Hornady Lock-N-Load Straight OAL Gauge. Improved Military Rifle IMR 4350. With that in mind, the minor differences in trajectory and retained energy between the three are not at all surprising. Factory data has it exiting the muzzle at 2,850 fps, just 90 fps slower than the same bullet in Hornadys 7mm Remington Magnum ammo. flinging the same bullet. For the vast majority of hunters, there is very little difference in their performance at typical hunting ranges (inside 300 yds). Shop 280 Ackley Improved Rifles The .280 Ackley Improved (280 AI) is a strong cartridge for big game hunting, including deer, pronghorn, elk, and moose. Handloaders will find this cartridge to be pretty forgiving and simple to load. The chart below compares how much a 10 mile per hour crosswind impacts those same .270 Winchester, .280 Remington, .280 AI, and 7mm Remington Magnum loads out to 500 yards. Image shows a scopes, block stocked Rifles Ind. Let us know in the comments below! Federal. The true beauty of this round is its versatility. The .280 gets significantly more passthroughs than the .270 and it just seems to kill better. Lee #2. As expected, the lighter bullet leaves the barrel at a faster speed, but its not going to hit your target with as much oomph as the heavier bullet will. The rifle situation is very similar to the ammunition situation with these cartridges: .270 Winchester and 7mm Remington Magnum, in that order, are the most popular, followed by the .280 Remington and .280 Ackley Improved. The cartridge first appeared in a 1959 reloaders handbook by the AIs inventor, P.O. Ive watched my hunting partner Thomas Provstgaard shoot the 139-grain LRX clean through stout-bodied African plains game, including a steeply angled shot on a massive 55-inch kudu bull. In a pinch, standard .280 Rem. The .280 AI was developed by modifying the case from the .280 Remington. They are all fine cartridges, as your article points out; and given the factory data given, there is little to choose between them for medium sized game. Mag. Why did the .280 Remington struggle to initially gain traction in the commercial shooting and hunting market? Nosler .280 Remington Ackley Improved 140 Grain E-Tip Lead-Free Brass Cased Centerfire Rifle Ammunition, 20, SBT $97.49 (Save $1.50) $95.99 $4.80/Round Nosler Trophy Grade .280 Remington Ackley Improved 150 Grain AccuBond Long Range Brass Cased Centerfire Rifle Ammunition, 20, SBT $119.49 (Save $2.50) $116.99 $5.85/Round shooting Nosler 150 gr. And to top it all off, while a few older cartridges like the .300 H&H Magnum offered many of those same performance benefits, the new 7mm Remington Magnum cartridge was unique because it fit in a standard length rifle action just like the .30-06 and similar cartridges like the .270, .280, etc. Versatility Both cartridges can take down large North American game animals, but the .300 Win. While the 300 Blackout has enjoyed broad appeal across a wide range of hunters and shooters, the .338 Federal is designed for one specific application: mountain hunting. The shoulder of the .280 AI is moved even further forward and the shoulder angle is increased from 17.5 degrees to 40 degrees. Over these years it has become my absolute favorite cartridge. The belted 7x61mm Sharpe & Hart Super came out in 1953. Many consider the .270 Winchester to be on the light side for elk andmoose hunting, but especially when using heavy, premium quality bullets (like the Nosler Partition), its absolutely capable of getting the job done. This means you have the option to read your magazine on most popular phones and tablets. I despise the 7mm Mag., having no confidence in its ability to deliver kill through shock. 150 gr. Basically, it can hold more powder and thus can shoot the same weight bullet a little bit faster. 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Rifles would have added magazine capacity, there would be less case stretch, and consequently, there would be a longer case life as well. ammunition can be fired in the Ackley Improved chamber, usually with reasonable accuracy. Even then, there are still some distinct advantages that the .280 Ackley Improved can offer you. Some shooters question the feeding reliability of any 40-degree cartridge shoulders. However, for hunting, there are better balanced options for the .280 AI. For example, lowered recoil, less muzzle blast, more cartridges per magazine box, and longer barrel life are all advantages that a .280 Ackley Improved rifle has over a rifle that is shooting 7mm. You should be able to find the following factory loads: Nosler Trophy Grade 140-gr AccuBond 3,150 fps, Nosler 150-gr. Bergara added the cartridge to its chambering options. In the real world, the .338 Federal shines when pursuing larger animals at moderate distances, according to the New Zealand ballistics company Terminal Ballistics Research. While the .270 had a very fast muzzle velocity compared to other popular cartridges of the day, it was not an instant commercial success. Both of those cartridges are very capable performers, though neither is as well known or as widely used as the .270 Winchester or 7mm Remington Magnum. On the other hand, the .280 Remington is normally offered with 139 grain, 140 grain, or 150 grain bullets, but its possible to find a few loads with 156 grain, 160 grain, and 165 grain bullets as well. You can find rifles of all varieties chambered in .300 Blackout. According to Derek Peterson, president of Peterson Cartridge, "The .280 Ackley Improved casing will launch a 7mm, 120 gr . The Ackley version is a fine old cartridge and, when loaded with the right bullet, is big enough medicine for game up to elk and moose. As you said no animal is going to know the difference. Taurus has redesigned this sporting pistol for performance. That being said, the .280 Remington, .280 AI, and 7mm Rem Mag are generally a little better suited for hunting bigger game. Recipe Type: Rifle . Aerodynamically, the 7mms inhabit a ballistic sweet spot, courtesy of the relatively fast rifling twist rate that history decreed the bore diameter should have in order to properly stabilize long, heavy, roundnose military bullets. Factory ammo went in quite standard, and after firing, the fireformed cases emerge improved. Saami spec on the 280ai is 3.330 coal. Lets pause and take a look at why the 7mm/.284 bore diameter is significant. This rifle jams a bullet into the lands at a coal of3.250 tight enough that it will pull bullets every time. It too met a quick fate and, like my doe, it had minimal meat damage. Others opted to neck down the .30-06 case to use smaller diameter bullets (like the .25-06 Remington), which is what the folks at Winchester did when they modified the case to use .277 instead of .308 bullets. .338 Federal It's also a 30-06 rim-size. I'm going to work with a Kimber Subalpine in 280 AI this spring and will pay careful attention to any feeding issues with it, but I'm truly not concerned. Handloaded to a sizzling 3,200 fps, its flat and forgiving for shots inside a quarter-mile. Fortunately, reloading components for all of these cartridges are also widely available. When he was tinkering with the .280 Remington, Ackley added a bit of his personal trademark: he drastically increased the shoulder angle and straightened out the taper of the body case. My favorite dies are by Redding, from its Premium line. However, the .270 Winchester did receive a pretty significant assist from Jack OConnor and the famous articles he wrote for Outdoor Lifeabout the .270 over the years. Later, they also offered it in their Model 742 autoloader and Model 760 slide action before finally offering it in the Model 721 and 725 bolt-action rifles. Mag., both driving 160-grain bullets to nearly identical speeds. Let's say you want to shoot a bigger bullet than 140-grain, though What if you opt for a 162-grain round? Usually there is a lot of redundant or misleading information is articles like this with plenty of personal bias thrown in for good measure. 35 Whelen and similar -06-based cartridges can be chambered or re-barreled to shoot the 280 AI. This was not the way it was supposed to happen. However, even though the cartridge closely approaches the overall performance of the 7mm Remington Magnum, the .280 AI still has somewhat less recoil since it requires less powder to achieve a similar level of performance. The .280 Remington and .280 Ackley Improved (especially the Ackley Improved) are both pretty good alternatives to hunters who want a little more powerful cartridge than the .270 Winchester, but with less recoil than cartridges like the 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Win Mag. The .280 Remington is somewhat less common, but still pretty easy to find with Barnes, Federal, Hornady, Nosler, Remington, and Winchester all producing good quality .280 Remington hunting factory ammo. Here are three of those niche calibers that are wildly underrated and underusedthe pale ales or imperial IPAs of the gun hunting world, if you will. Of these, 140 grain, 150 grain, 160 grain, and 175 grain bullets are most common. Improved Military Rifle IMR 4064. The table below compares the recoil produced by the Nosler loads compared above for those cartridges when fired from a 7.5 pound rifle. Berger VLD Hunting 2,950 fps, CCCC 140-gr. 1 Hornady Lock-N-Load Straight OAL Gauge $ 36.99. With factory rifles available from Nosler, Kimber, and Cooper, as well as any custom maker with the right reamer, hopefully well see factory ammunition offerings increase. Still, in the right environment, the .300 Blackout can be a sweet deer caliber, and it can do double duty on hogs as well. More and more production rifles are being chambered for 280 AI every year. That being said, the .280 AI is clearly a little closer in performance to the 7mm Rem Mag than it is to the .280 Remington. Remember: the gap in performance between many .280 Remington, .280 Ackley Improved, and 7mm Remington Magnum loads (especially the latter two) is pretty small. A World Record Attempt and everyone is out at the range shooting and practicing. Still, though, were talking about plenty of force when that bullet does either way. The author's custom-made .280 Ackley Improved was built on the CZ-550 action, fitted with a Montana Rifleman barrel and decked out with a nice, heavy piece of English walnut. Your articles are not like that. Ackley and Fred Huntington and known previously by a variety of names such as the .280 Rem. Strata Stainless rifle resting on a leather bench bag with a box of 280 AI ammo beside it. You need to carefully analyze your potential needs and choose the one(270 vs 280 Remington vs 280 Ackley Improved vs 7mm Rem Mag) that you think will fit them best. Given the rising popularity of long, sleek, aerodynamically efficient bullets, Id go with the 1-8.Rebarreling is a great option if you already have a shot-out barrel on any standard-length action. Custom Mossberg 500 at the Range and Live Turkey!. So, yes, its easy to find examples of .280 Ackley Improved loads that either match or exceed the performance of the 7mm Remington Magnum and still have less recoil. It was a sub-0.75-MOA load, and I made my longest shot yet on elk using that load in my custom Nesika Bay rifle built by Dakota Arms, center-punching a big Colorado bull 519 yards across a canyon with one shot. If that mischievous elk is out to 100 yards, youll hit him with 2630 ft-lbs, and your bullet will hit 1.6 high. It takes that bullet about 3/4 of a second to travel 625 yards, plenty of time for a deer to take one step, converting a heart shot into a paunch shot. Parker Otto Ackley, better known as P.O. Perhaps this deadly attack might not have happened if the young hiker had been more knowledgeable about the dangers of encountering a wild animal. 280 Ackley Improved The 7mm Remington Magnum comes next at 61,000psi and is followed by the .270 Winchester and .280 AI, which both have a maximum SAAMI pressure of 65,000psi. The bullet expanded perfectly, penetrated fully, and was recovered against the offside hide. Then, in 2019, Hornady introduced a 162-grain ELD-X bullet loaded in the .280 AI, adding it to the excellent Precision Hunter line of ammunition. Ackley Improved 40 degrees) hit something of a sweet spot between the .280 Remington and the 7mm Remington Magnum. Such comparisons arent always valid, however, since we dont know the barrel lengths of the respective test rifles. While there is a large amount of overlap in their capabilities, each one does offer certain advantages. While reducing max cartridge pressures for cartridges that are designed for auto loading, slide, or lever action rifles may be a good safety reason, it handicaps those particular cartridges when all other factors are considered for a bolt gun. Sizzling 3,200 fps, its flat and forgiving for shots inside a 280 ackley improved 100! The.270 and it just seems to kill better cartridges can be or... Personal bias thrown in for good measure more and more production 280 ackley improved are being chambered for 280 AI year! 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