.280 For Plains Game?

[Hififile324]

The .280 Remington is a superb cartridge that does not get the cedit and WOW factor it deserves. A very versatile cartridge capable of being loaded with very flat shooting high velocity lightweights such as 120 to 139 grain bullets, all the way up to 175 grain Nosler Partitions which can handle big Elk, Bison and Moose sized animals.

The only thing to consider if taking it to Limpopo, is the availability of factory ammo in gun stores if your ammo gets lost. 280 is not a very common round in Africa.

 

[rookhawk]

Use heavier bullets.....I use 170gr Rhino great bullet for our animals....

I think that's great advice, @IvW The 140gr barnes is a devestating bullet, and its very flat shooting, and its volumetrically equivelant to about 175gr lead bullet. BUT, as you allude to, it is doing a bit of Roy Weatherby style hydrostatic shock and a concussive wave.

A 175gr swift a-frame would be the ultimate bullet for about any 7mm for the bigger game, and a really low quality 175gr bullet (e.g. Remington Core-Lokt) would be a better bullet for deer and antelope species.

My son's gun is set up for the 140gr barnes, although we do have 11 boxes of 175gr core lokts. I hesitate to change, only because it will reduce his confidence in his gun.

I concede your advice is correct.

 

[rookhawk]

Lets recap the entire thread:

Everyone on AH loves .280 Rem. Everyone on AH knows a thing or two.

Happy thanksgiving. Cheers to a great cartridge that appears is never the wrong answer for a given application!

 

[IvW]

I own a 7x65/R12ga combo.

I would love to get a Blaser K95 in 7x65R....would be my ultimate mountain and longer range open plains rifle.....

 

[IvW]

Paired with a BBF 9.3x74R/6.5×57R and possibly a 22 Hornet/12ga set it would be the ultimate Africa pg 2 rifle set.

 

[ramagarret]

My son hunted Africa on a few safaris already with his 7x64, the ballistically identical European twin of the 280 Remington. As a do-all, your 280 Rem will work just fine for your entire bag with 140gr TTSX bullets.

Now for the bad news:

My son's eland died from a heart shot, running only 200 yards. In all the confusion, none of us realized where it went. Not one drop of blood to trail, we got lucky by searching extensively for 2 hours. Point being: it's not a great caliber for eland.

More bad news:

Even on big deer in the USA at close ranges, it makes an awful mess. The hydrostatic shockwave usually detonates guts even on a heart/lung shot, so you do have a lot of meat damage on 200lb animals. It will do a ton of damage to your springbok and impala.

The really good news:

It's a real devastator on tougher game. It drops Kudu, Zebra, and Wildebeest with authority if you're doing heart lung shots. (don't get too clever trying to aim forward and break the shoulders...that isn't going to work as well)

If you're a one-gun safari guy, your 280 Rem is as good of a compromise caliber as you can find for plains game. https://casinosanalyzer.com/online-casinos/kansas-usa reviews online gambling in Kansas State. If you're going with two guns, a 243 or 257 for the smaller stuff, and a 280 rem or 300 HH for the bigger stuff would be the 2-gun alternative.

If the goal is to minimize meat damage and ensure a quick and humane kill on larger plains game, wouldn't a heavier caliber with more bullet weight and sectional density be a more prudent choice, even if it means sacrificing some versatility?

For instance, I mean a caliber like the .30-06 or the .308 Winchester that might offer a better balance of power, penetration, and controlled expansion, reducing the risk of lost animals and excessive meat damage.

 

[rookhawk]

If the goal is to minimize meat damage and ensure a quick and humane kill on larger plains game, wouldn't a heavier caliber with more bullet weight and sectional density be a more prudent choice, even if it means sacrificing some versatility?

For instance, I mean a caliber like the .30-06 or the .308 Winchester that might offer a better balance of power, penetration, and controlled expansion, reducing the risk of lost animals and excessive meat damage.

The 7x64 is the absolutely best penetrating, best BC, softest recoiling option one can buy.

For an 8 year old weighing 80lbs at the time, the 17 pounds of felt recoil was as much recoil as he could handle for shots out to 250 yards off sticks. When he turned ten, he started using a 375HH for close work, but the 7x64 is still his daily driver.

As others have mentioned, a 170gr bullet like a a frame or oryx would solve the issues with better penetration than a 30 cal.

 

[IvW]

170gr bullet @2750fps is devestatingly effective

 

[MRBlack]

A little late, but here are photos of the recovered 160gr A-Frames. Bullet from the Nyala at 25 yards is on the left and the bullet from the Kudu at 40 yards on the right

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

280 Rem will be the perfect medicine for everything you’ve listed and some bigger animals. Definitely consider a good premium bonded or controlled expansion type bullet since PH’s prefer shoulder shots.

280AI is one of my favorite calibers and is great for Elk/Moose/Sheep at all ranges with a good premium bullet. My 280AI is in a sub 5.5lb rifle with a Swaro Z5 3.6-18 on top. If I’m walking a lot in the mountains I grab that or a .257wby. The only challenge with both is ammo if mine were to get lost.

 

[CBH Australia]

A little late, but here are photos of the recovered 160gr A-Frames. Bullet from the Nyala at 25 yards is on the left and the bullet from the Kudu at 40 yards on the right

I think you could easily go 10 times that distance and still recover the game with that combination

 

[MRBlack]

I think you could easily go 10 times that distance and still recover the game with that combination

100% agree

 

[Ruraldoc]

I suppose I should mention that I’ve been using the 280 for more than 30 years and we have 5 of them in our family.

It does everything the 7mm Rem Mag does with a little less recoil and generally better accuracy.

If you handload for a 280, you don’t really need a 270, 7mm Rem Mag, or a 30-06 since the 280 can cover the same ground as any of these.

I have a new to me Model 70 Featherweight Supergrade in 280 that will make my next trip for plains game.

I would like to use it to recreate a hunt where Fred Huntington and Jack O’Connor took a 280 to Africa and used it to take more than a dozen plains game animals. Fred used 140 grain Nosler Partitions( the only premium expanding bullet available to them) and Jack said only one animal had received a second shot.

That O’Connor article that I read as a kid is when I first started dreaming about going to Africa.

Seems only fitting to me to take my 280 to Africa and use it to fulfill a childhood dream.

 

[400Jeff]

I used my custom .280 on plains game utilizing 175 gr. Swift A-Frames at 2600 fps. One shot kills on everything with great bullet performance. Frontal chest shot on the Zebra dropped him literally in his tracks at 60 yds, DRT. I then shot a 59" Kudu at 286 lasered yards and the A frame broke both shoulders and kept going. Oryx, warthog, and impala all went the same. It was my first hunt to ever use the .280 and I was impressed . I am sure that 160 gr. Swifts or Accubonds would have done the job, but a 175 in a 7mm just seems like a magic combination.

 

[sgt_zim]

If the goal is to minimize meat damage and ensure a quick and humane kill on larger plains game, wouldn't a heavier caliber with more bullet weight and sectional density be a more prudent choice, even if it means sacrificing some versatility?

For instance, I mean a caliber like the .30-06 or the .308 Winchester that might offer a better balance of power, penetration, and controlled expansion, reducing the risk of lost animals and excessive meat damage.

175 gr bullets in 7mm have a very high SD - .310.

To get over .3 in a 308 bullet, you'd have to go to 200 gr. You could get there with a 30-06 - and likely have to give up 150 - 250 fps in MV over a 175 gr fired from a 280AI/7mm RM. A 200 gr bullet for a 308 Win is just a non-starter, at least to me.