Will a 22in 280ai be disappointing?

Bigeclipse

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All,

Here is the situation. I went from a ultralightweight 3006 (7lbs with scope) which hurt shooting (no brake) and only hunted out to about 200 yards to being able to hunt 600 yards so I purchased two longer range setups. One comes in at ~10lbs with scope (6.5prc, 24in barrel with muzzle brake it is about 26in long) and the other ~11lbs with scope (28nosler with 26in barrel with muzzle brake about 28.5inches long). The issue is every season we spend the last weekend doing stalking hunting and the last day we do deer drives. Neither of the above rifles was fun for that. The weight wasn't too terrible but the length really got in the way, especially when I had it slung. I plan to build a 3rd rifle off my Remington 700 action I have sitting around. I am going to remage it with a criterion 280ai barrel. Now that accuracy matters to me for the longer range stuff, I cant help but not shoot a rifle that shoots sub 1 MOA if not sub .5moa even if it will never see ranges further than 300 yards. Don't ask me why (maybe my OCD haha). The barrel will be 22in and finish with a brake at around 24inches. I really don't like recoil and since this rifle will be pretty light I plan to use at least a radial brake as I will not be shooting prone anyways. I am hoping to shoot some monometal bullets like hammers in the light weight range for 7mm (130-140grains) to give me a decent point blank range maybe out to 350 yards. Again, this will be a stalking/driving deer gun so light weight handiness is what it is about but I will still shoot it at my range out to 600 for fun. So will 22inches be enough to get me a decent point blank range with the lighter weight bullets and still have fun plinking out to 600? Any other thoughts to consider? thanks!
 
All,

Here is the situation. I went from a ultralightweight 3006 (7lbs with scope) which hurt shooting (no brake) and only hunted out to about 200 yards to being able to hunt 600 yards so I purchased two longer range setups. One comes in at ~10lbs with scope (6.5prc, 24in barrel with muzzle brake it is about 26in long) and the other ~11lbs with scope (28nosler with 26in barrel with muzzle brake about 28.5inches long). The issue is every season we spend the last weekend doing stalking hunting and the last day we do deer drives. Neither of the above rifles was fun for that. The weight wasn't too terrible but the length really got in the way, especially when I had it slung. I plan to build a 3rd rifle off my Remington 700 action I have sitting around. I am going to remage it with a criterion 280ai barrel. Now that accuracy matters to me for the longer range stuff, I cant help but not shoot a rifle that shoots sub 1 MOA if not sub .5moa even if it will never see ranges further than 300 yards. Don't ask me why (maybe my OCD haha). The barrel will be 22in and finish with a brake at around 24inches. I really don't like recoil and since this rifle will be pretty light I plan to use at least a radial brake as I will not be shooting prone anyways. I am hoping to shoot some monometal bullets like hammers in the light weight range for 7mm (130-140grains) to give me a decent point blank range maybe out to 350 yards. Again, this will be a stalking/driving deer gun so light weight handiness is what it is about but I will still shoot it at my range out to 600 for fun. So will 22inches be enough to get me a decent point blank range with the lighter weight bullets and still have fun plinking out to 600? Any other thoughts to consider? thanks!
You'll loose about 50fps. In other words it will be about the same as a 280 with a 24" barrel.....you'll be fine.

I'd expect you would be around 3100 fps with a 140.
 
I have a 20" for basically what your talking about that runs the Berger 150 CH at 3030 and I'm waiting for a 26" to arrive to run the 175 EH for long range. The 20" is around 7 1/2lbs scoped with no brake and recoil is like a .308 shooting a 150 gr.
 
shooting the lighter weight monos it should make a very nice light recoiling, fast handling rifle and of course you are giving up a little speed but you are building a use specific rifle and I think it will be just about perfect for what you want to do with it, what would make it absolutely perfect would be a 7mm-08A.I. shooting one of the new absolute hammer bullets pun intended
 
Guys are running the 140 AH at 3300+ FPS with 24" barrels. Hammer ran the 155 AH at 3320 FPS out of a 22" barrel 280AI. I'm building one very soon and am trying to decide on 22 or 24" plus brake. So I don't think it will handicap you to much. Really depends on shot distance and which bullet you want to shoot.
 
I can never figure out why anyone will do an ai with anything shorter than 24". Why not just shoot a standard 280 and burn less powder? It feels to me like people just want to say they shoot a 280 AI rather than say they shoot a 280.
full confession though I've ben a 280 guy for 35 years and could never justify reaming it out to ai unless I went to a rebarrel and went to 24".
 
You will leave some on the table but it will still be an easy 600yd gun. You will still see a gain over a standard 280 in same length barrel just won't get the "full gain" of an AI. Go for it.

The best choice for short barreled guns will always be a .308. It suffers the least from short barrels
 
I can never figure out why anyone will do an ai with anything shorter than 24". Why not just shoot a standard 280 and burn less powder? It feels to me like people just want to say they shoot a 280 AI rather than say they shoot a 280.
full confession though I've ben a 280 guy for 35 years and could never justify reaming it out to ai unless I went to a rebarrel and went to 24".
Because when you cut a barrel...even a regular 280...you lose speed. A 22inch 280ai will still be 75-100fps faster than the 280. That is my thought at least.
 
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