What kind of performance can expect to achieve from a 26" barrel using 140gr. Partitions? Am I halving the difference between the 280 Rem and 7mm Rem Mag?

The fireforming shots will be bloopers and the final result will be something like you guessed.

It's just a little more practical to take three $100 bills and light a fire with them. There will be a few calories of warmth.

Or you could go over to the 24hourcampfire.com and they will say "oooohhhhhhhhhhh" and tell stories of how their 7MM AI beats 7MM mags in velocity.

Once your done with the gunsmith work, fireforming, special dies and looking for scarce data you will find that it's hard to sell that piece. Been there done that.

i have one rifle 280 AI ( JGS REAMER chambe not altered ) and 3 rifles in 7 rem mag

if you compare the cost of the tooling the need to fireform evn if 280Ai is a nice catridge I go with 7 REM mag because
performance are very good from light to heavy bullet
that easy to load with a broad selection of bullet powder
average accuracy is good and very good in custom rifle
there is plenty of component ready toload
there is plenty of factory loaded cartridge

and built a light rifle is not difficult on a 7 rem mag

and when you ln to resale sale a used 7 REM MAG is easy , sale a wildcat ............even ifI own sevral wilcats caliber

Good shooting

DAN TEC

I am a fan of the .280Ackley. It is a great cartridge. However, it is not a 7mm Rem Mag like some people claim. You are exactly right, it is about halfway between the .280 Rem and the 7mm Rem Mag. If you don't mind blowing out cases, which is not a big deal, despite reports to the contrary, it will serve you well. So will the 7mm Rem Mag. If I had a standard bolt faced action, I would go with the .280 Ackley. If I was starting from scratch, I'd go with the 7mm Rem Mag. You can expect 3150-3200 fps with 140s in the .280 Ackley.

So many people seem so AI crazy. I believe information on AI's is for the most part, very misleading. While you do increase your case capacity, its so negliable that most individual barrels will wind-up make a bigger influence on gains or losses in velocity. "They are more accurate" yeah this becomes true because billy bobs factory 270 chamber has actualy been cleaned up and reamed strait by someone professional. There are some cartridges, like the 22 K hornet, where at least you can play the headspacing off the shoulder, that can be a advantage. Some other velocity increases can be noted by reloaders that LEAN on there AI's a bit, because they are expecting the massive increases they know they are going to achive.

[ 01-23-2003, 00:39: Message edited by: smallfry ]

My advice is get a 7mm Remington Magnum and forget about the .280 AI.........

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Just so everybody understands what I think, I very rarely recommend Ackley chamberings to customers. I think most shooter's, unless they are very experienced reloaders, are better served with a factory chambering. I think Ackley's are a lot of fun for someone that is looking for something different just to have something different. Some of them work very well, the .280 Ackley among them. I know for a fact that they are no more accurate than the parent cartridge, and no less accurate. If you want one don't be influenced by all of the naysayers. But, also, take with a grain of salt any outrageous claims by supporters.

Pretty good advice.... yeah, I've heard the accuracy claims and the performance boosts but and extra 150fps doesn't equate to much over most practical hunting ranges. Being new to reloading, it's easy for me to get caought up in all the hype but I guess there's a reason that cartridges like the .270 are so popular... they work!

Perhaps I'll keep my 7MM Rem as my only .284 and use this action to build up a 25/06... don't have quarter bores yet...

Both are good but I prefer the 280AI. No 7 Mag that I have owned or shot comes close in accuracy as my 280AI. But to me there is a big difference in recoil that 7mag kicks harder and might effect me from shooting tight groups. I believe the 7mag can't kill any better than a 280AI. But I like both. Hell I just shot A 7WSM and that kicked less than the 7mag. I may build one of them to. Maybe John Lewis can build a 7mag to be as accurate as my 280AI cause he built a 7-08AI that is as accurate as my bench rest rig. To tell you the truth 9 out of 10 times I use the 7-08AI. If I want to shoot past 500yrds then the 280AI comes out. I would not hesitate to use my 7mag but the 280AI is more accurate. The Ackley�s are a little more work and money to set up, so for non serious re-loaders the 7 mag is the way to go. As john said it is right between 280 and 7 Rem mag.

What about the accuracy of the standard 280 Remington vrs the 270 or 30/06? I read that the factory leade is not right on the 280's?

Savage 99 - I've seen iffy accuracy out of some factory .280s, real good out of some others. A few months ago I sighted in a A_Bolt .280 Rem that I shot three 1/2" groups with factory ammo. I changed the leade angle on the reamer I had made to match my .280 Ackley and my 7mm Rem Mag. All of the .280 Rems. I've built shot as good as the Ackleys and Rem Mags. Over the past eleven years I've built more 7mm Rem Mags than any other single cartridge. They have been outstandingly accurate and of course very effective on game.

The most accurate rifle I've ever owned is a 7mm Rem. It's an A-Bolt Stainless Stalker, left hand. Wouldn't shoot for schit out of the box so I had the trigger adjusted... still stringing them up and to the right. I took it back to my smith and had him pull it out of the stock again.

Well, this time we noticed the factory molded stock had a pretty significant twist forward of the revceiver area placing unusal pressure on the barrel. Some judicious inletting from the receiver to the end of the barrel channel cured the problem. I've since shot several sub-1/2MOA groups many with three touching... all 160gr. Partitions factory loaded by Federal!

I'm just looking foir something that I don't currently have... So, on the low end I'm considering a 25/06, 270, 280 and on the high end, 8mm Rem or .358 STA.

Everyone should own an ackley cartridge of some sort. It will add diversity, depth, and a flare of uniqueness to any battery of rifles. But be warned: when afield with a rifle stamped "Improved" you need to outshoot and out do anyone around you to justify what you have done to the rifle. Use a good gunsmith.

Performance is increased by 5% (reasonably speaking), reloadability is enhanced, accuracy is usually enhanced via the gunsmithing, and you still get an extra poke in the magazine.

That was a good enough reason for me to build a 338-06AI. But I'm sure that will be my only Ackley improved round. They are a lot of work, but one or two guns is worth it. More would be a pain.

My thoughts anyway...

I've had a 280 AI, built on a Rem 700 action with a 23" #3 Contour barrel set in a thumbhole laminate stock, for about 8 years now. NO, it is not a 7mm Rem Mag. However, for me, it was what I was looking for; no belt, less taper, and almost 7 mag performance. It is very efficient and I get 120 BTs at 3300 fps (varmit load), 140 BTs/Partitions at 3150-3200 fps (deer load),and 160 PTs at 3050 fps (Elk). The Hart barrel added to accuracy; all loads the rifle likes under 3/4"; and the chambering was to be different. Some don't have this luck but fireforming factory 280s are just as accurate but about 100 fps less than advertised. All and all I love this Ackley round but it is no better or worse than a 7 mag or 280 or 3-06 or 270. Choose the cartridge you want and go for it....good shooting...RW

John Lewis,

Help me understand. Did that A Bolt shoot well before you changed the leade to your design or afterwards?

Savage99 - sorry if I didn't make myself clear, the A-Bolt was box stock. I didn't change a thing. Maybe Browning is using a different leade than the other factories. I had the leade on my reamer made the same as what we always found to work so well with other 7mm's when I was at Jarrett's. This is the only reamer I've ever used on .280 Rems and I've never had any of the accuracy problems thta others complain of.