Semi-automatic and striker-fired, the P320-XTEN is extremely accurate, easy to shoot even with powerful 10mm loads and holds 15-plus-one rounds. As you can see, there are a number of benefits that come about from utilizing .280 Ackley Improved. Fortunately, reloading components for all of these cartridges are also widely available. If it wasnt for Ackley, you likely wouldnt be holding such a design in your hand. In stock. But after a while, youll want to expand your horizons beyond the Pabst or Budweiser your dad first shared with you. That bullet should retain 1,500 f-p energy at 600 yards and remain super sonic at 1,600 yards. So where do we stand with each cartridge? If not, then you should probably stay away from the .280 Ackley Improved (unless youre fine with just 1-2 brands as factory ammo options) and go with either the .270 or the 7mm Mag. The .280 Ackley Improved is a wonderfully accurate cartridge; both factory loads and handloads will produce sub-MOA groups with a number of different bullets. Among other things, hes particularly well known for his series of Ackley Improved cartridges. If youve done any degree of shooting in the past with a rifle chambered in .17, you can thank Ackley for his foundational work on the caliber. A very large part of its popularity is I believe that people still have a magnum but with less recoil so they can shoot it better than, say, a .300Win mag. Use A Thermacell To Stop Bug Bites While Hunting & Camping, 6.5 Grendel vs 300 Blackout Review & Comparison, 11 Reasons The Leupold VX-6HD Is An Outstanding Hunting Scope, 450 Bushmaster vs 45-70 Review & Comparison, 28 Nosler vs 300 Win Mag Review & Comparison, Best 22 Hornet Ammo For Hunting Coyotes, Bobcats, & Other Varmints, 15 Best African Hunting Books For When Youre Dreaming Of Being On Safari[2023], Best 350 Legend Ammo For Hunting Deer, Hogs, Bear, & Other Game, Best 6.8 Western Rifles for Hunting Ultimate Guide [2023], Best 300 PRC Ammo For Hunting Elk, Deer, Bear, & Other Game, Best 6.5 PRC Ammo For Hunting Deer, Elk, Bear, & Other Game, Best 350 Legend Rifles for Hunting Ultimate Guide [2023], Best 6.8 Western Ammo For Hunting Elk, Deer, Bear, & Other Big Game. I used the Hornady Ballistic calculator and ShootersCalculator.com to compare trajectory, wind drift, and recoil for the cartridges. with less recoil, more magazine capacity, and longer barrel life. Nosler brass has always been my go-to, because its invariably near-perfect and comes weight-sorted and prepped for accuracy, meaning trimmed to length, chamfered, and deburred, and with flash holes uniformed. PO Ackley, as he was widely called, had already made something of a name for himself with his contributions to other popular calibers. Id wager that the .270 Winchester is a little more commonly used than the 7mm Rem Mag. While the .280AI is an efficient cartridge; however, its not magic. The unique roots of the 7mm Remington Magnum and the shared heritage of the .270 Winchester, .280 Remington, and the .280 Ackley Improved are all obvious in the photo below. For example, when using the same weight bullet, .280 Ackley Improved factory ammunition typically shoots 50-150 (usually around 100 fps faster) than most .280 Remington factory ammo. However, the published data is provided from a .280 AI tested with a 26" barrel rifle, while the .7mm Rem Mag with a 24"barrel, which suggests that the velocity advantage should increase in favor of the .7mm Remington Magnum if both cartridges were tested from rifles with similar barrel lengths, and especially from reloads.[5]. The .280 AI is similar, with 140 grain, 150 grain, and 162 grain bullets being the basically only choices at this time in factory ammo for the cartridge. Mag., and cooks along about 200 fps faster than the .308 Win. This rifle jams a bullet into the lands at a coal of3.250 tight enough that it will pull bullets every time. Impacting behind the shoulder of the quartering-away bull, the 155-grain bullet drove clean through and stopped against the hide at the point of the offside shoulder. 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. 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. Walther's new Performance Duty Pistol is ready for both concealed carry and conventional service situations. 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. Berger VLD Hunting 2,950 fps, CCCC 140-gr. The belted 7x61mm Sharpe & Hart Super came out in 1953. Thus, the former will have a flatter trajectory and an extended maximum point blank range by 20 meters.[4]. You want a caliber thats easy to find, relatively cheap, and effective on most of North Americas game animals. ammo can be used. Notify Me When Available. This was due to a number of reasons, one of which was the fact that the .270 Winchester fired unusual size bullets. According to Nosler reloading data, although the .7mm Remington Magnum does not provide more than 50 fps over the .280 AI with similar projectiles, the latter cartridge holds less powder in its case, thus it is considered more efficient. Similarly, by shooting a 280 AI instead of 7mm Rem. Even so, no animal will never know the difference if your shot is placed in the right spot. The elks out to 500 yards on a distant hillside? As you can see, that particular 7mm Mag load has a little morefree recoil energy than the .280 AI when used in the same weight rifle, but is shooting the same bullet only 50 feet per second faster. The .270 Winchester has by far the least recoil of the bunch. Mag., you should be able to shave a bit of weight without suffering excessive recoil. Mikey Hartman, Lt. Col. However, that comes at the expense of a little more recoil than the .270 Winchester. Good brass, once obtained, lasts a long time. Shaw Custom Barrelssells new barrels in five different contours chambered, crowned, and threaded for your specified action for as little as $160. As sometimes happens in the world of rifle cartridges, the 280 AI (Ackley Improved) is becoming more popular than its parent, the excellent 280 Remington. Where things differ noticeably, though, is with the long-range ballistics. Lee #2. Since it uses a much larger case diameter, most rifle magazines will hold more .270 Winchester, .280 Remington, or .280 AI cartridges than 7mm Remington Magnum cartridges. Heres why: 280 AI shoots 50 fps to 100 fps faster than the 280 Remington with the same bullets in the same standard-length actions. Walk into your local gun store, and youll see what I mean. Parker Otto Ackley, better known as P.O. The 280 AI is quietly but steadily gaining converts. Considering that the 7RemMag came from the same .458, .338, and .264 Magnum (belted) case, when loaded to the same pressure levels and housed in a rifle of 26, it will exceed any max velocity possible with the .280AI by at least 150fps (hand loaders have proven this fact for decades). However, the management at Remington gave the .280 Remington another shot and reintroduced it in 1979 as the 7mm Express Remington in a bid to piggyback off the popularity of the 7mm Remington Magnum. Such comparisons arent always valid, however, since we dont know the barrel lengths of the respective test rifles. A .284 bore comfortably pushes bullets of 140 to 180 grains. You can find rifles of all varieties chambered in .300 Blackout. That being said, all four cartridges are generally good options for reloaders. Read the articles below if youd like to learn more details about some of the various hunting ammunition choices for the 270 Winchester or 7mm Remington Magnum. The .300 Blackout (also known as .300 BLK and .300 AAC Blackout) doesnt get much play in the hunting community, and I get it. Peak trajectory would be 4.96-inches above point-of-aim at 175 yards. Like the (copycat?) For ammo, check out Federals 150g Power Shok cartridge. The .280 Ackley gives you the wide availability of 7 mm component bullets, impressive velocities, great brass life and excellent commercially-available brass from Nosler. I've also had superb results with Berger's 168-grain VLD Hunting. However, its doubtful he anticipated that more than a half-century later, his .280 Ackley Improved cartridge would blossom into a favorite of savvy open-country hunters across the West. First, the .270, .280, and .280 AI are all very similar in appearance: they have the same rim diameter as well as very similar case lengths. The .280 Ackley Improved will hit him with 1533 ft-lbs and drop 34.2". When PO Ackley touched a cartridge, people respected the end result. Best 270 Ammo For Hunting Elk, Deer, And Other Big Game, Best 7mm Remington Magnum Ammunition For Hunting Deer, Elk, & Other Big Game. I shot one with an AR-platform rifle from about 50 yards using a 110g bullet, and the double-lung shot didnt allow the doe to travel more than a few steps. Federal has created a safer, easier and more reliable way to shoot a muzzleloader. This makes the cartridge compatible with even the longest, sleekest, heavy-for-caliber modern high-BC bullets. These modifications resulted in added capacity, which increased velocity, and less case stretch, which resulted in longer case life. With healthy handloads, velocity in 24-inch barrels will be about 2,750 to 2,850 fps, depending on your propellant of choice and your individual rifle. The same goes for the 145gr .270 Winchester vs the 150gr .280 Remington load. The result was a new case with slightly more (usually around 4-5%) powder capacity. As sometimes happens in the world of rifle cartridges, the 280 AI (Ackley Improved) is becoming more popular than its parent, the excellent 280 Remington. Riley. and uses 10 to 15 percent less powder to do so. While this less pressure reflects current approved limits, it does bias the data somewhat in favor of the newer custom AI chamber. 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. The .280 Remington is currently manufactured by Browning, Remington, and Winchester in their X-Bolt, Model 700, and Model 70 rifles. He didnt even flinch! They eventually chose the bolt action 1903 Springfield rifle chambered in the new .30-06 Springfield cartridge. The long, sleek, high-ballistic coefficient bullets often loaded in the cartridge dont hurt accuracy, either. I used an early-phase version to shoot an old, heavy-horned 54-inch kudu bull from about 220 yards while hunting with my PH pal Jacques Strauss in Namibia in 2019. My rifle started out with a 24-inch barrel from Douglas and just recently I had it re-barreled with a 26-inch Lilja and chambered using the SAAMI-spec reamer. It's also a 30-06 rim-size. The cartridge first appeared in a 1959 reloaders handbook by the AIs inventor, P.O. MFG #: 035531283. This helps support the blog and allows me to continue to create free content thats useful to hunters like yourself. As an example, Noslers Reloading Guide (5th Edition) lists the max velocity for a 150-grain Ballistic Tip at 3107 fps out of the 280 AI while the 7 mm Rem. Savage 110 Hunter .280 Ackley Improved Bolt Action Rifle 22" Barrel 4 Rounds Syn. Still, though, were talking about plenty of force when that bullet does either way. 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