for the Hornady SST's in 6.5 Swede, with a 4 shot dime size group 1st time it was fired at the Range's 100 yard target.
Surprised the poohwah outta me.

The S&B ammo was head and shoulders over the PPU and almost comparable to the Hornady made stuff. As soon as things get back to "normal" at my house, whatever that is, I'll start the cleanup or cleanout of all the brass I have on hand and get ready to start the cycle.

FYI There is a chain of Gen'l Merchandise stores targeted at more rural markets and has a store in the next town over from me in "Deeper East Texas" called Atwood's that is carrying Norma ammo in small amounts, but very very "competitive" prices.
Ron