LRRPF52 Wrote:I've been looking at this cartridge more and more, and have always felt that the US really screwed the pooch by not adopting it.Composing my .276 Pedersen thread got me to thinking about this one, again.
I must disagree with both your comment and the title premise. The .280 British was definitely not ahead of its time. Quite the opposite, actually. It is a battle rifle cartridge, developed after intermediate rounds like .30 Carbine and 7.92 Kurz had already shown a better way forward.
However, I do agree that a terrific opportunity was missed. IMO, what should have been done at that point in time was to mate the superbly shaped, 125gr bullet from the .276 Pedersen, with the .30 Remington case shortened to, say, ~1.6" length.
The resulting .276 Rem Kurz would have enabled creation of assault rifles with significantly lighter weight and much greater magazine capacity than battle rifles chambered in .280 British.
Photo: .270 British / .280 British / 7.62 NATO / .276 Rem Kurz