Which would be the best choice if not the regular 7mag?
Neither will outshine either but there's a bunch more .284 bullets to choose from
Neither will outshine either but there's a bunch more .284 bullets to choose from
That may be true but for some reason .277 diameter bullets have been available. 7MM went through a very dry spell.
What's the platform? Most of the new .277" bullets that require the faster twist of the 6.8 Western don't have any ballistic advantage over bullets that already existed. There are a few bullets in .284" that really shine, if your goal is to shoot a long way and kill stuff. If that isn't the goal, it doesn't really matter which you pick.
I'd recommend the 280 AI, if in the right rifle where I could seat long bullets close to the lands if I wanted to. But I built a fast-twist 270 Win, with the same stipulation that the magazine allows long-seating long bullets.
Tikka platform. I'm seeing that 130-170's through the Western. The 280 will do 120's (the lightest I'd shoot)-170's. Shorter than 24" tube.
Based on some experience with quite a few cartridges, my guess is you could hunt with both and never see any difference in field performance.....
Thaaas correct. Or a 270 wcf, 270 wsm, 280 rem.
With scarcity of components these days I’d lean toward the .284
Make mine a .277, the 1925 variety. Brass is way easier to find and kills things really dead. 😁
With scarcity of components these days I’d lean toward the .284
The point I was trying to make is that 7MM bullets have been harder to find than .277 bullets through the "shortages".
Based on some experience with quite a few cartridges, my guess is you could hunt with both and never see any difference in field performance.....
A lot of wisdom in this response.
As a handloader, I’d lean toward the 280. I doubt the Western will flop, but it might. The 280 will always be around and brass can always be formed from the parent cartridge if you can’t find head stamped brass. Can’t say that about the Western.