Hello the campfire:
I traded for a custon Springfiels 03 in .280 yesterday. The wood in the stock is beautiful and the medal work some of the best that I have seen. I do not know much about the .280 and would like to know more. I traded a ragged Mod 42 Winchester that I had picked up for a couple of hundres dollars many years ago and got money to boot with the rifle. There is no builders name or mark on the rifle I did find a barrel makers mark but do not have the rifle here and can not remember what they were except it was G... something. The barel and receiver are indexed on the botton with a date of 2-92. Tell me about the .280 as a shooter, and also any good loads any one has. I am trying to figure out what the finish on the stock is so that I can repain a couple of small scratches. I thin that the barrel has less than 20 shots through it. There is no powder residue any where and the rifling is sharp and clear. Any thoughts?? Anything to watch out for?
Thanks.
Judge Sharpe, a poor widows son.

Well, I own a .280 and I tend to think of it to the 7mm Rem Mag as I think of the 30-06 to the .300 Win Mag.

Quite frankly I have never used mine for anything but deer, and I have never used anything but factory Remington 150 grain ammo. Almost every deer shot has been a one shot kill. I think two ran a few hundred yards before bleeding out.

All in all the .280 is a very good all around calibre suitable for all but the most dangerous of north american game. Obviously, for Elk and Moose you would want to load 175 premium bullets, but rest be assured, it will do almost everything that the 7mm Rem Mag will do.

JudgeSharp,
Welcome to the site. I would echo what 22wrf said regarding the .280. I used mine mostly for deer but it is certainly up the task of an elk. Not difficult to load for. I don't have any miracle loads and just got mine out of loading manuals. My .280 is semi retired and is on it's second stock. Only retired because I am enamored with a BRNO 21 in 7X57 at the moment.

I used a .280 (Mauser 98) for several years exclusively, all deer and feral hogs, mostly with the Winchester 140 grain BST factory load. I dabbled witht he Federal 150 grain NP load too...both were accurate. The Remington 140 and 150 grain CL were not nearly as accurate, but never shot anything but paper with them. I never got around to reloading it, but that may change soon...that rifle has made it near the top of my project list again!

Enjoy, you will not be disappointed in its effectiveness!

Customstox

Gorgeous rifle... more info about it would be great, also some close up pictures

What action is it built on?

Don't be shy

Cheers
/ JOHAN

Johan,
If you click on my website it is the bottom rifle on there and you can enlarge those photos. It is on an Argentine action, chunk of CA English walnut, engraved by Bob Hughes.

Maybe 20 years ago it was speculated that more 280s were being built by top custom gunsmiths than any other caliber. A great all around caliber for non-dangerous game.

chic, if you get tired or do not have a place to store that gun, please send it to me.

I've shot one for years. Handloaded it's only 100 fps from a 7mm load. Much of the load data and commercial ammo was developed with the pump and auto that Remington introduced it in mind. As a consequence it's commercially loaded to around 50,000 psi but bolt guns in good condition for the 7mm etc are speced at for least 60,000 psi. Loaded with the 140 gr Barnes TSX and H4831 SC or RL 22 for a chroned 3,000+ fps mine (a Remington 700 MtR) is accurate and been all I can as for in terminal performance on large northern deer, goat and even elk.

Customstox

Thank you

It good to see that fine custom rifles are actually used for hunting.

Was the chunk of California expensive?

7X64 is a very nice all-round caliber.

Cheers
/ JOHAN

I used the .280 25 years or so ago as a mtn. sheep rifle with 140 gr. Noslers if I recall correctly. Did fine, animals didn't complain.
Tok it to Zambia as a plains game rifle to go with the .375 and .600 double. Shot greater kudu, sable, worthogs and etc with it, oribi, reedbucks and so forth. Used Speer 160 Grand Slams and Noslers as i recall. No complaints from me or the animals that I recall. Frankly, while I am a .300 H&H follower, I couldn't see much of any difference in speed of death, maybe a little, good caliber.

I don't remember how I got started with the 280, but its my favorite "baby" rifle. Have used it on deer, moose, & elk with good results. Only hunt deer anymore but its a killer for sure.

I use 160 gr. Nosler Partitions at 2800 fps.

Here is a bit of what I've taken with the 280 using 140 and 150gr partitions, and 140gr X bullets.









All of the Horns on the rack that weren't shot with the 280, were mostly taken eigther the 7mm wby or rem mag. The 280 Remington does a pretty good job in alot of applications.

Sorry about the picture quality, most of these are scanned photos.

Chuck

Chuck,

I'm sold! Thanks for showing your nice critters.

HELLO THE CAMPFIRE:
Tanks for all the information on the .280. I think that I will work loads for this rifle up carefully using IMR 4350 and 139gr Hornadays(because I happen to have these) One more question, As this is an 03 action do you think that it will take "max" loads as listed in the Speer andn Hornaday Books? I the rifle has passed inspection b a gunsmith I respect but it is an older action even if the rifle was built in 1992 (maybe)
Thanks.
Judge Sharpe, a poor widows son.

First rifle I built was a 280. While many love to Max everything out I'm a little more conservative. You should be able to get around 3000fps with that combo and still leave pressures in the 57-58000psi range.

Johan, that piece of wood wasn't too expensive, somewhere around $300. It had some thin spots for figure in the upper part of the stock but I like the feel of it. It is still a favorite of mine.

I am glad you got me thinking of it again. My wife thought I should make my son a real fancy custom gun. Right now he has an .257 Roberts Model 70 that I stocked for him when he was two years old. I will build him a new rifle sometime down the road but for now I just took the rifle upstairs and gave it to him.

So Billy, you have to fight him for it and he is getting pretty big.

Very nice Chic. Better make plans to get Wade to Idaho.

Jeff

Chic,
I'll take the winner of worthing jr and billy... LMAO

i'll even clean up the mess after, if you throw in some english!!!

jeffe

Jeff,
I have seen him work, and I would end up packing his deer meat.

Customstox

I keep looking at the photo of the rifle you provided, and what really catched my eye is that lovely arc to the grip.

I am not a mathemetician but I am wondering if (without giving up any secrets) you could describe that grip geometrically. i.e. if it is a portion of a circle how large is the circle and what is the length of the grip.

22WRF,
I used analytical geometry and differential equations. Then said screw that and went after the grip with a rasp until I liked what I saw.

Some guys cut templates out of plexiglass the lay in the front of the grip shape. I don't need that kind of precision. I do it more by feel when I am doing it for myself.

Chic,
The graceful open grip on your .280 is very nice work. It reminds me of a rifle that Don Brown in Yakima, WA is building for me. It's a 66 cal muzzleloader based on an mid-1800's Alexander Henry Sporting rifle pattern. The early english rifles had nice open grips like that. To me they make for a much more natural grip than some of the more modern more vertical grip profiles. Very nice.

Chic,

Wow I bet that is one happy boy you got there.

When it comes to stocks I will take you "eye" and "feel" over analytics anyday.

Chic,

Do you have any progress photos of the Savage 110 in 7MM Weatherby Mag that you are restocking for me with that fine Mytlewood blank that I sent you?

Much appreciated

-Mike