The author’s Kimber Mountain Ascent in .280 Ackley Improved.
bear, Nosler has a 175 grain
Partition that comes out the
end of a 24-inch barrel at over
2,800 fps. Last fall I used the
.280 Ackley Improved shooting
Nosler Trophy Grade 150 grain
Accubond’s in a Kimber Moun-
tain Ascent to take a five-point
bull elk at 310 yards. I placed
that Accubond behind the elk’s
shoulder, and like John R. Nos-
ler’s Impala that elk, “Dropped
like a sack of potatoes.”
This standard sized cartridge
offers magnum performance
with the recoil slightly higher
than the .270 Winchester. Sever-
al gun companies have followed
on the .280 Remington case
you can use .280 Remington
ammunition in the rifle cham-
bered for the Ackley Improved.
This means that if you can’t
find your ammo, or don’t have
the ability to reload while on a
hunting trip, you can use the
readily available .280 Reming-
ton. However, thanks to Nos-
ler adopting this fast shooting
light recoil round you can now
purchase extremely accurate
.280 Ackley Improved ammu-
nition off the shelf. Nosler cur-
rently makes it in their Trophy
Grade and Custom Grade lines
of ammo with several bullet
configurations.
If you are looking for a ri-
fle caliber that can handle
everything the lower 48 can
offer for a big game hunt, then
you don’t need to look past
the .280 Ackley Improved. For
large game such as moose and
Nosler into making this a com-
mercial hunting cartridge and
now offer rifles in this caliber. I
wonder if O’Conner might have
changed his mind given the
chance to take one of the mod-
ern rifles chambered in the .280
Ackley Improved on one of his
iconic Yukon sheep hunts. WHJ
www.westernhuntingjournal.com
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