I have the 26 inch barrel Nef 280. It really shoots well. I have never tried to squeeze any screaming velocity from it. For deer I shoot the 120 grain Sierra Pro-Hunter at about 2850-2900 fps. I have shot the 280 for many years. I had the 7MM Mags but after the first 280, I was done with the Muzzle blast and recoil of the 7Mag. It comes within a 100 fps of what my last 7Mag did.

You also might consider a .280 Ackley Improved. It equals a 7 Rem Mag and does it with less powder and muzzle blast.

Yeah I know. I still am pondering what to rebarrel my Ruger to. Thas in the running as well as 338-06 and 35 Whelen. and 6.5-06, and.....

7mm Rem. Mag. with 26" Barrel. Good luck.

Honestly there isn't a dimes worth of differance between the two in most cases. At least you won't find any animal that will be able to tell you the differance.

Having said that my personal preferance is the .280 over the 7mm mag but I am biased against belted magnums.

In a handi rifle the 26" barrel of the .280 will still be only make the entire gun 42 inches long which equals the length of any bolt gun with a 22" tube. Still very compact and easy to maneuver through the woods.

With the 26" barrel you should be able to pretty much equal a 7mm mag with a 24" barrel.



As far as the .270 being an inaccurate cartridge..... Not so. Every gun will be different. Sometimes you gat a bad one but most of the time you get a good one.

I read an artical thar suggested that the 270 was not a extremly accurate caliber as a rule. But even that artical didn't or couldn't verify their suggestion. I think its Total Bunk. Not because I am partial to the 270, but what would be the possibe reason? The parent case (30-06 does not suffer from inaccuracy nor does the 25-06 or 280. As BB says, the accuracy or lack of such comes from the rifle, not the caliber. Put a good bullet through a good barrel and your going to get accuracy.

agreed! I think I might hold out for that 270. That 130 grain sweet spot is so inviting!

Properly handloaded the .280 is very close to the 7MM Rem Mag regardless of how long the barrels are.

I have found that, generally speaking, the .270 is more inherently accurate than a 30-06. Nice thing about quite a few .270's is that they will print every bullet weight, from 100 grains through 160 grains (with full power loads), so close the same spot at 100 yards that no sight adjustment is necessary.

My current .270 is an Ackley Improved with a Shilen 1:10 26" barrel. I have seven loads developed for this gun. All of these shoot in the .6" to .8" five shot group level at 100 yards. And they all shoot to the same spot at 100 yards. With a Cryo frozen barrel and a free floated HS Precision stock, the zero never changes. Kind of boringly efficient . . . .