Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting For those of you who have owned both the .270 and .30-06

Mostly Goats pigs and 'roo's. Several hundred over several years.

I liked using goats for bullet testing medium because they are tough and much thicker skinned than deer of the same size. Their tenacity was impressive with the bigger ones over 200 pounds having the tennacity of a rabbit pound for pound.

Killed them with .222,.22/250,.22 Falcon,.243,.240 Wby,.25/06,.257 Wby,6.5X55,.270,.270 Wby,7X57,7mm Rem,7mm STW,.30/06,.300 Win,.300 Wby,.303 Brit,.338,.340 Wby,.338/378,.375 H&H,.416 Wby,.416 Rem,.45/70,.458 Win,.460 Wby and anything else I forgot.

For just deer hunting, I don't think it will make a difference which gun you have. A .270 and .30-06 are so close that they are practically the same thing. A lot of people here in Mississippi swear at the .270 saying it cripples more deer than it kills, but the deer that I've seen killed with a .270 appeared to have the same amount of damage as my .30-06. I don't have a .270 at the moment, but I plan to add one to my collection soon.

I meant problem bears because I was in that situation once. I also have no doubt as to how good a 270 win is, that was my go to deer gun for over 25 years. But, having been in a bear situation, and the other two guys with me packing 30-06's, now turn that bear into a grizzly, and you might agree with me. Both cartridges are great, but I still would take an 06 over the 270 if I had a bad encounter with a brown/grizzly bear.
That's all I meant, hell I know 243's with the right bullet kill black bears.

That's laughable. Maybe a lot of those people can't shoot... The deer hasn't been born that can survive a hit in the boileroom with a .270 and a proper hunting bullet.

Ken..,

Gotta agree with you on that. Most of the hardcore white tail hunters I know, that just shoot one caliber, use the .270.

I can't remember which O'Conner book or rag article but I do remember Jack writing about the '06 and he was surprised how it seemed a quicker killer than his 270. He also wrote Eleanor was amazed too and thought the '06 was simply amazing.

Over the years I've hunted with plenty of 270win riflemen, who knew how to wring out the 270's virtues. But all of them bowed humbly when 30/06 riflemen were present in camp and field.

MtnHtr

My take on the 270, 30-06 and 7x57 is that you can't tell the difference between them on game up to elk size. That said I still prefer my 30-06 when hunting elk and alas my new 270 is much lighter than my old 7x57. Good hits mean dead animals. However the 270 is the best antelope rifle of the bunch.

This is pretty sound advice unless you remember that the bullets normally used in the 7mm and .30's are game bullets that cover a larger weight range than the .270 which mostly is used in the 130gn weight with bullets designed for deer, not elk sized game.

Whenever you read O'Connor and .270 in the same sentence, remember also that J O'C used 130gn Partitions and heavy doses of surplus H 4831 for his hunting. This is not he same as a box of Winchester 130gn Power Points.

Seems that Jack may have been hunting out west in longer range areas ?

A 7mm RM beats them both! .30-06 recoil levels with higher-than-.30-06 velocities and BCs for a given SD.

While I believe the .270 Win is arguably the best dedicated deer cartridge available, my 7mm RM seems to hit elk harder than my .30-06s.

Of course, bullet choice and placement are more imortant than any differences between the three ...

.

Mtn

BOW HUMBLY? Were you drinking when you posted that?

O

True enough! But, I mean, doesn't everyone do that?

Mtnhuntr is,.......methinks......trolling....

I don't have enough experience to say myself.

Junior agreed with you Aussie and he did have the experience.

He was one of my first hunting teachers, he was a guide, packer and avid hunter himself and he agreed that the 30-06 hit harder.

He thought they were both plenty for deer.

Thanks for the support DB. It is ok if others find a differnet view. Because I was reviewing rifles for so many years, I did not favor the .30/06 and went some 30 or more years without one in my rack. I was stuck in magnum phase and knew it, but was impressed enough over time to see that it was really a great cartridge and, in my observation, a harder hitter than the .270, though I recognise that a white tail hunter may not see much difference.

I bought a Model 70 featherweight and loved it ever since. That rifle has taken hundreds of animals including roo's goats, pigs, red deer, fallow deer, mule deer, pronghorn, foxes, rabbits and anything else I forgot. We've travelled some.

JW

I used a 30-06 for a long time on deer, and my dad before me. It worked flawlessly, even shot through 2 deer dropping both of them on the spot in all 3 occasions that it happened. Thats something a .270 WONT do with lighter faster moving rounds. If you want 270 STYLE performance, then you should invest a 7mm mag. It will do what the .270 does better, there isn't a handful of reasons to invest in a .270 imo, nostalgia and sentimental variables aside.

Or if you want 30/06 style performance form your 270, load 150gr bullets at 2800 fps. If you want 7Mag style performance on deer, load 130gr bullets in your 270 at 3000+fps. No need for a 7Mag on a deer. How can it be "better"?

Have you tried it?

Everyone knows that a 180 grain bullet out of a 30.06 hits like the "hammer of Thor" and a 270 tends to have bullets just bounce off....right??