Dear Wild (and Others):
I'll have to seriously think about the 25 or 26" barrel - I've just never handled anything more than 24" and I shoot mostly hand guns and my AR-15 for recreation at the range. You've nudged me to seriously consider the longer barrel, which is a good thing as I'd have never done that w/o posting here.
I hear you on the 'fps' value of an additional inch pr barrel, and some have seen that from my reading. Truly, I'd be pretty happy with 75 fps with 2" more barrel and anything more would be the cats meow. Also, I'm not particularly recoil shy within limits; I'm good for 40-50 rounds at a time with my 30/06. A 280 AI seems like it will fall into the same category of weight/recoil (≤9 lbs scoped and 17-19 f-lbs of recoil). That's very doable w/o a muzzle break I think.
The big decision is how much to spend and by whom, and I'm doing a lot reading on that matter including Len here on this site. I live in LA and no one seems in the top tier of custom hunting rifle builders here. I'm not too constrained in the budget department, and I'm a high value shopper when it comes to guns and fly rods/reels/etc. . . . oh, and shoes!
Take care all,
Rachel