Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .270 Winchester: What is the best big game for this cartridge?

What is the 270 Winchester perfect for? Is there a type of big game that it's best suited to?

We've talked about the merits of the .270 Win but what would you be most likely to use a .270 Win for?

Coyotes.........

I have never been a .270 fan (prefer 30 caliber) even though I own three of them but everything I have ever shot with one has died. If a bullet performs bad, animal leaves a bad blood trail, etc you can bet that it was shot with a .270 win.

I seem to kill my biggest animals with a .270 but you can bet that something will happen that make me question using it again. I don't know what it is.

Dink

according to ingwe, field mice, that's it

I've never hesitated to shoot any of the North American big game species with the .270 Winchester, including coastal Alaska brown bear. The caliber performs flawlessly when loaded properly and when used appropriately by someone who knows what they're doing.

I do not know about field mice....but I do know the .270 is bucket loads of fun on rabbits.

That put's an end to an otherwise silly conversation.

It's interesting that some folks can ignore 80+ years of reliable field performance,and (likely by now)dead game animals numbering in the millions....like they are discovering something "new",and their "experience" trumps all this empirical data.

Interesting thread title.

I tot the same..... sooo....

How about ANYTHING with 4 legs???

Elephants??? Well 7x57!!

Cape Buffalo ? ? I GUESS NOT! ! ! !

The only reason anyone buys a 270 is because they're impatient and the store is sold out of 30-06's

Same load you'd use for elephant...175 RN solids

Mav940's glowing praise should seal the deal right there...our resident ex-spurt on everything likes the .270...therefore it is to be avoided...

I started out with a custom FN mauser in 270, took my first 6 elk with it (7 shots) using a 130 gr. Hornady bullet,never had a problem. John Barsness chimed in & said why not use a premium bullet if you are hunting game bigger than deer, I disagreed but actually he was right. Why take a chance on what could be a high dollar, maybe once in a lifetime hunt using a regular cup & core bullet. For just a few bucks more you're giving yourself a better chance.
Good bullets & good placement will get the job done.

Dick

I have two younger brothers with whom I've hunted with a lot over the years. I will soon be 70 and the youngest is 64, so the three of us are not exactly young guys. Over the past several decades the .270Win. was used by the three of us on a lot of North American game. The only BG animal not taken with the .270 is the Alaskan brown bear. The list would include a couple of grizzlies, several of each of the North American sheep species(only two deserts though). Then there's several moose, a ton of elk, dozens of antelope, and literally hundreds of deer. But, I still don"t know what .270 is best for.

Years ago when I drew my Bighorn sheep tag for Pikes Peak here,I built a 6.5 Jap Arisaka into .270. Bought a new short chambered barrel from Gun Parts, for $60, turned and chambered it myself, carved a stock for it, tuned the action, put in a new Timney trigger, turned down the bolt ,drilled and tapped for scope mounts and put a cheapy scope on it..Did everything but a new safety as I could not figured out how to fix that.
It shot darn good except the barrel was a bit oversize and liked to be fouled befeore it settles down.

I shot a nice almost full curl ram with it a from about 300 yards and it worked quite well. One shot kill with 130 gr Siera Game Kings if my memory still works or it could have been one of Noslers BT.

I then gave it to my niece and she still uses it for deer and ground hogs.

I built it up, as back then, the.270 was a traditional sheep chambering.

A few years after that I used a 7 mag to kill a montain goat in southern Colorado, and it didn't work any better than the.270.

My go to rifle now is in 30-06.

On a more serious note I think mule deer and large bodied whitetail is the sweet spot for the .270win. It seems overly powerful for our small Texas deer.

you could do away with every other round in the US and keep the 270 Win only and you would be covered for any Big Game you decided to hunt in the Continental US. The 270 Win does every thing right with the proper bullet. If you can't kill any animal you are hunting with the 270 then you need to stay home and learn how to shoot.

I've shot all sorts of big game with a 270 and 130gr Interlocks, except for big bears, and they all died rather quickly. I have complete faith in it. I find that it's just so easy to shoot well that you can put your shot exactly where it needs to go. By the way, it does make a good coyote round too.

If a .270 floats someone's boat, there is nothing he can't take with it. Good bullets matter most. They all them Partitions....This thread should be more like what CAN'T I kilii with a 150 Partiton from a .270

Likely a VERY short list.