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The Remington M700 Mountain Rifle in .280 Remington caliber is the best combination I have ever found for deer hunting. The light
weight Mountain rifle (only 6.5 pounds) was made with best features usually found in only custom rifles.
It starts with the proven M700 action, the action chosen for more target and custom rifles than any other, the great adjustable M700 trigger, and the best stock design every made for a factory rifle. The classic style stock is slim for weight savings, has the classic point checkering, black for end tip and grip cap, rubber but pad, cheek piece w/o a silly Monte Carlo hump, and a drop down floor plate for unloading. More weight is saved by slimming the barrel but keeping it 22" long for good velocity. Don't let this slim barrel make you think accuracy will suffer. This rifle will shoot just about any ammo into sub-moa groups.
Over the years since Remington introduced the Mountain Rifle, there have been several variations. First came the standard
Mountain Rifle like the one pictured above with the wood stock and drop plate magazine, then a stainless synthetic model with the ADL type stock with no drop
plate, then the current models with detachable magazines. Remington now makes the standard wood and blue model with detachable magazine, and a stainless
model with laminated stock drop plate magazine. Personally I prefer the drop plate to the detachable mag.
Detachable means you will accidentally leave it in the truck at least one time per season. Calibers available are 260 Remington, 270 Win., 280 Remington, 7mm-08 Remington, and 30-06.
The .280 Remington Cartridge
The .280 was inroduced by Remington in 1957. The .280 shares the same 30'06 parent case as many of American cartridges
The body of the .280 is a little longer than the .270 and 30'06 for safety reasons, but it also allows a fraction more case capacity. Using slow burning powders similar to IMR 4831, the .280 can be loaded to some impressive velocities. Click here for my tested hand loads but consider them TOO HOT for your rifle and back off the max loads. Bullets in the 140 to 160 grain range work best with the .280 Remington. There are dozens of 7mm bullets to choose from and many great powders to make this cartridge fun for hand loaders.
The .280 Remington has always had some very tough competition, especially from the .270 Winchester and Remington's own 7MM
Magnum. Remington initially introduced the cartridge loaded to lower pressure levels than most modern cartridges and because of the lack of velocity, it
didn't catch on like some of the other standard cartridges with higher advertised velocities.
Remington later renamed the cartridge to 7mm Remington Express, and this time the velocities were up to par with or ahead of it's competitors. Remington later dropped the 7mm Express name, went back to .280 Remington, and kept the power up where it should be. If you are wondering what those power figures are, three of the current factory loads are listed below;
.280 Remington Factory Load Velocities |
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Cartridge Type
|
Bullet
|
Muzzle
Velocity
|
100
|
200
|
300
|
400
|
500
|
|
Remington Core-Lokt
|
140 PSP CL
|
3000
|
2758
|
2528
|
2309
|
2102
|
1905
|
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Winchester Fail-Safe
|
140 FS
|
3040
|
2842
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2653
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2471
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2297
|
2130
|
|
Hornady
|
139 SST
|
3110
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2909
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2718
|
2534
|
2357
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2188
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Factory Load Energy Comparison Using Nosler Balistic Tip Bullet |
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Cartridge Type
|
Bullet
|
Muzzle
Energy
|
100
|
200
|
300
|
400
|
500
|
|
.280 Remington
|
140 BT
|
2872
|
2511
|
2187
|
1998
|
1640
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1410
|
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.270 Winchester
|
130 BT
|
2702
|
2335
|
2009
|
1721
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1467
|
1203
|
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30'06
|
150 BT
|
2820
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2403
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2037
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1716
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1436
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1193
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The .280 is often compared to the .270 WInchester and 30'06. Mr. President and I are in a constant argument, I mean discussion, about the great .280 and his .270 pop gun. One other thing, I failed to
mention is that you will be hard pressed to find a 30'06 load that will push
I have done a lot of testing and a lot of deer hunting with the Remington M700 Mountain Rifle in .280
Remington and found it to deliver excellent accuracy and power to spare. Two bullets that I really like for
the .280 are the 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip and the 139 grain Honady SST. The .280 easily pushes the
150 to 3000 fps and the 139 SST even faster. A ton of retained energy at 300 yards is all you need for
animals up to the size of elk. All this in a light weight rifle that is easy to carry and has a properly designed stock that minimizes recoil.
I have no idea why the .280 is not the #1 selling caliber in the country. Must be a vast .270 conspiracy!
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