Rifles in .280 Remington?

I've got it's euro cousin, 7x64, little faster twist rate, slightly higher pressure cartridge, I use 280 Rem brass to load for it they are that similar.
I also own a few 7mm Rem Mags, and they are not heavy recoiling, performance wise with factory ammo they don't do much better then the 280.
For handloading they have much more versatility then the 280, you can load screaming 110gr cup/core or solids that will do a number on everything from ground pigs to deer, or push a 175gr of your flavor to 3000fps for big stuff which is quite a bit ahead of the 280. Or you can down load it to 280 velocity if you want as well, that's the nice thing about having more case capacity, you can always load lighter. If I only had one rifle for everything it would be a 7mm Rem.
As much as I like all my 7mm cals, if you gave me a choice of a 280 Rem or a 270 Win, I'd go with the 270. 277 vs 284 inch is not a big difference, the 270 had a bit of a rep for making a mess on deer, but with good quality bullets (not the cheapest 130gr cup/core from CT) it's a very solid big game cartridge with little bloodshot/meat loss. It's a good combo of velocity/bullet weights for a lot of big game, and it's quite flat shooting.
 
Hitzy said:
I've got it's euro cousin, 7x64, little faster twist rate, slightly higher pressure cartridge, I use 280 Rem brass to load for it they are that similar.
I also own a few 7mm Rem Mags, and they are not heavy recoiling, performance wise with factory ammo they don't do much better then the 280.
For handloading they have much more versatility then the 280, you can load screaming 110gr cup/core or solids that will do a number on everything from ground pigs to deer, or push a 175gr of your flavor to 3000fps for big stuff which is quite a bit ahead of the 280. Or you can down load it to 280 velocity if you want as well, that's the nice thing about having more case capacity, you can always load lighter. If I only had one rifle for everything it would be a 7mm Rem.
As much as I like all my 7mm cals, if you gave me a choice of a 280 Rem or a 270 Win, I'd go with the 270. 277 vs 284 inch is not a big difference, the 270 had a bit of a rep for making a mess on deer, but with good quality bullets (not the cheapest 130gr cup/core from CT) it's a very solid big game cartridge with little bloodshot/meat loss. It's a good combo of velocity/bullet weights for a lot of big game, and it's quite flat shooting.
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I've heard there can be accuracy loss in downloading. Have you noticed any in your experience? Only reason I wanted to go .280 is to be able to shoot the blacktail around where I live and take it elk hunting up north in the future.
 
Logan370 said:
I've heard there can be accuracy loss in downloading. Have you noticed any in your experience? Only reason I wanted to go .280 is to be able to shoot the blacktail around where I live and take it elk hunting up north in the future.
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This is a Ruger 1B that was rebarrled with a 26" , Sendaro tapered Shilen for me by a local gunsmith friend and there is everything BUT accuracy loss with hand loads in this rifle. Not that he also removed the factory quarter rib and installed a 20 MOA rail on it.;)
It has been shot out to 800 meters and prints 1/2 " three shot groups with no issues at all.:cool:
It's a hunting rifle not a match rifle so will do the majority of its work inside 300 meters.
Cat
 
Have had a Remington BDL SS in 280 Remington since 1998.
Great rifle/cartridge combination. It has never seen a factory round.
As previously stated the factory round is loaded down for the pump and semi-auto rifles.
It is a great round for the handloader due to the lack of product on the shelves in LGS.
There are lots of bullets available for custom made ammunition.
I have never regretted buying this rifle at a time when I had a 270 and 30-06 and 338 Win Mag.
They are all gone and my son claims first dibs on the 280.
 
I have a Browning A-Bolt Medallion with the adjustable Boss brake. 175 grain Nosler Partition loaded. It shoots good, and it is one of the prettiest guns i have. A friend had it from his friend. It took me 2 years to get it home because i wanted it, but didn't need it till i did need it
 
If you intend to make use of the full range of 7mm bullets, find a .280 with a fast twist barrel, at least 1:9 and 1:8 might be better. I've got a Weatherby Ultralight that after a bit of fiddling shoots 3 shot groups of both 160 grn Partitions and Sierra SPBTs, tight enough that all the holes touch. Barnes Original 175 gr flat base shoot MOA, but heavy VLDs like 190 gr Matrix hit sideways at 100, a foot low and grouped 6". Berger 195s would be more of the same. If a 175 gr FB is as heavy a bullet as you'll shoot, a 1:10 will work. The fellow I got this rifle from claims the twist is 1:11, but I haven't verified that, and I never had much luck measuring the rate of twist with the cleaning rod method, but I should be able to figure it out with my bore scope if I'm ever interested enough to try. For now I'll just consider a flat base 175 the practical limit for this rifle, the Barnes Originals measure 1.325" in length, and I expect the 175 gr Partition and the Speer GS would be slightly shorter since they're not as pointed. The lightest bullets I've tried are 115 Speer HPs which shot .75 MOA with the first load I tried, 48 grs of 3031. I have a partial box of old 125 gr Winchester PSPs which shot into an inch with 54.5 grs of 760. My initial 140 gr Sierra load was disappointing at 2" but I probably should have used something faster than R-22. I haven't tried them again, but when I do it will be with 4350, 760, or N-550. The rifle came with some loaded Berger 168 gr Hunting-Match over 51 grs of H100V, and these shoot very well, but I'm unlikely to ever use them again. I've shot more 160 gr bullets through this rifle than any others, and they have shot well with both R-22 and H-100V.
 
At your budget level I would jump on one of the Ruger M77 Hawkeye African models in .280 AI that Prophet River has listes. The .280 AI has become standardized to some degree and there is factory ammo available... very nice cartridge with excellent ballistics.

You stated above that you heard that you "lose accuracy by handloading..." That notion is ridiculous, people generally handload for two reasons, to save money and to IMPROVE accuracy (and consistency). If you shoot alot, reloading is the way to go... if you only shoot a few boxes a year, you might aswell stick with factory ammo.
 
hoytcanon said:
At your budget level I would jump on one of the Ruger M77 Hawkeye African models in .280 AI that Prophet River has listes. The .280 AI has become standardized to some degree and there is factory ammo available... very nice cartridge with excellent ballistics.

You stated above that you heard that you "lose accuracy by handloading..." That notion is ridiculous, people generally handload for two reasons, to save money and to IMPROVE accuracy (and consistency). If you shoot alot, reloading is the way to go... if you only shoot a few boxes a year, you might aswell stick with factory ammo.
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from downloading. not handloading :)
 
Currently the only company I can think of off the top of my head producing them is Browning in their X-Bolt. Although if you're looking g for used, remington did many options in .280 on their 700 action, Browning chambered them in their A-Bolt and A-Bolt 2 actions (mine is a A-Bolt 1 and is a great all around hunting gun), ruger in their m77, Sako chambered them at one point as well. Rocky Mountain Gunsmithing in Alberta had a used A-Bolt in .280 advertised a couple weeks back, maybe check them out?
 
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