Congratulations on his first deer! Pretty cool that grandma was able to be there and that you were able to walk him through the field dressing process. A couple more and he'll be a pro.
Don't know what it is about cats and electrical cords but ours has chewed on a few over the years. Glad they took care of you and gave the lady a good story as well.
It had good accuracy but slow speed. In the 264 WM especially it should have excelled. Little Crow Gunworks on YouTube has done a lot of work with the 280AI you might wish to check out.
I have never been able to get the speed that Magnum should get in the 270 Win, 264 Win Mag or 6.5x55. Maybe the 280 AI might do better but based on that I would look at something else before Magnum.
Checked my records and in my wife's Tikka we used 45 gr of H 4350 with the 140 gr Partition with excellent results. Pretty sure it was around 2650 fps. Safe in our rifle but work up carefully for anyone trying it. Too bad IMR 4955 was discontinued because it was really good too. I have had a...
Any powder in the IMR 4350 - IMR 7828 SSC range will work. When I get home tonight I can give you some exact loads. We run H 4350 in my wife's gun and it works with pretty much any bullet we have tried.
Had to look up Fox bullets, they obviously worked fine on your mulie. He's a good looking buck and that's a good amount of meat for the freezer. Congratulations, the 8x57 strikes again!
That's a good load to head out with and get a deer as is. It's a shooter so it shouldn't be hard to find something faster that's accurate in the future.
Awesome all the way around. Beautiful buck, and a special rifle that shoots great. Speer G.S. bullets are excellent bullets too, one of my favorites for sure.
For the reloading process I found Speer was the best in explaining it. Not sure about the others but I'm sure there are some good ones. Nosler puts out a good manual too.
You've gotten some excellent advice on reloading and also the 280 AI, lots of great people here willing to help out. There's a good chance you'll find some good loads with the components you have already. Maybe I missed it but what kind of rifle is your 280 AI?
Amazing how many people are going off on harming and even killing anyone who voted for President Trump. All the brainwashing has definitely taken it's toll across all Western nations not just the US. This "lady" killed her own father because of who he voted for. She was caring for him since he...
There's a reason the 270 has been with us almost 100 years now it just plain works without a lot of recoil. Just as good as a 30-06 just a bit different. Bet that 7600 shoots for you too!