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, and Remington changed the name back to .280 in 1981.^[1]

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.^[2]

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 .270 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.^[2]

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.^[2]

Renowned for being a strong advocate of the .270 Winchester, gun writer Jack O'Connor's last rifle was a Ruger M77 restocked by Alvin Biesen but this time chambered in .280 Remington, which tells about the high regards O'Connor had on the cartridge.^[3]

The .280 Remington is capable of developing energy nearly equal to the .30-06 Springfield, but with lighter bullets having a better ballistic coefficient. 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 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 pressure limit for the .280 Remington is set at 60,000 PSI, 50,000 CUP.

Most American rifle and ammunition manufacturers catalogue the .280 Remington.^[2]

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 .30-06 Springfield case, the case length of a .30-06 is 63.3 millimetres (2.494 in) while the case length of a .280 is 64.5 millimetres (2.540 in), the same as a .30-03 Springfield. 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." ^[4]

In Europe the .280 Remington is not popular in bolt-action rifles since it competes directly with the 7×64mm, which is of the almost exact same size as the .280 Remington but has slightly more power, because of having a slightly higher maximum allowed chamber pressure and a slightly higher case capacity. The twist rate for the 7x64 is 1 in 8.66 inch against 1 in 10 inch for the 280 Remington. Nearly every European rifle producer offers the 7x64 as a standard caliber.

The .280 Remington does, however, have a larger than expected number of European users in imported self-loading rifles such as those by Remington.

One of P.O. Ackley's earliest wildcats was the 7mm-06 Improved, which was made by necking down the .30-06 Springfield case and fire-forming it to have less body taper and a 40-degree shoulder angle. Soon after the .280 Remington came out, Fred Huntington reformed its case to an improved configuration with minimum body taper, a 35-degree shoulder angle, and called it the .280 RCBS. Since cases for the .280 RCBS could be formed by firing .280 Remington ammo in a rifle chambered for the former, Ackley abandoned the 7mm-06 Improved and started chambering rifles for the .280 RCBS. He then changed the 35-degree shoulder to 40-degrees and the .280 Ackley wildcat was born. Redding various old names: "The older wildcat has several names including .280 Ackley Improved 40°, .280 Rem Improved 40°, .280 Imp 40°, .280 Ackley, .280 Rem Imp, and more." After 2011 Die manufacturers followed SAAMI specifications and modified the dimensions and labeled as the 280 Ackley Improved. For handloaders, two versions of reloading dies were manufactured, early dies and later dies that conformed to SAMMI specs (cf .280 Ackley Improved). If barrel length and chamber pressure are equal, the .280 Ackley Improved is about 100 fps faster with all bullet weights than the standard .280 Remington. In 2007, ammunition manufacturer Nosler registered the .280 Ackley Improved with SAAMI and began providing factory loaded ammunition and rifles for it. Use of commercial ammunition needs to be verified as SAAMI. Older chamberings (pre-2011) could be non-SAMMI (Lee factory dies clarify that their dies are the old version). Handloaders using the SAMMI spec full length sizer, can be adapted to the older chambering, as Redding required use of a custom deeper shellholder (.014 deeper or .014 space between shellholder and bottom of die). Published loading data has increased as have bullets and powders, the original .280 Remington and the .280 Ackley variants are options for long range hunting and precision shooting.

• 7mm Weatherby Magnum
• 7mm-08 Remington
• 7×57mm Mauser
• 7mm Remington Magnum
• 7×64mm
• 7 mm caliber
• List of rifle cartridges
• Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
• Delta L problem
• Sectional density
• Ballistic coefficient
• 7mm-06
• .280 British
• .280 Ackley Improved