Introduced in 1957, the 280 was Remington’s long-overdue answer to the 270 Winchester. Remington did this chambering no favors by originally establishing a SAAMI working pressure significantly lower than the standard for Winchester’s older and well-established 270. This ballistic deficit forever relegated the 280 to also-ran status. In 1979, Remington renamed the 280 as the 7mm Remington Express and increased specification pressure to allow the 280 to approach 270 performance. This was a useless enterprise as the new name only confused folks and the newer factory loads still failed to do anything 270 Winchester factory loads would not do. If the 280 Rem had been loaded to the same pressure as the 270 Win, the slight difference in case capacity combined with the slightly larger cross-sectional bore area would have allowed the 280 to demonstrate a useful, if modest, ballistic advantage. For decades after the 1962 introduction of the wildly popular 7mm Remington Magnum, manufacturers routinely introduced 7mm bullets that were ballistically superior to anything offered for the 270. Availability of these superior bullets was, perhaps, the only logical reason any handloader would choose the 280 over the 270. When handloaded with the best modern components, the 280 will do anything the 270 will do and comes reasonably close to 7mm Remington Magnum performance while generating far less recoil. Heritage of this case dates to the 1870s with the introduction of the 40-70 Ballard case.