A step back into the past, with an eye to the future with an old friend
Wildlife biologist and outdoor writer Larry Weishuhn is back hunting with an old friend, his 280 Remington. Learn how he was introduced to the caliber and why it’s one of his firm favorites.
Numerous hunters gathered around the back of a pickup in front of Heinsohn’s Store, the hunters’ gathering point in our part of Texas back in the late 1950s and 60s. The pickup belonged to a family friend. If he was showing a deer, I knew it had to be something special. Peering into the pickup bed, it was quite a buck. I quickly counted 14 points, a basic 10 with four extra points, and I would have bet, if I had any money, the outside spread was at least 13 inches — huge!
Back then I knew nothing about aging deer, but remembering what I saw, Donnie’s buck was likely a two or three-year old, an extremely old buck for a time, when most deer were shot as yearlings. Our friend beamed! From behind me I heard someone ask, “What did ya shoot him with?”
Donnie pointed to the gun rack above the seat of his pickup, “My new Remington Model 740 semi-automatic. It’s a 280 Remington. It hits harder than a 270!”
I was intrigued! Being a reader of anything I could get my hands on about guns and hunting. I knew the 280 Remington has been introduced in 1957 and it was based on the 270 case, but rather than the 277 diameter bullet, the 280 Remington shot a 284 diameter bullet or 7mm sized bullet, just like the 7x57 I wanted so badly! “It shoots a heavier bullet than the 270 and dropped my big buck in his tracks. He never moved a muscle!”
Up until that moment I had thought the 270 Winchester and 30–06 were the world’s greatest, best and finest hunting rounds. Particularly since up to that time my own serious deer rifle was a 30–30 Win. Maybe I needed to rethink my opinion.
Beyond my friend, an occasional article by Jim Carmichael and very few others, I did not hear or see much about the 280 Remington. Then in 1979 the 280 Rem made a re-appearance, but under a new moniker, the 7mm Remington Express. Only the name changed, nothing about the cartridge. Rumor had it some shooters confused the 270 for 280 rounds. The 270 fits easily into a 280 Remington, after all it was based on the 270 case. Shooting 270 rounds in a 280 chamber, essentially fire-formed 280 cases, but with a 270 head stamping. The Remington Express name lasted a year or so, before it again became the 280 Remington.
Fast forward a few years. I started hunting with J. Wayne Fears. Fears, a fellow wildlife biologist from Alabama, who was at the time, a tremendously prolific writer with tremendous shooting and hunting experience. When he spoke, I listened. While he and I were hunting together on one of the ranches I managed in Texas, he suggested, “You need to shoot my 280 Rem. Once you do, I got a feeling you’ll forget all about that 270!” Those were pretty strong words because to that point, I dearly loved my 270. If asked what my favorite three rounds were for hunting elk, my answer was always, “270, 270 and 270!”
Fears handed me a Remington Model 700 in 280 Remington and eight 140gr soft-point shells. “Shoot three shots at 100 yards, then shoot three more at 200. Then shoot the other two at 400. It’s sighted in about one and a half inches high at a 100, which should make it about 24-inches low at 400. The way I have them loaded, the bullet should be traveling at just over 2,900 feet per second.” I nodded and headed to the range.
From a solid rest I put the first three shots essentially in a ragged hole at 100. After the barrel cooled a bit, I shot three more times at 200 yards, again making one slightly larger ragged hole. Then I switched to the 400 yard target.
J. Wayne had a 3x9–40 variable with duplex crosshairs scope, one unlike the one I had on my 270. I knew from shooting 270s if I cranked the scope up to 9x, at 400-yards the distance between where thick vertical duplex crosshair turned to thinner, then from there where the vertical and horizontal crosshairs crossed should be 24-inches. Thus, I put the apex of the bottom crosshair exactly where I wanted the bullet to strike. Obviously, this was before BDC reticles, adjustable turrets and the likes.
Solidly rested, I gently squeezed the trigger. That first shot hit the distant target in the middle of the one-inch bullseye. My second shot was about two inches to the left. I had failed to hold correctly for wind. With my first shot, there had been no obvious wind, as the mirage was going straight up. Moments later, as I was pulling the trigger on the second shot, the wind surprising kicked up several notches. Still, needless to say I was impressed.
“I’ve got a second 280 with me, in case you want to hunt with one this afternoon, or for that matter the rest of the hunt?” Questioned Fears.
“You gotta deal!” That afternoon I dropped two does in their tracks. The following morning, I dropped a 185lb wild boar where he stood, and that afternoon shot a really nice, ancient eight-point whitetail. He simply crumpled where he stood. I was hooked.
Before Fears left Texas, I had a Remington Model 700 in 280 Remington coming my way. It arrived a week later, I scoped it and bought and also loaded several boxes of ammo. By the season’s end I used it to shoot a second and third whitetail. Those two, also dropped in their tracks.
During the next several years I used several different 280 Remingtons, including a couple more Remington model 700s, two custom rifles, and a Browning. I used those rifles with ammo in the 140 and 150gr commercial Hornady loads and handloads with Hornady bullets. Regardless of whether the targets were elk, caribou, black bear, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, whitetails or variety of exotic deer and antelope, my 280 Remington never let me down.
One of my custom guns in 280 Remington was built for me by Bill Montoya from New Mexico (Bill was with the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish, and eventually became their Executive Director, but also long a hunting partner). Bill restocked it and worked on the trigger, among other things. That particular rifle I used a lot back then. One year as part of magazine assignments (back then I was on staff with numerous shooting and hunting publications and freelance writing to many more), I hunted whitetail deer from just below the tundra in Canada to well into the deserts of Mexico. Using either Hornady factory loads or Hornady bullet handloads I accounted for numerous really nice whitetails, as well as a couple of elk, mule deer, pronghorn and whitetails. I dearly loved the 280 Rem!
Then for some reason, I started using a bunch of other calibers and rounds, because of magazine and tv show assignments. My 280s ended up in the back of my gun safe.
A couple of years ago I decided it was time to again start hunting with my 280 Remington chambered rifles and to procure a couple of new ones; a Ruger №1 and a Remington Model 700. I contacted friends at Remington, just before all the changes occurred with that fine, old company and made arrangements for a 280 Remington Model 700 Mountain rifle, stainless. When it arrived, I mounted a Trijicon Tenmile HX 3–18x50 scope on it, and procured a couple of boxes of Hornady Precision Hunter 150gr ELD-X ammo.
At my range I bore-sighted, then sent a round down range at 75 yards. I made some slight adjustments, shot a second round to make certain the adjustments were correct. I let the barrel cool, then zeroed it at 100 yards in a couple of shots. Again, I let the barrel cool then loaded three Precision Hunters. I checked a range card Tim Fallon with the FTW/SAAM had made for me. I cranked the horizontal up four clicks, which with the Trijicon Tenmile should put it dead on at 200 yards. I then turned the power right up to 12x, adjusted the parallax to 200 yards and got into a solid shooting position. My first shot was a quarter-inch high and left of dead-center. My next two shots were almost touching my first although to the dead center side of the target.
I knew sighted in that way to be dead-on at 200 yards, I could hold dead-on without making any additional adjustments on deer or pronghorn out to just shy of 300 yards. At 300 yards I would be about eight inches low and about 20-inches low at 400, although I could quickly make turret adjustments to be dead-on at those ranges. However, I had no intention of shooting that far, unless there was simply no way to get closer to whatever it was I really wanted to take.
A few days later I shot a couple of really nice whitetail bucks hunting on the Hargrove Ranches. They were taken at 100 and 125 yards respectively. Both of them along with a 150-pound wild hog dropped in their tracks, using Hornady Precision Hunter ammo.
Just prior to the Hargrove hunt I used my Remington, Trijicon, Hornady combination in Missouri hunting whitetails with IMB Outfitters, this for a “Trijicon’s World of Sports Afield” television show produced by Safari Classics. The last moment of the hunt, having passed on many bucks while looking for one in particular, I dropped the extremely massive buck in his tracks at about 200 yards. He fell so fast, I thought he had essentially disappeared into mid-air.
This coming fall I have several hunts planned for that same 280 Remington combination, including for pronghorn, mule deer and whitetails. I will let you know how those hunts finish! I know if I take care of things on my end, my 280 Remington set up will certainly do what it is supposed to do and more.
It’s good to once again be hunting with an “old friend”. Our future together indeed looks bright!
Photo credit: Larry Weishuhn Outdoors
