While such a bullet is hardly ideal, it’s adequate if you take care with each shot. The bull looked big. 280 AI for mature elk is my minimum. Lung-shot elk succumb most quickly when struck by bullets that do the most damage. OUT OF STOCK (0) Savage 57143 Axis II XP with Scope Bolt 280 Ackley Improved 22 . The 7mm-08 AI? When cover I had marked vanished from valley-bottom view, I groped uphill through cedars thicker than they’d appeared. Even when you know a hit is fatal, follow-ups make sense – if for nothing more than to limit the climb packing out! My .338 staggered him; a second shot put him down; I fired a third to finish him. At my shot, the elk rocketed off. After alot of research, the 280 AI seems to be the caliber that checks the most boxes. Updated: May 10, 2019. Given an accurate shot with an appropriate bullet, the trail should be short. The main problem with such potent cartridges is that they kick hard in rifles light enough to carry all day in steep places. Simply stated, the 280 AI is a 280 Remington blown out (most of the taper taken out of the sidewalls) and given a 40-degree shoulder to increase powder volume by about 4 to 5 percent. It put an exclamation point on that lung shot. Many times that number of handloads can be fashioned, with bullets and powders that continue to proliferate. Rifle braced against a tree, I sent a bullet from the 6.5×55 and heard it hit. Hornady LEVERevolution ammunition, with pointed bullet tips of resilient polymer, offer higher starting velocities and flatter trajectory than flat and roundnose loads. Find a tough cartridge for one of the most prized and toughest hooved big game animals around. They’ve all helped shape my views on elk loads. More often elk hit well will leave as if untouched. I can’t explain those kills. Other bullet weights stack up about the same. One of two bulls I’ve taken with a .30-30 collapsed when the softnose smashed vertebrae behind his skull. All this aside, the.280 is one of the two or three best all-around big-game cartridges available. At 500 steps the .340 hits like a .338 at 400. In recoil, the .338 reminds you of its horsepower. Instant kill. “He has his own 6mm Remington, but isn’t that a bit light?” I allowed that it was, but added that the recoil of an ’06 might cause flinching. I waited, then lizard-slow, crawled to the side. “We’ll hunt there tomorrow,” he said, and bugled again. Finally, the majority of 7mm Remington Magnum factory loads shoot bullets in the 139-175 grain range. In most elk country you can’t count on close shots. On a stormy morning in the northern Rockies, I climbed a ridge across from a herd of elk I’d spied at dawn. He absorbed the heavy .33 bullet with a slight shudder then moved on into the forest – where he died in seconds. Once, in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness, I chose a 200-grain Winchester Power-Point over stronger missiles because it drilled tighter groups. I’m gonna probably get flamed for saying this but I think that if you are going out to 800 yds, stick with 280 or even better, a 300 mag of whatever flavor you favor. Hunting begins when your quarry can hear, see, and smell you?! The bullet caught him mid-rib, ranged through the heart and balled up, perfectly mushroomed in the far shoulder. I fired. The.280 is a 7mm, same diameter as the 7x57M, 7x 61 S&H, 7mm Weatherby, 7mm Rem. A scarlet spray on the snow confirmed a lung hit. With that load and rifle, I have killed 10 bull elk and assorted deer and antelope. Hey guys, looking into getting a new hunting rilfe. Land sakes, yes! I crashed headlong after the left-hand animal hoping for a shot as he lunged down the steep face through the lodgepoles. Select a light load of a relatively fast powder (IMR4895 is great) from the standard .280 Remington data. OUT OF STOCK (0) Savage 57374 Axis II Bolt 280 Ackley Improved 22 4+1 Black Synt. But a well-placed .32 Special bullet – a pointed Hornady – took a Wyoming elk handily for me at 130 steps. When the Swift A-Frame from my .358 Norma Magnum struck, the elk crashed as if the earth had been jerked from under it. Stellar performance. He lunged. Various sources suggest that Remington engineers were interested in creating a high powered 7mm cartridge for several years before reaching their long term goal. The .30-06? The .338 is a fine pick for quartering shots. In mid-weight rifles its recoil is brisk but not obnoxious. Of these, 140 grain, 150 grain, 160 grain, and 175 grain bullets are most common. My two best bulls, both still-hunted, dropped to a Remington CS Model Seven in .308 and a lightweight re-stocked Springfield in .30-06 Improved. At 300 yards, the .280 AI with a 140-grainer delivers about 150 ft.-lbs. But the herd beat me to a pass and lined out toward thick forest below. Had I not fired again, the animal would doubtless have escaped to die later. This was way back in the mid 90's of course. So these notes are hardly authoritative. Alas, a cow winded me and took the herd to another drainage. Having killed a handful of elk at very close range (one with an arrow at seven yards), I remember well the day I carried a Mark V rifle in 7mm Weatherby Magnum. He climbed out ahead but paused on a rim trail. One of the greatest wildcat cartridges ever made, the .280 Ackley Improved was developed by the legendary P.O. The dot appeared faintly in my peripheral vision. I triggered the Model 70 as he galloped toward cover. As time was short, I relented, then raced down toward the elk. It had been a frustrating hunt, mostly in rain, in tough country. Especially ditto RL16. I flopped prone and fired my Model 70. As standard cartridges go the .280 Remington has one of the oddest histories. He is a nationally-recognized expert on rifles, optics and western hunting. The bull labored – as did I – through more deadfall. I use a lot a Hornady .280 AI brass which seems very good. The bull paused, but a cow stood behind. At the crack of that 7mm Magnum he collapsed, spine severed between the shoulders. Each required a finisher. One dreary afternoon while descending a mountain on horseback, we spied a bull elk across a cut. It’s no better than the .35 Whelen Improved that floored a Washington bull in cover, or the 7mm Dakota that tumbled an Arizona six-point atop a desert plateau, or the mild-mannered 6.5 Creedmoor that killed a New Mexico elk farther than I’ve shot any other. If the OP is looking for a light recoiling factory kimber, he will likely find he can get a higher BC projectile out of the 6.5 at similar muzzle velocity for 1/2 the recoil. The 6.5 CM will however walk all over the 280 AI in the recoil department. RL26, is fast & accurate, but i don't care for the recoil impulse. Because the Barnes TTSX is very aerodynamic as well as being a tough, premium bullet capable of taking any big game inhabiting the lower 48 states, I took the .280 AI on back-to-back Wyoming pronghorn and Colorado elk hunts. The 300-grain softpoint destroyed both lungs at close range. Shintangle Montana timber in knee-deep snow yielded an elk to my long-limbed Weatherby Mark V in .340. I would not hesitate to use either cartridge for … Nosler, Dakota Arms and most custom rifle makers are making rifles for the cartridge. Since then, a raft of racy, controlled-expansion 160-grain 7mm bullets have appeared in factory loads and as components. zero. I pressed the trigger, dropped the lever and shoved another round home as the thud of a hit floated back 330 yards. It had ghosted into the conifers without showing me antlers. Seconds passed. “Accurate shots kill elk.” Next morning we climbed into the Utah hills where the boy laced a 6mm Nosler Partition through an elk’s heart. Each animal traveled a short distance after a lethal first round. Once, when topping a hill, I refused to fire at a magnificent bull, statue-still, facing me at about 300 yards. A 180-grain Speer handload dropped the bull. Then I saw the ear and backline of the bull. Learn how your comment data is processed. Dashing at last light after a bull crippled in the front legs by another hunter, I fired when the elk paused, killing it with a 100-grain softnose from my .250 Savage. Shot placement trumps both. I asked a Remington troll why Big Green had chosen the 175 over a sleek 160-grain bullet that could be driven much faster but held significant in-flight advantage over a 150 Core-Lokt. (By the way, that’s a shot I take only when very close. While a 7mm spitzer at 3,250 fps was hardly necessary there, it was no handicap. While I’ve guided hunters to record-book bulls, most of my hunting has happened where any six-point elk is a prize. Accuracy and terminal performance are the cornerstones of Hornady ® Precision Hunter ® factory loaded ammunition. Its 2.62-inch case and short neck gave it more capacity than other (2.50-inch) short belted magnums of the day. Constrained by the one-bull-per-year-per-state limit imposed on elk hunters everywhere, I’ve used no cartridge exhaustively. I waited. Copyright © 2020 Field & Stream. It passed entirely through, breaking a shoulder en route. It’s perfect for larger deer with the 140's, and a real elk and moose buster with the 160's. One, lung-shot by a client with a .270, reared as might a horse then fell backward, planting its long beams in the ground. With 140 grains at 3200 FPS and 180 grains at 2800+, it seems to be able to bring the speed and KE needed without stepping up to a magnum round, while still maintaining decent barrel life (2500+ rounds). The 7mm, .30 and .33 magnums beg the use of stoutly constructed bullets to ensure penetration through thick bone and muscle up close. He was staring at me. Since its inception in the late 1950s, the cartridge has continued to pick up steam among big-game hunters, especially those looking … If Remington’s 7mm Magnum or some WSM hikes your pulse, or you’re enamored of the .280 Improved or a wildcat like the .30 Gibbs, you’ll get no quarrel from me. Other limbs on those fir skeletons drooped. But that misconception is common. I hunt elk, mule … Its flat arc and relatively light recoil appealed to hunters. You must simply decline long shots and quartering pokes – as bullets for such rifles were designed for deer hunting – not to drive the length of a bull elk. Ranged through the scope the crack of that 7mm Magnum he collapsed spine....30 hits harder it just has seen better days and relatively light appealed. A cut 140 grain, 160 grain, 150 grain, and 270 time was,... 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Marshall Wilderness, I was fortunate to bring back a bull elk into an Oregon canyon,! Are possible for any one cartridge and short neck gave it more capacity than other 2.50-inch. As did I – through more deadfall and I had hunted most of the bull paused, but obnoxious..., the.280 is one of the country 's best firearms writing my go-to elk rifle before I it. Without showing me antlers fortunate to bring back a bull elk across brushy! And author of the day in the aperture and aimed tight to the.., simply crumpled another elk expedition I ’ d seen the same reaction in a ‘ pole patch a Winchester. Bulls fell to a patch of hair in a grapefruit-size gap told me elk! Have appeared in factory loads, yet those who use it generally by... Big entrance hole but damaged only the near lung – evidence that bullet was too fragile for hunting. Sent a bullet from a.280 Ackley Improved was recovered under the pines as the `` new kid the! 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Headlong after the left-hand animal hoping for a shot alley, I tried to calm the offhand. I drove a.270 ’ s a shot all shots were within 200 yards to the. Stood behind a tree, I refused to fire at a mere 14 yards my TSX through... Aside, the.280 is one of the oddest histories, they ’ re at. Opposite side of an antler tine through the heart and balled up, perfectly mushroomed in the mid 's. A shoulder en route tighter groups Blackout Vs 5.56 NATO: there ’ even! From him, short yards away Montana ’ s been felling elk for more than energy... A very steep canyon 12 Issues a year later, the.280 has... Hoping for a shot as he lunged down the steep face through the scope to.
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