Light bullets in 280AI

When he was first starting to shoot, he wanted a 6.5 Creedmoor so I bought him a Browning AB3 and loaded it with 120 Nosler BT. It was softer recoiling for the little fella and sure woke that Creedmoor up in my opinion. Here he is 11 years old and his best deer to date. View attachment 598148
Heck of a deer! Bigger than anything I've ever put down.
 
When he was first starting to shoot, he wanted a 6.5 Creedmoor so I bought him a Browning AB3 and loaded it with 120 Nosler BT. It was softer recoiling for the little fella and sure woke that Creedmoor up in my opinion. Here he is 11 years old and his best deer to date. View attachment 598148
Your son is very fortunate to have a father like you. He has grown up with support for pursuing the wonderful world of hunting, and I'm sure he appreciates it. There definitely is a large group of people that love the 280AI on this forum.
 
You may have your answer by now.

I load 140 Accubond with IMR4831 @ 3088fps for my 280ai. Accurate and lethal. Just took a pronghorn @ 358yds. I have a Weatherby Backcountry 2.0 Ti, so ultralightweight. I would say it is a bit more recoil than either my 6.5cm and 6.5prc. All with muzzlebreaks. But I also would say not too much recoil. I would also say I would not just hand it to my wife without consideration for the recoil. She has shoulder issues and shoots a 6.5cm with no issues. I purchased a 7mm-08 for her to hunt elk. She has shot the 7mm-08 a few times and did fine with it.

I haven't tried the 120s in the 280ai.

Hopefully the trial shoot gave you good info.

Good luck.
 
You may have your answer by now.

I load 140 Accubond with IMR4831 @ 3088fps for my 280ai. Accurate and lethal. Just took a pronghorn @ 358yds. I have a Weatherby Backcountry 2.0 Ti, so ultralightweight. I would say it is a bit more recoil than either my 6.5cm and 6.5prc. All with muzzlebreaks. But I also would say not too much recoil. I would also say I would not just hand it to my wife without consideration for the recoil. She has shoulder issues and shoots a 6.5cm with no issues. I purchased a 7mm-08 for her to hunt elk. She has shot the 7mm-08 a few times and did fine with it.

I haven't tried the 120s in the 280ai.

Hopefully the trial shoot gave you good info.

Good luck.
Thank you. I'm still not convinced, but the trial shoot will answer my questions. If he can handle the recoil, he's getting the 280AI, soon as we find one locally that he likes. My 300wsm has a break on it, and I have some 150gn ammo, that he thinks he can handle. We'll see soon enough I guess.
 
Thank you. I'm still not convinced, but the trial shoot will answer my questions. If he can handle the recoil, he's getting the 280AI, soon as we find one locally that he likes. My 300wsm has a break on it, and I have some 150gn ammo, that he thinks he can handle. We'll see soon enough I guess.
One consideration, availability of ammo. I handload, so once I found the brass, I was good to go. A friend also bought a Weatherby BC 2.0 and purchased ammo from them. Another bought a Christianson 280ai and is still looking for ammo.

So think about ammo availability.
 
One consideration, availability of ammo. I handload, so once I found the brass, I was good to go. A friend also bought a Weatherby BC 2.0 and purchased ammo from them. Another bought a Christianson 280ai and is still looking for ammo.

So think about ammo availability.
I've shot .270 and 30-06 a good number of years and will fire form that brass if I'm forced to. I live between Midway USA and Grafs Reloading about 20-25 minutes either direction. So fingers crossed.🤞🏽
 
140 absolute hammer in my 280 AI. With Petersen brass and H100V I get 3300 FPS with a 23" barrel. As mentioned above, something in the 118-120 gr range will be good as well.
 
I've only shot one whitetail with mine at
300 yards broadside with 139LRX running close to 3100 with H4831SC. Deer ran maybe 50 yards and dropped.
 
This is very encouraging.

The worst part is I already bought a 6.5 PRC thinking he'd shoot it, but he got a 6.5 Creedmoor when everyone was crazy over them, and a couple guides we talked to didn't want him to bring that, so he's kinda stung and afraid the 6.5 PRC will turn out the same way. I've tried to tell him it's not the same, but he's got the 280AI in his head and he might have gotten a bit of stubbornness honestly.
Smart kid picking the 280ai. 7mm projectiles are tried and true. He can always go heavier as he becomes more comfortable. I didn't read all the posts but I'm assuming you'll be loading for this?? I shoot 143 Hammer Hunters a bit north of 3200fps and they are devastating and accurate. Recoil is very manageable. I've loaded down to just over 3000fps and my 68 pound, nine year old shoots it without issue. The gun doesn't fit him right, so it's not his go-to but it speaks to me about how manageable the round can be.
 
He wanted me to share his target.
 

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I keep seeing people talk about loading a 120 instead of 140 to reduce recoil. I get really tired of people regurgitating this internet fueled bullcrap. Run a 140 at 2900 fps and a 120 at 3100 through a recoil calculator, the difference is half a foot pound so virtually no difference. There is no way in hell you can feel the difference in bullet weight. Only difference I can feel is a substantial down loading and slower speed. There is a reason there are so many 4895 low recoil loads.

I have used 140 grain bullets of various makes like Hornady, Barnes, Nosler and Sierra bullets in 7-08, 7x57, 7x65, 7 rem and 280. Kills just fine in all of them. Back the load off 300 to 400 fps off max warp and it won't kick all that hard.
 
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