I have had five of them and hated the heck out of all of them. Strange but true. It's one of two cartridges that I did my best to love and failed. The other was the 243. Give me anything else but no more 7 Mags or 243 which I also had at least five of. Slow learner I guess. I found the 7 Mag to have about the same performance as the 280 with much more recoil and muzzle blast. I found the 243 miserably inadequate for deer size game when compared to the old 250 savage. People can argue but I have made up my mind after about 40 years of trying these two. That said, if you like them, by all means use them.