lol James its funny you mention that because I use my 280 nearly as much as anything else. I often wish it was light and compact (its a steal I got from a Rem Rep from The Custom Shop its a stnls 700, lam stock, was cut through a 7mag barrel so its heavier contoured and 24" capped by a 40X trigger. The thing literally bores a hole at 100yds!) if so I would exclusively carry it for close range work, that being inside 250yds and have my Warbird for shots over 250.

"Light mag" 280 loads from a 24" barrel is splittin hairs from the typical 7mag. In reality a 150 fps "gain" isnt enough to worry about. Personally I think you must have a gap of at least 300fps to gain anything with respect to switching cartridges. But that is with respect to deer sized game and bullets under 160 grains. When driving 160-175grn bullets into something over 500#s I would heartily recommend the 7mag over a stock 280.

But shells are much harder to find and the variety isnt nearly as wide-spaced for the 280 as is the 7mag.
RA