Current Production 280AI Rifles

[KevinNC]

You can always take a rifle you already own, or any one you fancy used in the standard long action '06 case head and re barrel it. Mine is a 35 Whelen I sold to a guy years ago and bought back from him as a 280AI.

 

[Magsrgod]

You know thats a good idea. I have a Browning X-Bolt from the first few years they came out in 270. It was the hunter model with the simple wood stock and shorter barrel. I haven’t touched it in years and I really enjoyed shooting it. Outside of getting a new barrel for it what else would I be looking at to modify it to a 280? Bolt head should be the same, might need to do some stock work on it, or just pickup a McMillan XBolt stock and be done with it.

I kind of like this idea.

 

[JD338]

Maybe a Trigger Tech trigger.

JD338

 

[rmarshall]

This is a great idea, that’s what I did, that way your smith can customize your barrel length, you can order the barrel twist you want and have him do the contour you want, heck add flutes etc. my smith called yesterday and said my other 280 ai was complete. A tikka t3 22-250 turned into a 280 AI. Awesome work for under 700 bucks.
My last one he did is a tack driver elk killing machine.

 

[KevinNC]

X bolts are not an easy action to rebarrel. A lot of smiths won't even do them. I'd find a donor Rem 700, Model 70, Tikka or Bergara rather than mess with an Xbolts glued in metric threads and potential to ruin the action.

 

[Blkram]

According to a friend of mine that spent plenty of time working with a late, local gunsmith, shared a trick they used on the Brownings...
They would lay the barreled action on a woodstove and let it heat up slowly to release that adhesive so that it was easier to spin the barrel off.
Not sure if my local gunsmith uses the same trick or not, as they knew each other and worked together on some projects. Would n't be surprised, as he has done two X Bolt projects for me to date; my 6.5 CM and my 6.5 PRC. Both shoot great!

 

[jimbires]

X bolts are not an easy action to rebarrel. A lot of smiths won't even do them. I'd find a donor Rem 700, Model 70, Tikka or Bergara rather than mess with an Xbolts glued in metric threads and potential to ruin the action.

I've read a few times about Browning actions being twisted trying to remove the BBL . heating them up is probably the answer .

 

[Charlie-NY]

I've read a few times about Browning actions being twisted trying to remove the BBL . heating them up is probably the answer .

I had an X bolt rebarreled. I asked my smith if there would be a problem getting the factory barrel off. He said, "not really". Everything went smooth but I never asked if he used any special method to remove the barrel.