I have handled and fired a mountain rifle in 270. I own a remington 700 that I had rebarreled to 280. The 280 overall is an accurate caliber. I recall an article I read once by Larry Weishun were he stated he owned a Mountain Rifle in 280 & that it was the most accurate out of the box factory rifle he had owned to date. As most I would use 140 grainers for whitetail, mulies, antelope, and the like. If you step up to Elk I would use 160 or 175's. One interesting note is that Federal has released some new loads for 2004 for the 280. I handload but in factory ammo my rifle likes the Winchester 140 gr. ballistic SilverTip or the Federal Premium 150 gr. Nosler Partition. I think you will like the rifle if you pick one up. Sometimes locally ammo is hard to come by. That is if you don't like shooting Remington Core-Lokts. Otherwise order some ammo online and have fun.