I'm shopping cartridges for a personal all North American game getter , I have several 30-06's , but I have this homely used up Mauser that I would like to build up to a solid plains/mountain gun. I don't forsee anything bigger or tougher than a Ca brown bear in my future and my 06's are sufficiant for elk or moose.

After some paper research it appears that the 280s only advantage over the 270 is the 175 grain bullet which can be matched speed wise by a 180 in the 06.

I guess I've talked myself into and out of the 280 , but would like to hear about it from the field ,and to have something just a little differnt .

6.5-06AI if you are looking at something for long range work on medium sized game or 35 whelen for the brown bear option.

The 6.5 can push a 130 grain bullet at 3200 fps+. The 35 Whelen with a 280 grain A-frame would stop anything in North America.

"I'm shopping cartridges for a personal all North American game getter."

28 Caliber, Actual Bore Groove Diameter - .284 in. / 7.2mm = 7MM Rem Mag


And you can find factory ammo right next to the .30-06 ammo

can you shoot regular ammo out of a gun that is AI, so could I shoot standard off the shelf ammo and would accuracy suffer if I didnt have the AI ammo?

The .280 is a great cal that can drive bullets of equal weight about 100fps faster than the .270.The AI is nice but IMO not worth the bother.For ammo you can resize regular .280 brass to AI dimensions or just buy it.I know Nosler offers it.

.........Well, almost...You fireform regular .280 casings (ammo) in the AI chamber to make the AI casing. Then you run them thru a .280 AI die to resize.
....As far as accuracy goes, a factory .280 Rem. round fired in a .280 AI chambered rifle PROBABLY will not be as accurate as a fully formed and properly loaded AI casing, but I have seen some fireforming rounds shoot nearly as good as the final product in some Ackley chamberings. You won't know until you try.

I've never been inclined toword any mag save for maybe the .458 WM.

.280 Rem is the 7x57 all grown up ,I'm not abject to the 7x57.

Full on wildcat ? .280 Gibbs ??

I could go for a Whelen but not in a light rifle ,kinda overkill for plains game like antelope even mt goat.

Was hoping for some referals really.

I thought it was the other way around.Run .280 brass through a full length AI die first then fire form.That's the way I do it going from 30-06 down to .280 Rem.After sizing there's a false shoulder from the brass flow.Fire forming drives it out.I do have to be careful setting the die or the firing pin doesn't strike the primer hard enough for it to fire.

..........I don't see where running a factory .280 casing into an AI die first is going to do anything. You need to fireform the brass in the Ackley chamber first. A properly cut Ackley chamber is about 0.005" shorter than a factory chamber, resulting in a tight seal of the factory round when fireformed. When fireformed, the brass will take on the new 40 deg. shoulder and minimal body taper of the Ackley chamber.I've made .280 Rem. brass from .270 Win. casings and using '06 dies also. Using the .270 brass provides you with a slightly longer neck than the '06 cases, and yes, you do create a new shoulder doing this. That's the new .280 shoulder. Load and fireform to the finished .280 dimensions.

........ I have fireformed many .243 AI brass from factory .243 Win. stock, and the method I described previously is how I do it. I see no need at all to run brass into the AI die before fireforming. It's doing nothing except possibly rounding the case mouth and neck on some out-of-round cases to ease bullet seating on new brass. But, if you want to do it, go ahead.... won't hurt.

I own a 280-Remington and a 270-Winchester.

You already own a 30-06 that will handle anything in North America. I would look at a 270-Winchester instead of the 280. I feel the 280 is too close to the 30-06. JMHO