Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 270 vs 30-06

so this thought just started running through my head. does the 270 or the 30-06 do anything better than the other? would you be able to tell a difference when shooting at game and on how quick the animal went down? Personally i dont think their would be a much of a difference if any difference at all. I started off with an 06, sold that (not because i didnt like it but i wanted to try a 300 out and wanted some extra $$ to spend on it), bought a 300, sold that pretty quick (just didnt cut it for me. People were always talking about "upgrading" from an 06 to a 300 up to me their just wasnt an "upgrade" that i felt. its the same bullet going around 200 FPS faster. WOOPTIE DOOOOO!!!), bought a 270 and a 338 win mag and i VERY happy with both of them. I would deffinatly buy an 06 just because its a good cartridge but for right now theirs just no point to. what do you think about the 270 vs the 30-06? Whats your opinions on the two?

I prefer the 270 because I mostly deer hunt and it just seems "right". Probably not much flatter than the 30-06 and I'm not going to bore anyone with meaningless mathematical minutia. I just think its "just right" when it comes to deer hunting.

I have used the 30-06 and it works fine and I'd admit that its probably a bit more versatile with heavier bullets on bigger game like elk. But, if you don't need that, why not go with the one you like?

I like the 270.

Nooooooooooo............


Let's see if this thread has any legs.....





Casey

This might end in a few posts, or it could go 10 pages.

Short correct answer is that they are two peas in a pod. Especially with todays good bullets what one will do so will the other.

Yawwwwnnnnn.

[img]http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/Airmail99/e877f113.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp208/LegalTiger94/beating_a_dead_horse.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/agtBobPhillips/deadhorse.jpg[/img]

No ones forcing you to reply. if you think its such a waste of time then why waste all that time posting those pictures. your just helping this poste go longer than what you think it needs to. quite being a cry baby!

You're funny . Would you like some goo-goo with your ga-ga?

270 vs 30/06 is about the DEADEST horse in the pasture. BOTH are stone cold BORING!

Funny stuff, Gringo Loco. Your Web Fu grows strong......

Boring.....................perhaps.

Incredibly effective................without question.

I will take a 280.

Yeah, both stone-cold boring....but practically speaking nothing much that has come along improves on them a whole bunch.

......and after you get over the infatuation with messing with little brass bottles of different shapes and sizes that only hold powder and seal chambers,and just wanna go hunting;and after you realize all any of them do is propel bullets from rifles,they are likely the two that will be remaining.

This is because both work well on the overwhelming majority of BG animals a guy is likely to hunt here or anywhere else.

Their only fault is they don't leave you much to talk about.......

I saw the title of this thread and thought " no way..." but I tuned in and was rewarded with this post...derivations on a theme...

Ingwe

And heeeeere we go!

Yes..The .270 shoots smaller bullets better than the '06 but the '06 shoots heavier bullets better than the .270.I have both now but the far majority of game I have shot here in Idaho has been with a 130 grain bullet out of the .270 Win.

I have seen people down size in the '06 to match 270 performance and fail miserably compared too, and in another sense,I believe 160's are to much for the 270 where 165 and especially,180's are the cats neow for the '06.

Either of them make a great all around Idaho caliber.

Jayco

the only thing I would say is I would feel more comfortable hunting bigger stuff with the 06, not saying the 270 can't do it, but if I were bear hunting (brown bear/grizz)I would prefer to shoot a 200 grain pill from an 06 than a 140 from a 270.

In the field performance, I'm pretty sure they'll both work. I have to admit to personally being more drawn to the 270. The 270 seems to have been built by a hunter for hunter's and hunting.Where as the 3006 was designed for the military and pushed into hunting service as an after thought.We all know they're both damn good cartridges.

One goal I have is to have at least one rifle in all of following: 25-06, 6.5-06, .270, .280, 30-06, 338-06, 35 Whelen.

It's really like having a package of different color britches. When you hunt on Monday put on the red ones, Tues the blue, etc. etc. Things are often too close to call depending on where you hunt and how far you might need to shoot.

.270 Vs. 30-06....Just pick your color for the day!

It's really about the rifle.

YMMV

If you already own a .270 and a .338WM and are happy with both. Mission accomplished! I'd dare someone to tell you there is something you can't kill with this combo! and buying an '06 just because is never a bad idea. Buy something different, like a real nice Mauser or a Husky in '06..

CLB

Deep into two pages already. Guessing here it wall make 5 easy, and maybe 10. Do I hear 10?..........

I wouuld prefer the 30-06 for huge bears, elk and moose, and the 270 for everything else, especially open plains.

The 270 drifts less in the wind, drops less, kicks less, what's not to prefer?

My next rifle will be a Kimber MT in 270... I'll have the barrel cut to 23" and mount a 2.5-8x36 Leupold on top in Talley Lwt's... should come in all-up with sling and rounds at 6.75-ish pounds.

A 150 Partition at 2,950 should do anything that needs doing to anything I hunt and recoil woun't be obnoxious. As to 30's, these days I mostly prefer the 308 Win over the 30-06. Kicks less, smaller, lighter and does the same thing.

10



Ahhhh, just split the diff and get a 280.
Once upon a time I had a real nice '06 and a real nice 270 so I sold them both and got a real real nice 280. Problem solved.

Easy answer! .30-06, necked down to .27 cal. Works even here in Ak. for most everything.
Bear in Fairbanks

Go .30 Whelen....

.270 for my money, a little flatter, a little faster, 140 gr. works for me, reaches out to around 400 yds mostly for deer here in Idaho, still based on an .06 case. Both are great cartridges and no matter where you are if you forget your ammo you'll be able to always find .270 or .06, try that with a 35 Whelen.

Idaho Biker,

He wrote ".30 Whelen," not .35 Whelen.

It's a joke, just like this thread....

Well, I may as well contribute to help this get to 10 pages. The .270 and .30-06 just don't hold much appeal to me because they are so common. Obviously they are common because they are good, versatile cartridges that are highly deadly within the effective range of most hunters and don't beat you to death with recoil.
I loved my .280 and would like another if I had to choose a standard length mid power cartridge for deer. And I'd rather an 8mm-06, 8x57, .338-06, .25-06, 6.5-06, .308, 7.65x53, .303 and a bunch of other stuff in that power range before building a .30-06 or .270. But if I fell in love with a rifle that just so happened to be chambered in .270 or .30-06, I'd still buy the gun, but I'd AI it, just because.

I'll help: I read (probably here) that the toughest part of shooting a .270 is telling your parents that you're gay.

idahostalker �

The .270 Win has always seemed to me to be an excellent choice for a dedicated deer cartridge � arguably the best. It will also work on elk, as has been proven many tens of thousands of times.

The .30-06 is more versatile, IMHO, when it comes to big game - particularly when big bear and moose are concerned.

They say a man with a .30-06 doesn�t need anything else and I always figured that was a good reason not to own one � so for the first 24 years I big game hunted I didn�t. That said, since 2006 I have acquired three. Not sure why but no regrets. Still don�t have a .270 and have no plans to get one.

Classy.

4 pages in less than 24 hrs. Well, 5 for sure now.

Still on page one for me.

.270 interests me not.

30-06 is a wonderful cartridge.

A .280 would be fun.

Or a Whelen.

Or a .338-06.

But a .270?! Boooooring!

You must be easily stimulated,Jeff.....You want boring? Run a 358 Win over the chronie some afternoon

You can do the 358; I'll do the 270 and we can see who falls asleep first

Taint nothin' that'll make one yawn more than a .358 over a chrony. In fact, it puts deer and bears to sleep.

THAT is true!

Not trying to be a turd but have you ever heard of anyone who went on a hunting trip and forgot their ammo? I've been hunting since the late 1960s and I never heard of anyone who forgot their ammo and had to save the trip by going to the local hardware store in some small town and picking up ammo.

I've run out of ammo and had to buy shotgun shells locally but thats another story.

Whats wrong with being a turd...?....

Ingwe

Jeff - you're right! I've frequently seen the 270 bore animals to DEATH.

Forgetting their ammo no....running out while hunting antelope yes!! I guided a guy one time that used up both boxes of .300 win. mag. that he brought in a three day stretch. We fetched some more at the local hardware store and continued on....he finally got his buck on day four...that record still stands, 68 shots fired!

Betting he was an MPBR guy.....

He was....but I made him hunt with a cold chamber....grin!

Pat..you are a nicer man than me...( than I ( ? )..)

I havent shot 68 rounds at antelope in my life and someone like that, who has so little regard for the game, lets just say wouldn't have got to shoot 68 rounds at them either....

Ingwe

I think alot of you would be surprised at the people needing ammo during hunting season for one reason or the other.Here where I live there is exactly 1.5 places to buy ammo and if it isn't a popular caliber,your out of luck..I needed a box of .375 H&H to sight in my .375 and none to be found closer than 75 miles away.

Sheet happens out there..

Jayco

Not only did he have the record for most shots fired, he also had the most cactus in his knees, elbows and forearms....I guess thats what you would call, "poetic justice".

I have a buddy who used to be a .280 fan. In fact he outfitted both his wife and 2 daughters with a .280 as well. They headed for eastern Montana one fall to hunt antelope and he took along a couple boxes of ammo, which he thought would be plenty.

They ran out of ammo before all the antelope tags were filled and went to the nearest town (can't remember where, but it was tiny) and couldn't find any .280 ammo.

Before the next hunting season he sold traded all the .280's in on .270's and has been happy ever since. Besides, as he told me, "I never could see the difference between the .270 and .280 on game anyway!"

Good...at least he had to do some crawling...


But hey...I thought I set the record for cactus spines....

Ingwe

HERETIC!!

Ingwe

Chucklin' here.....

We are ssooo sick and twisted....

On one elk hunt I opened a box of relaods only to discover I had somehow grabbed the wrong box of ammo before leaving home, which was by then over 5 hours away. Not just the wrong ammo, it was also the wrong cartridge.

Fortunately I had a second rifle and the correct ammo for it.

I'm sure it could easily happen. I went on a four-day fishing trip with a good buddy a few years ago and as we approached the lake, about 4 hours from home, he realized that he had forgotten his fishing rod. He'll never live that one down.

My first thought when I saw this thread was to go back to my stacks of mags from the 70/80's and scan all the articles I could find written on such subject...grin

Then I thought, ah heck it might be entertaining, kind of like a 7/08 vs 308 thread might be if...we ever did one...grin

As to 68 rounds at lopes, yepper that's a bunch, how many times did he stop to clean...grin

One of the rodeo's I observed over the years was a fella taking 27 rounds from a 300 to whittle down an elk.

Dober

You shoulda made him fish with a Barbie pole!

Two pages added in just overnight. Lookin more like this turd will make ten pages now.

Yeah, but it's wandered a little far from the original question, to forgetting ammo and fishing poles, which indicates the original question was, ah, less than dynamic.

I read this earlier and the impact of it just did not sink in until a few minutes ago when I read it again......how does this shidt happen????

Easy you go hunting with me, Pat was very gracious with me that day...

Dober

Back when I was guiding in the late 1980's, one of the clients who hunted with us was a kid just out of high school. The kid had already decided he wanted to be an Alaskan guide, so bought a .338 Winchester Magnum. It was his only rifle so he brought it for the pronghorn hunt, and used up over a box of ammo the first day, flinching and missing.

That evening the outfitter talked the kid into using the outfitter's .25-06 the next day, but by then the kid's shoulder was so badly bruised that he couldn't even handle that.

On the third and final day of his scheduled hunt, he was given to me, because I was willing to give him a shooting lesson before we went out, and loan him yet another rifle, my Ruger 77 .220 Swift. (The big reason for me giving him the shooting lesson was that I had actually built the benchrest and practice range out behind the barn on the ranch. The outfitter generally had clients check their scopes by shooting over the hood of a pickup at some indeterminate range.)

I first had him shoot the Swift at a target at 100 yards, and after the first shot (where he discovered that it didn't kick enough to hurt him) he managed a decent group. Then I had him shoot at the 300-yard gong, and when he hit that a few times(and was ecstatic) we went hunting.

By 8:00 we'd stalked within about 150 yards of a nice buck, and after the kid shot the buck trotted in a tiny circle and fell over. The 60-grain Nosler Solid Base had done about the same job a .243 would have, with a quarter-sized exit hole on the other side of the rib cage.

Now, that particular pronghorn took over 50 shots, so yes I can see 60-something shots.

I would have never told Mark!....Grin!

I knew it was going to be a long day with this guy after the first stalk...we bellied to within 200 yards of a really nice 15" buck....I slid my day pack out in front of him and instructed him to use it for a rest. He shoved it out of the way and whispered "I dont need it". I looked over at him as he raised up on one knee to shoot....with his left elbow just hanging free. I can remember thinking, well maybe this guy is some sort of ringer..the first shot hit about 5 feet low and as the buck spooked and took off he fired two more quick running shots at it and hit way behind it. He was shooting a BAR .300WM with a 3-9 Leupold. We made another good sneak on the same buck and that was a repeat performance of the first go...I suggested we go back to camp and check the rifle again on paper. I also checked the mounts and ring screws and all was tight. I set a target at 50 yards and he shot a 3 shot group that was about 5". He told me that was the as good as it ever shot and was more than good enough for all of the elk hunting he had done back home in heavy timber...he was a really good guy but didnt have a concept of hunting critters out in the open...the funniest shot was on a buck he shot at about 250 yards. The bullet hit an honest 25 yards low and only a couple feet low on the ricochet!! I offered to him the use of my Sako .220 swift but he said he didnt want to take a chance of wounding an antelope with my gopher gun!!

I'm not making this up...it really happened!!

AH-HA, spray and pray...

I don't want to state it that all individuals who hunt with a self-loading rifle lack marksmanship skills, but some are just overtaken with a false sense that sheer firepower will somehow get the job done.

Autoloaders have a place, but not as a substitute for marksmanship. Some try to do just that.

An AR in a Prairy dog town is sinfully fun.

A couple yars back my brother and some other family members went to the range, a 45 minute drive. with all the "help" I had, packing up the rifles, ammo, targets and other stuff took no time at all.

Unfortunately, while the ammo bag left my office, it never made it past the dining room table. Somebody got sidetracked along the way.

My fault for not checking.



(Thankfully, my brother had a bunch of .40S&W and .45ACP - but we didn't dget to do near the shooting we had planned on.)

Heavy drinker would be my guess.

Actually, he doesn't drink at all--which may be the root of the problem!

Actually,I don't understand the bravado.A new guy with less than a year on the forum and 200 post,ask a question,only to get put down from some for asking something that might be important to him and has not seen before..Searching can be a pain..

Those of us that have been here a while should be more tolerant of the new guys trying to learn,even if it is old hash to some.

Just an opinion....

Jayco

I hate self-appointed internet hall monitors.

Not really a question, he has his opinions already on it, asking others theirs.

We all have our opinions but actual experiences help..I think that is what he was asking and it started out sarcastically..We were all alitle green behind our ears at one time or the other.

Remember back then?

Loco..

Jayco

That's priceless!



I believe you, Scenar.

I once saw a guy shoot 17 rounds at an antelope in Wyoming one time and thought that had to be some sort of record. But your guy's in another league.

It wasn't until me and a buddy were unfortunate enough to share a caribou drop camp with two French Canadians that I heard/saw the best. Over 20 ( I lost count) .270 rounds fired at a caribou at over 900 yards. All misses, some spectacularly so. He even had his buddy loading his clips for him.

It looked more like he was taking a beachhead than a caribou.

Would you like to know what he was shooting?

Was it a custom built precision rifle shooting handloads with a $3000 dollar scope on top?

Nope.

It was a Remington 740 Woodsmaster with a Tasco scope mounted on see-through rings 2" above the bore. He was shooting greenbox Remington factory ammo.

My buddy and I just shook our heads in disbelief......

I'd have paid money to watch that hunt Scenar's talking about.

Puts my stories to shame.

I remember that.

I grabbed my .300 Weatherby Deluxe out of the safe one time thinking it was the .257 with almost the same identical wood. I loaded the .300 with the .257 ammo and had hunted for nearly 3 hours that afternoon and was sitting in the stand admiring the rifle when I realized it was the .300 instead of the .257......Needless to say I am glad I had a the boring old 30-06 Winchester Featherweight in the truck with several loose Core-Lokts in the glove box. Actually shot a nice buck that evening with the 06. So Yes, it happens.

That's pretty much my thinking as well.

The put-down's, especially from someone that makes his living hashing ballistic minutia in print, is especially telling, but in no way surprising.

Funny you should mention that....during my short stint as a range officer at an anonymous public shooting range, I found, what I thought was, a unique piece of brass. It looked like this:



Turning it over I found this case head stamp:



I thought to myself, someone must have been sighting in a 7mm RM and a 300 Weatherby and gotten one round confused.

I then looked more closely and found 19 identical cartridges on the ground!

Just glad they didn't try the 30 in the 7. Of course they'd only have done that once.

True story!

osd
I thought you might be showing that off......

that's the rare Winchester Super Short Dumbass round.

they didn't make too many WSSD's. keep it, might be worth something.;)

Mule Deer, I don'i trust a man that doesn't drink.

This has been a fun read.

I don't what this makes me but I own two chambered for the .270 Win and two rifles chambered for the .30-06.

I like both.

"so this thought just started running through my head. does the 270 or the 30-06 do anything better than the other? would you be able to tell a difference when shooting at game and on how quick the animal went down? Personally i dont think their would be a much of a difference if any difference at all. I started off with an 06, sold that (not because i didnt like it but i wanted to try a 300 out and wanted some extra $$ to spend on it), bought a 300, sold that pretty quick (just didnt cut it for me. People were always talking about "upgrading" from an 06 to a 300 up to me their just wasnt an "upgrade" that i felt. its the same bullet going around 200 FPS faster. WOOPTIE DOOOOO!!!), bought a 270 and a 338 win mag and i VERY happy with both of them. I would deffinatly buy an 06 just because its a good cartridge but for right now theirs just no point to. what do you think about the 270 vs the 30-06? Whats your opinions on the two?"

There's the original post.

I've caught a couple of cracks about not taking it seriously.

Well, now I will, partly because I've taken more big game with the .270 and .30-06 than any other cartridges. The .270 was ahead for a while, but the .30-06 took the lead (by just a little a few years ago).

But first I'd like to analyze this thread. There have been 70-some posts so far. Twenty-four of them suggested a dead horse, or the equivalent. Thirty-one were off-topic. Sixteen took the question seriously.

Of the 16 posts, that took it seriously, not a single one said anything that hasn't been said or written on this subject for decades. A few made the obligatory comment about "the big bears." Some even stated the obvious, that the .30-06 uses heavier bullets.

Since the original poster stated he's already read or heard quite a bit about various cartridges, and has already used a .30-06, .300 magnum, .338 and .270, I doubt he has learned anything.

Probably he was hoping for better, but since this debate has been going on since 1925, with nothing much new that's applicable since the Nosler Partition appeared in 1948, I doubt there COULD be anything new said.

Since over 3/4 of the posts didn't even bother with the original question, it looks like most posters felt the same way I did. But apparently I was the only one to hurt anybody's feelings.

So here's my serious answer: The .30-06 uses heavier bullets than the .270, though not all the time. I have shot a bunch of animals with both rounds, and seen a bunch of other animals shot with both rounds, and when the shooter put the bullet in the right place, all the animals died quickly. If the shooter knows the trajectory of the load he's using, both will work to the limit's of the shooter skill, on the same kinds of game, except maybe really, really BIG bears.

Glad to help with new and startling information.

It's like the old question Ginger of Maryanne (I'm old)...like cole k said I like both. Maybe just enough difference to not be the same but similar enough to be familiar.

You make a living splitting ballistic atoms in print (like the 270 vs 30-06)... I enjoy your writing, despite the very narrow topic. Thing is, the oft repeated criticism of you is that you talk down to readers and this thread is a perfect example.

If you decided to measure groups outside to outside instead of center to center (don't laugh, I know someone who does), the 270 will shoot smaller groups than the 30-06.

Eh, on the 'fire and in most parts of life, ignorance hurts, and it should.

I was mocked and lambasted not too long ago on here for wondering about "Mountain Hunting in California". It was outlawed there decades ago, and reconfirmed in 1992. I would have known this if I had even typed in the phrase "mountain lion hunting in california" into google. I wouldn't have even needed to open a page, just the descriptions alone explained that.

My point was and inquiry exposed how ignorant to the topic I was. I got called out on it. I wasn't butt hurt about it. I actually found it rather funny.

Everybody here has missed the mark greatly a time or two and been ridiculed by the lot. I think that's part of the fun of the 'fire. If anything, this guy was just initiated and welcomed to the fold. His jabs at my ignorance are welcomed any day.

Gotta toughen up a little....

Never explain yourself. Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it.

Mule Dear,

In your experience does the 30/06 with a 180 grain bullet have any field game killing advantage over a 270 using a 150 grain bullet? Using the same type bullet at standard factory velocities out of the same length barrels.

idahoguy101

Mule Deer, not Mule Dear

My question is would a 200 grain 30 calibre bullet, at say 2700 fps, be needed to outperform someone shooting a 150 grain 270 Winchester factory standard load?

Bullhockey, everyone knows that.....nevermind (grin).

idahoguy,

In theory the .30-06 should do better with 180's than the .270's 150's, but I have never been able to see a real difference on game.

The 200 might get us into that "big bear" territory, but not many of us hunt really big bears with a .270 anyway. On non-dangerous game a 150-grain .270 bullet works pretty darn well, at least in my experience.

In fact a really deep-penetrating 130-grain .270 bullet, such as the Barnes TSX or Nosler E-Tip, works very well on pretty big game. I have seen the 130 TSX used on 1000-pound animals and it worked very well indeed.

As alluded to in an earlier post, for 99% of hunting the .270/.30-06 question was pretty well put to rest by the invention of the Nosler Partition over 60 years ago. Some of today's bullets make the question even less debatable. A 150 TSX or E-Tip in the .30-06 is plenty for just about any non-dangerous big game, whether elk or similar-sized African plains game (or at least that's been my experience). A 130 in the .270 does very similar things.

I think you could spend a lifetime using both in the field and not see any real difference....but there would not be any better way to spend a lifetime in my opinion.

I can say that I've never tromped around brown bear country with a 270, I have with a 30/06 loaded with 220gr Partitions.

Not a bad choice at all.

I have hunted grizzly country in Montana with a .270 in my hands (or a .280, which is indeed the same thing) and haven't felt particularly nervous. 180 Woodleighs in the .270 or .280 would be an option, but I have generally had 150 Partitions in the rifle.

While maybe not ideal as big bear stopper I certainly wouldn't throw the 270 down and run

I'm with Steelie on this one..220 NPTs in a good '06 and I would feel as good as I would with a .375...especially after reading some of Phil Shoemakers stuff on the '06 and big bears...

Ingwe

I agree but the 270 would better than a rock or hoping the bear would slipping on the brown stuff coming out of your pants while running away. Of course you may take a step back no matter the rifle in your hands and slip on same brown stuff

Yeah, Phil's a believer in that combo.

Before Nosler made a 220 Partition, Phil used to carry a .30-06 with 200 Partitions for back-up on brown bears. Of course, that was before he got his famous .458--and one "interesting" experience with the '06 and a wounded bear helped him make the decision to buy a .458. But he obviously survived....

Never seen a grizzly in Montana but I've seen salmon eating bears in Alaska and they tend to be on the large size! Fact is damn near anything shy of a rocket launcher still don't warm my heart when pushing bush.

Brad-
With all due respect, I couldn't disagree more. MMV, but I can't think of another writer that's as pragmatic and lends as much common sense to his prose than JB.

You have a point there...buttt...

On my first trip to Alaska ( fishing) I did what any good tourist would do, and strapped on my .44..
We ran into one of your bears...very gratefully he was completely cool...but my first thought on seeing him up close is......" this is gonna really suck..."

Ingwe

Steelhead,

Yes, brown bears do average bigger, and I have seen some VERY big ones, both on Kodiak and the Peninsula.

But we have a few bigger bears in Montana than a lot of people tend to believe. A few years ago some biologist caught a big boar that bottomed out a portable 800-pound scale--and as I recall that was in the spring. And a couple years ago another 800+ pound bear was hit and killed on a highway less than 100 miles from here.

The really big ones, however, are pretty shy. You're far more likely to run into a younger male--or a female with cubs.

The closest run-in I've had down here was in the Bob Marshall. I came around a corner in a trail one spring while hunting black bears, and found a 400-500 pound bear maybe 20 yards away, eating grass. I had a rifle in my hands (a 7mm Rem. Magnum) but he went the other way.

The only time I've been charged, though, was on Kodiak--twice on the same day by different females with cubs. Luckily they were bluffing, but it still got the blood flowing.