In 2008, Nosler standardized Parker Otto (P. O.) Ackley’s version of the 280 Remington. As with all AI designs, the 280 AI shares Ackley’s reduced case-body taper (0.001-inch per 0.1-inch of body length, which, in this instance is about half what the parent case had,) and sharper shoulder (in this instance, 40-degrees versus 17½-degrees). The one distinction: the 280 AI is now a standard SAAMI chambering. Layne Simpson and others had long worked toward making this happen. Finally, only half a century after Remington introduced the 280 and Ackley immediately improved the design, the mainstream gun industry has seen fit to honor Mr. Ackley for his outstanding work toward improving the art. Loaded to the same pressure as the 270 Winchester, 65,000 psi, which is as high as any mainstream SAAMI chambering uses, 280 AI performance is far better than the standard 280 can offer when loaded to normal specification pressure. Performance of the 280 AI comes very close to matching performance of the 7mm Remington Magnum. When the 280 AI and 7mm Rem Mag are loaded at SAAMI specification pressure, using the best modern propellants, the velocity difference is about 50 fps, which is of questionable value (see below). Because of the significantly heavier charge required for the 7mm Rem Mag to get full velocity, recoil difference is about 14%, which is certainly significant.! Compared to the 7mm Rem Mag, the 280 Remington AI uses less propellant and burns that more efficiently by trapping more in the chamber and accelerating less unburned propellant down the bore. These advantages matter: recoil is noticeably less, barrel heating is less, and barrel life is greater. The longer neck of the 280 AI is another valuable advantage because it improves barrel life. Five 280 AI rounds fit in a typical magazine compared to three 7mm Rem Mag rounds. The conventional rimless case of the 280 AI is much easier to load into a box magazine and feeds from that and into the chamber more smoothly. Some of us believe these advantages more than offset the modest ballistic deficit and therefore consider the 280 AI a better choice than the 7mm Rem Mag. Heritage of this case dates to the 1870s with the introduction of the 40-70 Ballard case.