I've had 3 A-Bolts all in .270. I've had zero problems in 14 years of hunting and all three are very accurate. Two of them are for my wife. They have accounted for multiple deer, pronghorn and caribou. My longest kill was 525 yards on a mule deer. Her longest kill was 463 yards also on a mule deer. The places I hunt elk seem to offer a lot of cross canyon shots, so for elk hunting, I bought an X-Bolt in 7MM Remington Magnum last year. I added a muzzlebrake so it's even longer than the standard 26" barrel. It kills paper very well. I actually replaced my .270 with this rifle for an all in one hunting solution. Hopefully, I will one day draw a rifle tag and put it to good use. The first A-Bolts I owned were the Hunter model with a wood stock and blued metal. I also had a Medallion in .338 Winchester Magnum. Beautiful rifles but after one season, I had to get it into my head that they were hunting tools and not furniture, so don't sweat the scratches. The last three rifles I bought are Stainless Stalkers. The composite stocks still get scratched but not as easily and they still look fine after a little clean up. I chose the Leupold VX3 4.5-14X40 with the CDS for the scope.
I think an X-Bolt in .280 would be a fine hunting rifle.
