It is effective farther and has less wind drift than either the .270 or .30-06 with similar recoil. have longer legs, they beat up the shooter. Managed-Recoil® bullets deliver 2x expansion with over 75% weight retention on shots inside of 50 yards and out to 200 yards. The .280 is based on the .30-06 necked down to accept 7 mm bullets, with the neck moved forward .050 in (1.27mm). Guns. Well, the half-century head start the .280 Remington has many more ammunition and rifle choices, and is, truly, enough gun. The cartridge is easy to load for, as brass and bullets are readily available, though there are so many excellent factory loads that it may not be worth the handloading effort. To avoid such liability, Remington turned to the .30-06’s father, the .30-03, which is a smidge longer. The Contestants. The recoil energy and recoil velocity figures are taken from various sources including the recoil nomograph in the Handloader's Digest 8th Edition, various online recoil calculators, the Remington Shoot! Remington’s engineers had many choices when it came to caliber, and they settled on 7mm (.284-inch). Never the less, the newest low-drag bullets have stretched the distances a trained, skilled shooter can engage game with reliable success. Combining the finest components with game-changing innovation, Remington engineers are moving closer to perfection round by round. Expansion range is the point velocity drops to 1800 fps, the minimum claimed by Nosler for reliable expansion. Also, while the heaviest bullet offered in factory ammo is 160 grains, hand loaders can select 7mm bullets up to 175 grains. Remington renamed the cartridge the 7mm-06 Remington in early 1978, and then again to the 7mm Express Remington before the year’s end. Just when .280 fans thought things couldn’t get any worse, Remington’s marketing gurus changed the round’s name several times during the 1970s. This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional. I first heard of the .280 Ackley Improved as a kid, when I read reviews of Kenny Jarrett’s Beanfield Rifle, and all of those reviews were positive. territory but without the extra powder and recoil. For deer with a 280 Rem, I'd suggest a slightly lighter bullet around 140-gr. Then in 1962 Remington introduced the 7mm Rem. Mag.• .300 RSAUM vs. .300 WSM• .500 Jeffrey vs. .505 Gibbs• 7mm RUM vs. .300 RUM• .308 Winchester vs. 7mm-08 Remington• 6.5 Creedmoor vs. .260 Remington• .303 British vs. 8x57 Mauser• .30-06 Springfield vs. All Other .30s• .17 HMR vs. .17 WSM• .450 Nitro Express vs. .470 Nitro Express• 350 Legend vs. .35 Remington• .280 Ackley Improved vs. 7mm Rem. Through free online ballistic calculators, such as shooterscalculator.com, we can answer this question. Mag., doesn’t need a .280, but if you are looking for a cartridge with accuracy, reach, power, and manners, there are few better choices than the .280 Remington. crowd likes a 140. The 280 gives me performance close to that of the 7mm Remington Magnum but with less recoil, less powder and more magazine capacity. My curiosity was certainly piqued, but the wallet of a twenty-something-year-old hunter dictated more practical purchases. This means with careful work, shooters can have a round which approaches 7mm Rem. I like the velocity boost, as it made those longer shots both Jake and I took on safari just a bit easier, yet there was no noticeable difference in felt recoil. Based on the .30-06 case necked down to take a 7mm, or .284-inch bullet, the cartridge was introduced in 1957. My shoulder does feel the after effects of a long bench session with the 7mm RM. By the late 1950s, they had had enough and decided to go all in against Mr. O’Connor’s pet. Perhaps a tad bit better gun because of the killing power and the small amount of recoil. 5 Great Scout Rifles. Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in .280 Remington Ballistics. It is the appropriate diameter for medium game and anything which hits within it will do the job on larger beasties, too. Among them, there are a considerable number of shooters and hunters who feel that the ’03/’06 case is at its best when mated with 7mm bullets. Looking for previous installments of our "Head to Head" series? The journey that the now-obsolete .30-03 Springfield case has made is nothing short of ballistic magic; that design has been responsible for a whole lot of happy hunters and shooters, in the many iterations up and down the bullet diameter scale. Remington reduced the .280’s working pressures by a large amount and the round debuted with much less performance than planned. Get the American Hunter Insider newsletter for at-a-glance access to industry news, gear, gun reviews, videos and more—delivered directly to your Inbox. It’s a great cartridge saddled with an unfortunate legacy. Even with a few name changes, this cartridge is still one of the best around. The fabled .270 Winchester appeared on the scene in 1925. Removing nearly all of the body taper, and increasing the shoulder angle from 17.5 degrees to 40 degrees, the final and most popular iteration of the .280 Ackley Improved (there was a bit of influence from Fred Huntington) gives a definite ballistic advantage over the parent case. I shot my first decent New York deer—a nice, symmetrical 8-point—with the .280 Remington in a Remington automatic. Must be a vast .270 conspiracy! Elk are large (500 – 800 pounds), tough animals which can take tremendous punishment. So owners of the new .280 Remington could not find ammunition for their rifles and heard from gun shop salesmen that it was recalled. 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