The ''.280 Remington'', also known as the 7mm-06 Remington and 7mm Express Remington, was introduced in 1957 for the Remington model 740, 760,

721 __NOTOC__ Year 721 (Roman numerals, DCCXXI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 721 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevale ...

, and

725 Year 725 ( DCCXXV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 726th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 725th year of the 1st millennium, the 25th year of the 8th century, and the 6th year of ...

rifles.

History

Having been released 32 years after the .270 Winchester, it had somewhat unspectacular sales. Remington renamed the cartridge in late 1978 to 7mm-06 Remington. but just before the end of the year, they renamed it again, calling it the 7 mm Express in an attempt to increase sales. This resulted in people confusing it with the

7 mm Remington Magnum The 7mm Remington Magnum rifle cartridge was introduced as a commercially available round in 1962, along with the new Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle. It is a member of the belted magnum family that is directly derived from the venerable ...

, and Remington changed the name back to .280 in 1981.The Versatile 280 at Outdoor Life
By Jim Carmichel, September 18, 2007

Specifications

The .280 is based on the 30-06 necked down to accept 7 mm (.284 in) bullets, with the neck moved forward .050 in (1.27mm). The neck was deliberately moved forward to prevent chambering in a .270 Winchester rifle, as firing a .280 round in a .270 rifle could cause the projectile to get stuck in the barrel or rupture the barrel due to excessive pressure.

.280 Remington vs .270 Winchester

The .280 Remington is capable of generating slightly higher velocities in heavier bullet weights (150 grains and above) than the .270 Winchester due to a marginally greater case capacity. However, the ballistic coefficient of equal-weight bullets favors 6.8mm (.277) caliber bullets over 7mm (.284) bullets of similar design. In the heavier bullets (150 grains and above) of similar design, the .280 Remington has a slight edge in muzzle energy. With equal-weight bullets of similar design, the .270 Winchester surpasses the .280 Remington's long-range velocity and energy due to the 270's higher ballistic coefficient according to Federal's ammunition catalog. There are also many more factory loads available for the .270 Winchester over the .280 Remington at a lower price point due to the .270's much greater popularity. Renowned for being a strong advocate of the .270 Winchester, gun writer Jack O'Connor's last rifle was a

Ruger M77 The Ruger M77 is a bolt-action rifle produced by Sturm, Ruger & Co. It was designed by Jim Sullivan during his three years with Ruger. It was designed primarily as a hunting rifle featuring a traditional Mauser K98-style two-lugged bolt with a ...

restocked by Alvin Biesen but this time chambered in .280 Remington, an example of the regard O'Connor had for the cartridge.

.280 vs .30-06

The .280 Remington is capable of developing energy nearly equal to the

.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military us ...

, but with lighter bullets having a better

ballistic coefficient In ballistics, the ballistic coefficient (BC, ''C'') of a body is a measure of its ability to overcome air resistance in flight. It is inversely proportional to the negative acceleration: a high number indicates a low negative acceleration—the ...

. The .30-06 produces more energy than the .280 with bullets heavier than 180 grains, though .284" 175-grain bullets have a high

sectional density Sectional density (often abbreviated SD) is the ratio of an object's mass to its cross sectional area with respect to a given axis. It conveys how well an object's mass is distributed (by its shape) to overcome resistance along that axis. Secti ...

of .310, compared to the 30-06 180-grain bullet with a moderate sectional density of .271. The .280 is suitable for hunting any game in North America with good shot placement.

SAAMI The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI, pronounced "Sammy") is an association of American manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. SAAMI is an accredited standards developer that publishes several A ...

pressure limit for the .280 Remington is set at 60,000

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ or ψ), the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviat ...

, 50,000

CUP A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

. Most American rifle and ammunition manufacturers catalogue the .280 Remington. The .30-06 is substantially more popular and manufacturers thus offer a much greater selection of loads at a substantially lower price point. While it is true that a .280 Remington case can be formed from a

case, the case length of a .30-06 is while the case length of a .280 is , the same as a

.30-03 Springfield The .30-03 Springfield (7.62×65mm) was a short-lived cartridge developed by the United States in 1903, to replace the .30-40 Krag in the new Springfield 1903 rifle. The .30-03 was also called the .30-45, since it used a 45 grain () powder ch ...

. However, resized cases often stretch making up the difference in length and "The slight difference in length of reformed cases doesn't make any practical difference." Speer Reloading Manual Number Ten (1979), p. 182

.280 Ackley Improved

References