Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Finn Aagaard On The 270 Win And 7x57

I like Finn's writing. Always have. Used to read his articles over and over. Remember one about how excellent the 270 was and him asking a hunter in Africa to try his 270 a little instead of the 375, and immediately the hunter started smoking animals rather than missing or wounding.

I've got a 270 WSM and 7x57 and I still have to talk myself out of getting a 270 Win and setting it up similar to Bobs lightweight 270 Win.

Gerry, your spot on, nothing super flashy but it works and works really well for hunters.

Thanks for posting the whole article. Interesting read! But I for one have never doubted the .270 Win. It does it's job very well.

Nothing Finn did was gay. Not even with a .270.

The 270 Win is one of the greatest big game rounds i have ever used and i haven't been without one since the early 70's and will die with one in my collection.

My uncle took two rifles on his two safaris to Africa (Angola & Mozambique) in the late 60s, two model 70s, one a 270, the other a 458. With the former he took everything, including two lion. He used the 458 for Buffalo and elephant. Oh, the 270 was stoked with old fashioned Silvertip.

A really good read.The .270 with the good bullets we see today is even better than ever.I have a cabinet full of hunting rifles and I nearly always reach for one of these Winnies. Elk, moose or whatever, it works for me.I am a sheep hunter first however and my confidence goes skyward when I have an opportunity and this needle gun in my hand.

Ive seen lots of game shot with both...as well as the 308, and 30-06. Ive always liked the 7x57 not because it was more effective...but because it has the least amount of recoil of the whole bunch...and by a fair margin.

As far as effectiveness...they are all about the same imho

Oh I'll have to go into my stack of HUNTING and find that one. Anyone know the year of that magazine?

Finn's article on the 270 was published in American Rifleman, May 1984, page 48.

The scans posted above are from a collection of his work, Hunting Rifles and Cartridges, published by the NRA in 1990, ISBN 0-935998-58-6. Finn was irritated with the compilation because of the number of editorial goofs. NRA went so far as to send out a 4-page notice of errata to all who purchased the book from the NRA store. Unfortunately, I've mislaid my copy of that notice.

--Bob

I'd imagine anyone with a lead pot, wheelweights a reasonable education of alloy and some fauna could proclaim the 30-30 a "lightning killer"....

I'm a fan of Finn as well. I can't remember how he....
Pronounced his last name ?

Jerry

jwall, since its Scandanavian, I think Aagaard is Ågård I would pronounce it sortuvas "Oh Gored"... I don't know if he did...

Bullshooter,
" NRA went so far as to send out a 4-page notice of errata to all who purchased the book from the NRA store. Unfortunately, I've mislaid my copy of that notice."

I recognized that article posted by "brad", I have that book and often pull it off the shelf and read an article or two.

I have the 4-page errata stuffed in my book. Would you like me to try and scan it into a pdf and email it?

Poole

The .270 win works and is the lower 48 & African PG best all-arounder; including Duiker to Moose to Eland. It will even take the largest Bears, Leopard, Lion (if it were still legal) and Hyenas.

I've always pronounced it "Ah-guard."

I wished I'd had the opportunity to visit with him more when he came in the shop on his visits to town. We always pronounced it A-Guard.

He was constantly in my old hunting Pards shop in Llano. They were pretty good friends.

Hi Joe, for me I'd sooner use a Short Action 7-08 than the "tweener" 7x57.

As far as recoil, I've only found the 7x57 less recoil-wise with 140's and lighter, but not by a "fair margin." With 160's, I find it a bit sharper than a 308 with a 165, and about the same as 270 with a 150. Ditto the 7-08.

But all of them kick noticeably less than the 30-06.

As far as game effectiveness, I've used them all on bull elk and at normal ranges haven't seen a difference with any of them, including the 7-08. I just like the bigger 270 engine. It does more with heavies than the smaller 7-08/7x57 engine.

But the differences are likely immaterial in the real world. But I will say a mushroomed 270/150 Partition is a beautiful thing!

That's how Finn pronounced it, with a little guttural undertone.

My copy of the book is coming apart, but so far various kinds of tape have kept it reasonably intact.

John, good to know. My Norwegian name is likely butchered as much as his!

No need or intent to disparage anyone, and I agree about the 270, but any cartridge whose product by dividing case capacity (water) by bore diameter that ranges between 200 to 250 is an a fairly efficient cartridge. I forget the reference but time has proved it true for me.

Add appropriate bullet (don't blame the cartridge here); apply to appropriate
game in the appropriate location (don't blame cartridge here again) and all's well.

The weeds are deep if you want to get into them but it's certainly not necessary.

I bought my first .270Win. in 1968, owned about a dozen since, all P-64-70s, except one FN-Husqy and one Husqy 4100. I currently have three P-64 Fwts, all in top end synthetics, in .270 and I load 150NPs for hunting exclusively.

It was for many years, my second favourite cartridge, after the superb .338WM and I still love it. However, I started monkeying with custom .280Rems. in 1981 and last year bought a .280AI in the Kimber MA, for some reason, I seem to prefer the .280s.

I have fine, custom 7x57s and a 7-08 and find all of these with good bullets about "ideal" for BC hunting as the rifles are light enough to carry in steep country and 150/160 NPts. seem to kill well.

Actually, unless one frequently practices with heavier rounds such as the .338 or 9.3s or .375s, all of which I own several examples of, I think that one is better off with a .270-150NPt. or the other rounds listed above as they are MUCH easier to shoot well on game.

At 6 weeks short of 70, with the next season being my 52nd. and decades of mountain work and recreation behind me, I can say that a LIGHTER rifle IS better and if you can't "do it" with a 7mm-150/160NPt, you probably wont with a bigger hammer.

There, IS some advantage to the .338WM, etc, but, ONLY when you can really shoot it and in some circumstances.

YMMV-JMHO.