Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Finn Aagaard On The 270 Win...

Berit and Bill still well in Houston/LLano/Piney Woods......

Finn Aagaard and Ross Seyfried both knew their way around a good hunting rifle...

Choosing YOUR Ideal Hunting Cartridge - Ross Seyfried

... especially if it was chambered in .270 WIN.




GR

Enjoyed Finn’s writing. Especially about the 338-06 and 6.5x55. His article about the 7mmBR in a ULA inspired me to have one built. He said the round was probably plenty for a lot of deer hunting needs and that many hunters are probably over gunned.

JOC probably sparked my interest early on for the 270, it was highly effective then, and now. Dumped several deer and even a double on crows about 300 yds from a #1B Ruger using 100 Corelokts as I recall with none other than a 6x scope.

Since the 270 is a hot topic here lately, thought I'd bring this back up for those that may have missed it.

**Click on each image to enlarge them for better reading...

Thanks for bringing this back up. A lot of common sense advice in Finn and Ross's article.

We all like to argue small looney details. Reality is that one would be much better off picking a cartridge from 6.5-30, with a suitable bullet in a rifle you like and shoot the heck out of it.

I am comfortable with a 270 because of years of use, 1000's and 1000's of rounds downrange, with multiple hundreds of animals in the freezer in the hands of at least eight different hunting partners and family members.

Both of my grandfathers owned .270’s!

One was a Mauser custom, the other a stock Remington 721.

The Remington was the biggest (caliber wise) rifle that grandfather ever owned. To my knowledge he never shot anything heavier than 130 grain bullets for use on our mule deer, elk and black bear, along with the occasional coyote or pronghorn antelope.

The Mauser played second fiddle to that Grampa’s .30-06 which incidentally was also a Remington 721.


I myself inherited a Browning BBR in .270 some years back. With it I have taken coyotes and one cow elk, following the grandfatherly advice of preferring 130 grain bullets. I plan on using it for mule deer as soon as I can draw a good tag and take proper time to hunt.

Although a dyed-in-the-wool .30-06 man, I do appreciate the .270 for its many good attributes greatest of which is, it’s a darn good cartridge!

Thanks for posting the article. I have a Mossberg .270 in the gun safe that I haven't shot in years. I may take it out in the new year and shoot it some.

1973 was a good year for buying guns for me. IIRC, I fond some good deals that year. Probably one of the best was a very lightweight FN Mauser chambered to the .270. Knocked off a few coyotes and a nice Mule deer but wasn't too happy with all the meat destruction so on advice from a friend I went to the 150 gr. Sierra Game King. Much better in my opinion. In the passing years I've added another commercial Mauser, a Ruger #1A and a Winchester XTR that came equipped with a McMillan stock from the factory. They all shoot very well with the Game King load I used in the first rifle which BTW, I still have. The last game animal I shot with a .270 was an Antelope on a ranch hunt in 2009. After a relatively easy stalk I took the shot at about 75 yards, one and done. The goat staggered for maybe 30 feet tops and died.

The one thing I found most interesting about my .270s was they were the easiest rifles to find a good load for out of many I've worked with. If I ever decide to seriously thin out the herd, a couple of those 270s will still be in the safe.
PJ

I have never used the 270 at all.. But I like to think I was heavily influenced by Finn to use the 280. Kind of a mix between the 270 and the 7x57, and very similar to another of his favorites,,the 7x64 of which he wrote about quite a lot.
Finn was definitely among my all time favorite writers on guns and hunting.

About twenty years ago a friend had a JC Higgins .270 (Belgium Mauser action) that he wanted to sell. I wanted to move up from a .243 so I bought it, and put an old Leupold 4X with tapered cross hairs on it. It was and still is a great rifle. I shot numerous deer with it.

One of my best days with it was when I went to a turkey shoot with it. I went home with two turkeys. One old timer asked me what I was shooting and when I told him, he said it’s got a nasty crack to it, but I never noticed that when I shot it.

Then I got the bug to build a 30-06, so I gave the .270 to my son. I still borrow it occasionally.

Tag.

I have all of Finn’s books was a favorite author and influenced so many of my rifle choices.

I knew Finn, and have always loved his story about the client who thought a .375 H&H was absolutely necessary for plains game--and wounded plenty due to the recoil. When Finn persuaded him to switch to a .270 "rental rifle, the guy finally started killing stuff cleanly....

Perhaps a Biesen stocked Ruger 77 with a 22" barrel, skeleton grip cap and buttplate?

Ditto, for the Elk client/ dude hunters at my time.
I paticipated in horror as a "Dude hunter" fresh from killing a Polar bear in Northern Canada showed up in our camp- and killed large Shiras bulls ,yes two , the first day was an example of rapid fire , unrestrained shooting and I attempted to stop him. He emptied the magazine and my little needle gun was used to finish the messy little outing.
He shot both, I was forced to use my personal Moose tag to legitamize the shooting spree.
It took me two days to pack out both bodies and the cape and antlers for hir prize.
This was his 27th or 28th animal on Safari Club's list
So somehow he was awarded a ribbon or plaque for his great achievment.
This man was not a hunter, paid no attention to the mountains or other wildlife. This was in the spectular West slope of Rocky mountains . He also didn't like camp.
The rifle was some fancy grade 375 H&H that he had previously used on the bear. He told me the bear hunt was quite a dull experience and glad it was over.
Safari Club has been stuck in my craw from the day onward
* the 375 is a wonderful round and perhaps if he would of agreed to checking its zero it would of helped somewhat.

How were you forced to take part?

Finn was such a common sense writer. I have his books and have read them multiple times. Every time I read them I get an urge to go out and find a used Mauser actioned rifle put a 4x scope on it and fill an ark.

GreggH

What a great article with very factual information.

Just great results that are proven over the years.

HS 58

Brad, thanks for sharing. Excellent story by Finn. I remember reading that when it originally came out.

Another good read about the .270 that I still have boxed up is Every Man’s Beltless Magnum by JOC.

Don't agree with your high regard for a 98, I'll take an fn or fn clone any day.of the week and twice on Sunday no more clunky 98's for me. You just have to spend to much money to get them right..mb