Wich one would be your pick? The .280 AI? Any AI? How about the regular .270 Winchester? Or is this case not used at all?

I would opt for the 6.5-06. The 140 Amax and 142 Matchkings are outstanding long range bullets. You have plenty of horsepower using the 6.5-06 as much or more than the 6.5 284.

Mike.

The original 30/06.

Lots of matches won over the last hundred years.

Hammer

great Question, i''m sure that the 280 ai is a great on but i''m very satisfied with the plain old 270 win. no pun i own 3 of them, 30-06 another great one 4 sure, recently had one built up, i believe in longer barrels to get more speed i think its the cheaper better route to go for me,it all boils down to how much you shoot . sierria makes a match bullet in a 135 hpbt and it s a good one!!!! regards jjmp

Longrange means different things to different shooters and or hunters. If it's hunting then energy and accuracy are part of the mix, not just accuracy alone. The size of the game dictates to some extent which would be agood selection. I have and shoot a number of fine .30-06 rifles, but I also shoot a 6.5/284 which can be closely equated to the 6.5/06. That is a winner in my book.

The 280 AI would be my vote. But the 6.5-284, and the straight 284 has been shown to give good accuracy, with better barrel life to the 284. The 6.5's tend to go south after 1300-1500 rds with hot loads.

My analysis lead me to the 7WSM with high performance match bullets around 180 grain. (3 and 4 are Cartarucio 176 and Berger 180, with 175gr .308 SMK Moly on the end.)

Stay with the original 30-06. The bullet choices will keep a handloader busy for quite awhile irreguardless of your intentions.

Oops, I forgot my main point.

Given the bullet selection now available, the .280AI would probably be an excellent choice. I don't know about accuracy performance. .30-06 based cartridges have only been fair in my experience. Perhaps the 7-08AI would be a better choice.

Why not try a 25, 6.5 or 270 Gibbs?