280 Rem

BrettSass844

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Nov 18, 2009
692
3
42
Germantown, OHIO
Anyone have experiance with this caliber? I am starting another Savage build in a couple months and have been kicking around the idea of 260 Rem, 6.5x47, and 7mm-08. It would be for target shooting mainly, possibly a little yote hunting here and there but not enough to take that into consideration when it comes to caliber or componet selection. There is limited info on the 280 that i can find. How is the barrel life on it? any help is appreciated, all I can find are some threads on different websites where the caliber is used in hunting rifles. Thanks!
 
Re: 280 Rem

+1 on the 280AI, I had one built as a hunting rifle and would take it shooting to 1k with me. It did well enough I am having another one built as a dedicated LR rig this trip out. I dont have the numbers in front or anywhere near me but its worth a look.
 
Re: 280 Rem

I have a 7mm-06 that was a result of holding a 280 Reamer 50 thou short (not on purpose, I didn't read the print and used the -06 headspace gauge). Performance-wise, you'll likely see no difference.

I get a nice soft load of RL-22 to put a 180 VLD at 2800fps, with RL-17 it is around 3k with a 28" barrel. With 162's I push them around 3000 for the best results, but they can go hotter, the fastest I got was 3100.

The water capacity of the cases is in the same league as a 7mm SAUM, around 70-74gr of water.

The 280AI would be a step up, but you either buy expensive Nosler brass or have to fireform.

Barrel life should be between 2500-3000 rounds if you're ringing the snot out of the cases.

I also have a nice, light bullet load. 49.5gr of BLC-2 under a Sierra 120gr Spitzer will shoot very sub-moa loads and makes a great g'hog bullet for several hundred yards with practically no recoil.

If you have a long action with a STD bolt face this is a dynamite round. I've taken it to around 1700 yd with good success including first round hits over 1000 on steel.