.280 vs .280 Ackley ?

[Greg Duerr]

In your opinion is their really any gained advantages to having a Ackley over the standard .280 Really what does 100 fps advantage really give you?

 

[MudRunner2005]

The .280 Ackley Improved is a more efficient cartridge. 150 fps faster & 100 fpe more than a .280 Rem, and 150 fps slower, and 100 fpe less than a 7mm RemMag. It is dead in the middle.

To answer your question....150 fps, is 150 fps gained. What is there not to like?

Personally, .280 AI is my choice.

 

[Greg Duerr]

I like the ackley's because in my .243 AI I have put may brass through some tuff loads and I have not had to trim. I talked to a guy out at our Rifle range that had two .280AI and said he could come really close to the ballistics of the 7mm M.

I noticed that most of the reloading manuals give you loads that are warm but not hot.............In your experiance can you take your load past the Max in the reloading manuals. Nosler seems to have the hottest loads over Berger or Sierra. I guess each rifle is different and what you can get out of one you can not get out of the other.

The Ackley cartridges just look better.......

G

 

[MudRunner2005]

I am still in the parts-gathering process of my .280 AI build, because it will be an unusual project for me. I will be making my 700 into a "switch-barrel" rifle, and I will be using 2 different calibers, .280 AI and .25-06 AI, so I can swap back and forth, since I only have 1 standard bolt-face long-action sitting around. All the rest are magnum long-actions.

Therefore, I don't have any experience loading for that caliber yet...But will keep you informed once I do get things underway.

However, in my other calibers I have gone past book specs on a few, but have found that some books are warm, while other books really like to give you a MAX recommended load. For example, my Nosler 7 book gets you warm...But my Berger manual when it says MAX load, they truly mean, proceed with caution if you go any hotter than this...

Also, different calibers are different. For example, my .308 isn't very picky at all about which loads I put in it. My Rem 7mm STW, Browning 7mm RemMag, and Accumark .257 Wby are VERY picky, and you have to find the proper node for the barrel.

Seems to me that in my experience, the non-magnum calibers don't seem to be as picky as the magnum calibers are at finding a "sweet-spot" in your load.

Granted, I am far from an expert at anything, I'm just giving my opinoin and my experiences.

So, once I get my .280 AI built, I'll let you know how the load development goes, and how picky it is, or is not.

 

[LONGSHOOTER]

I believe that even Kenny Jarrett, a major advocate of the 280 AI, eventually found himself admiring and using the 300 WM.

 

[Greg Duerr]

Yes keep me posted as Im very interested in that caliber.

[email protected]


I like the idea of the 300 Win. Mag but dont like the recoil that you would get with a 200gr + bullet and I have heard that a MB is more than loud but really loud. When shooting next to someone with a MB at the Rifle Range its very unpleasant. I cant imagine shooting one when you dont have ear protection.

Right now that .280AI seem like the way to go I read that Darrel Holland shoots a standard .280 using the 168gr Berger and has taken Elk at 800yrds.............

To be realistic I know that my .243AI has limitations and that to be serious about taking a really nice buck or Bull I need to get something larger.

G

 

[MudRunner2005]

Yes keep me posted as Im very interested in that caliber.

[email protected]


I like the idea of the 300 Win. Mag but dont like the recoil that you would get with a 200gr + bullet and I have heard that a MB is more than loud but really loud. When shooting next to someone with a MB at the Rifle Range its very unpleasant. I cant imagine shooting one when you dont have ear protection.

Right now that .280AI seem like the way to go I read that Darrel Holland shoots a standard .280 using the 168gr Berger and has taken Elk at 800yrds.............

To be realistic I know that my .243AI has limitations and that to be serious about taking a really nice buck or Bull I need to get something larger.

G

Shhhhhhh!!!! Don't tell anyone one here that! They seem to think you can't kill them unless you have a .338 or bigger caliber... I'm serious, I've been in alot of arguements on here wondering why you weren't supposed to use anything smaller than a .338 caliber. I've never shot one, I was curious as to why not, since alot of people killed them with 7mm RemMags back in the day.

Personally, I'm a fan of shot-placement. And by that logic, a 7mm bullet can be just as effective as a .50 BMG if you shoot a moose in the pump-house...

There's a guy on here who killed a HUGE bull moose @ 900+ yards, dead in his tracks, with a 7mm Rem Mag. I remember seeing his pictures in the thread, but can't remember his name. There's not much to argue with after bringing that one up.....

 

[Greg Duerr]

It would be nice to have the experiance that a lot of you guys do. Every shot ever bull reacts differently, ever bullet does to. Usually I get a deer tag about every four years but I have come to realize that its not about killing but hunting, and that's were I have confused myself. There are some really nice places in Nevada were you can pretty much draw every year and I feel that I need to do more hunting.
Four years ago one early morning I was hunting in the East Humboldt Range in Eastern Nevada when I glassed the biggerst Buck I have ever seen .......a conservative estimate would be that he had about a 36 in spread mass and was a perfect 4x4 with long eye guards. Problem was that he was about 600 yards away just standing there looking at me. No way could I even attempt a shot like that ..........however this sight has revealed to me that a lot of you guys would have been field dressing him that morning. Even today the picture in my mind revealed what an amazing animal he was. I would have to say that a .280 AI would be more than enough for a shot like that...............

I dont want one like that to get away in the future.

G

 

[MudRunner2005]

I don't have any experience with moose, elk, caribou, or any of the animals you will only find up north or out west, as I have only hunted around here my whole life... Wish I could help in that respect, but I can't.

I was just saying how alot of people totally underestimate anything if it's smaller than the biggest thing they can find to shoot. Not that it isn't needed sometimes to get things done, just that alot of the hype seems to be chest-beating and tarzan screaming because they have the biggest caliber you can buy, even though most will never use such a thing other than to kill a few trees and some paper and rocks.

 

[Greg Duerr]

Dont you have some really big Hogs in your neck of the woods..?

 

[MudRunner2005]

Dont you have some really big Hogs in your neck of the woods..?

Now you're speakin my lingua'.... Oh yeah, we got some nasty-huge russian boars down here! I haven't shot a hog in a while. Went trudging through Hardaway Swamp about a month ago with the .338 WinMag to see if we could rustle one up. I wanted to see what the .338 would do to one. I think that would make a great hog caliber if you had about a 20" bull barrel on it.

 

[Greg Duerr]

I saw a picture of a Hog that was taken in your neck of the woods........it was huge and frightful. I would much rather be in Grizzly country rather than in the woods with Hogs like that. A few years ago I talked to a guy that hit a hog with not enough gun that nocked him down before he could get up a tree, spent two weeks in the hospital for his mistake

G

 

[MudRunner2005]

Alot of people think wild hogs are like farm-raised pigs.....Not at all.

A pen-raised hog takes 2 weeks in the wild to revert back to it's primordial and vicious and scavenging ways.

People don't realize but hogs will eat meat. They'll eat anything and everything they can to survive. You ever heard the horror stories about farmers falling in the hog pen, dying, and never being seen again...Hogs will eat people, and leave nothing but bones & teeth, according to scientists. A wild hog will do the same thing to you out in the woods if it gets a hold of you. And believe me, they are some strong, tough, and ruthless SOB's. Those tusks are razor sharp, too.

When I shoot one, if it drops immediately and doesn't move even when I get right up to it, it's getting another one in the ear, and out the other... I take no chances. If I shoot it, and it's still fighting hard on the ground.....Send another one through it to make sure it's gonna die.

Hogs are a huge nuissance around here, they will completely destroy hunting lang, crops, farm land, etc...

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Get what you want; they're both saami rounds so there's no pain in the butt with super expensive dies or anything. I'd personally step up a bit to a 7stw or 7x300 and get another few hundred fps, but I've seen regular 280's do some serious critter whooping in the hands of my brother. A 280 ai in my mind is just getting a bit bigger candy bar.