Rifle Loony: Well . . . my son has read stuff written by those people! I have read it too and will buy the accounts. I just think the scarcity of commercially produced .280 ammo is something to take into consideration. To me the convenience of having a rifle chambered in a cartridge that you can buy ammo for in the middle of freakin' nowhere if you lose, run-out of, forget your ammo or even borrow from a fellow hunter is an advantage. Part of my son's thinking, and I respect this way of thinking, is he would like to have something a bit off the beaten path, something a little more distinctive.

To go back to your thought. What I have read says the .280 is better than the .270 because it has more bullet weights available (if you handload). For example, the .280 definitely has 165 grain bullets available, which is likely to be better for elk than the 150 grain bullets of the .270. Perhaps there are even heavier bullets available (it is actually a 7 mm, I think, when it comes right down to it). Additionally, what I read says that if you handload you can get better ballistic performance out of the .280 than the .270. Part of the discussions also say you can get more out of the .280 than the .30-06 by handloading. So, yes, I've heard these discussions, and so has my son, which explains his interest.