280 Rem vs 280 AI

Call Sierra bullets and ask them the benefits of an improved case as I did. They will tell you , less thrust on the bolt lugs due to more adhesion to the chamber walls from the straighter case , less case trimming , more velocity, and the benefit that you can still use the parent cartridge in the improved camber , but not vice versa. So you can use your buddies ammo , but he can’t use yours . Detractions, none.
 
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remington jim said:
well that just makes PERFECT handloading sense - The Science is there ! :D(y)
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Rjim, I don't know if you met Parker Otto Ackley (Everyone called him PO, other than his wife, who addressed him as Parker) in your travels, but he was a veritable tome of hands-on experience and accurate information.

PO Ackley's shop in Salt Lake City, Utah, wasn't huge, but it was certainly larger than most. He had half a dozen full time smiths working for him when I met him, as well as apprentices. He was in constant contact with the Trinidad University, where he helped to establish a Gunsmithing Program.

Nice guy, loved anything that went bang, his wife, and Ford vehicles.

He was extremely interesting to speak with, as he had bought and built several shops over the years before settling down in Utah.

He was known for making excellent barrels and turning out very good firearms, many of which were built on surplus actions, mostly salvaged from complete rifles. He went through all sorts of issues while learning to make barrels and wasn't satisfied until he designed and built his own long drill machine, starting with what he declared to be the most difficult, 22 caliber.

One question I did ask him was about his AI cartridges, and his eyes twinkled a bit.

Remember, back in the day when he was developing the AI cartridges, he had a dream of producing a line of cartridges that would bear his name and become "standard" fare around the world.

He was dogged with a rather large issue. There were literally untold thousands upon thousands of surplus rifles in the hands of just as many DIYs, all hell bent on "smithing their own gun" at home.

He would get people coming into his shop with all sorts of rifles, wanting them converted to sporters chambered for cartridges inappropriate for the types or receivers.

The DIY at home types were the most disturbing. It doesn't take a genius to make a reamer. It does take skills and machinery to do it properly.

He showed me a home made reamer, that came close to duplicating one of his shop produced AI reamers.

The fellow had taken a standard reamer for producing "locating pins" in heavy machine/motor bases and did a good job grinding the leade, neck, and shoulder angle, then brought it to Ackley's shop to have his surplus 93 Mauser's chamber recut with it.

Mr Ackley talked him out of doing it for all of the obvious reasons. The most obvious being, there wasn't a cartridge available to blow out to the proportions of the reamer.

The cartridges were also designed at a time when the slowest powders available to handloaders, were "fast" by today's standards, and barely suitable for the purpose.

I'm going to use a cartridge many of us are familiar with as an example, 6.5x55 Swede. When it was designed, it was designed around a fast, smokeless powder to push long, heavy, 160 grain, round nose bullets approximately 2350 fps from a 29 inch bbl.

The case design was quite dynamic for the times, it was rimless, had slightly tapered sidewalls, relatively short neck, and a 25 degree shoulder.

I can imagine all of the wails and rants about extraction issues and accuracy issues coming from people who had learned some hard lessons about how cartridges should be designed.

Ackley loved the 6.5x55 by the way and stated there wasn't much, if anything, to improve on.

His comments on AI cartridges were often candid, and he readily admitted the real differences would come about as new propellants and bullets came onto the market.

He was right.

Some of the new propellants which were once available a short time ago could very likely make the AI designs significantly better, but they could also make the original cartridge design just as significantly better.

One of his main reasons for experimenting with the designs was to increase accuracy, then, he expanded his vision.

He felt there was no reason to utilize the AI designed cases in barrels shorter than 24 inches, with 26 inches being ideal.
 
Both cartridges are great but I find I don’t have to trim my 280ai as often which is a huge win in my opinion. I have a love hate relationship with reloading though
 
FLHTCUI said:
There is nothing that shoots faster or hits harder than a Weatherby ;)
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I recall being told that as a youngster, by a friend of my stepdad's he had been in the rcaf with. Shot my first moose with that rifle, a LH Wewtherby in 7mm Weatherby (from the top of the wing of a floating Norseman). Still have the brass from that outing in an old shaving kit (my treasure box, way back when). - dan
 
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