280 Remington?

[planetmobius]

Never looked into the 280 Remington before. But, a friend of mine has recently offered me a very nice custom mauser from the 50's chambered in this caliber. The gun is beautiful and the price is right. Who shoots this caliber and has an opinion?

 

[Sam1911]

Great cartridge, especially if you reload.

Is the gun accurate? Can you shoot it first? Does it feed well? (In other words, how good is the conversion?)

If accurate, that round will reach out a long ways. A little bit farther than a .270 or '06, with the right bullets. 7mm Mag. kind of hammered the nails in its coffin, so to speak, but really, it is (like many of the other "orphans" from mid-century) a perfectly fine round.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

There isn't a lot of factory ammunition available, but owing to the fact that there is a much wider selection of 7mm (.284") bullets than .270 (.277"), it would make a dandy handloader's cartridge.

 

[planetmobius]

The rifle is a shorter carbine configuration with a very nice figured schnabel stock. No sights just a scope (bottom shelf bushnel that has to be replaced). The work on the rifle itself is top notch. The bolt is jeweled and the blueing is perfect. Action is slick and clearly has not seen too much action. Has the original wing safety. The owner was under the impression that it was a commercial receiver but it is stamped on the left side with "Model 98" and still has the stripper clip guide.

The rifle is a bit short, possibly made for woman or younger person. Not a problem since I am a shrimp myself. Thought it might be nice to have around when my own kids started taking to the woods.

I do reload so finding factory ammo is not an issue. I was just curious about the round itself. At first blush it didn't look appreciably different from the 270.

 

[jmr40]

At first blush it didn't look appreciably different from the 270.

Pretty well sum's it up. I've owned 2-3 280's through the years. It is a great round that allows you to hunt with something a bit different from the 270/30-06 crowd, without sacraficing anything. On paper at least, you can make a good argument that it is better than either. And I wouldn't argue with you. If the 280, had come first, neither the 270 or 30-06 would have ever existed.

But it didn't come first, and in reality there is nothing much to choose from between 270, 280, or 30-06. That may have not been true 75 years ago, but with modern loadings and todays bullets they are all triplets as far as performance on game is concerned.

The only real justification for owning one is to be different. And that is reason enough if you want to go that route. I no longer own a 280, and don't plan on going back. But I wouldn't feel a bit handicapped if I did.

 

[Smokey in PHX]

jmr said it very well. The .280 is a great cartridge and the action you are talking about would be about as good as you can get. With everything you described, I would get it.

 

[kludge]

.280 might be THE best North American game cartridge. Ever. But like everything else it would be endlessly debated.

Long range ballistics are better than the .30-06 and IMO, better bullets - especially match bullets - than the .270 (but the difference for hunting bullets is ever so slight).

I agree that if it had been first it would overshadow all others, like the .30-06 and .270 do now. We would have the .30-.280, and the .270 Win and .277" bullets may never have existed. We'd also have the 7mm Wincheter and the 7x51 NATO instead of the .308 Winchester and the 7.62x51 NATO.

 

[snake284]

Now days that's a crock. I have both a .270 and a .280 and I'm here to tell you that you can get plenty of good bullets for the . 270 as well. Back 20-30 years ago this was more true, but even then, the 100, 110, 130, and 150 grain covered everything you would want to shoot with that class of rifle very nicely. The only thing the .280 has over the .270 in bullets is target bullets. For whatever reason, the bullet manufactures have by passed the .270 with regards to target bullets. But the .270 is just as inherently accurate as the .270 with equal bullets. And now you can get 160s and upwards to 180 grain bullets for the .270, so for a hunting rifle or even an informal target rifle, it gives up nothing to the .280.

 

[ZeroJunk]

I've never hunted with a 270. But, I have used a 280 and 30-06 extensively on deer and elk. Quite frankly, I can't tell any difference.