I fought it for years. I argued with my hunting buddy who has used a .270 for many moons. My own pick was a 7mm/08 and I saw it as being so near to the .270 that I couldn't see the need for the old .270.

I have heard it said before, that it is funny what a few years will do to a man.

I have recently added a Winchester Model 70 in .270 to my safe. It is a 1953 model, and is thoroughly used. I don't mind a bit. I wanted one to hunt with and use.

What I have come to realize is that it is now hard to say why I need a cartridge other than a .270. I still have other rifles in the safe, but for the hunting I do, which is whitetails, at a maximum of 350 yards, the .270 is perfect.

This is the dangerous part. The possibility of a pronghorn hunt? The .270 is great. The possibility of a caribou hunt? No flies on a .270. The possibility of a hunt for Black bear or Elk? 150 grain partitions make us good to go.

Could it be, that I could spend the rest of my days hunting with a .270, and never put it at the "redline" of it's capabilities? Maybe I am getting old, but I will swear that I find comfort in that.

I intend to mount a 6x42 Leupold on my Winchester and go about hunting with it. The thing is, I still want to own other rifles and cartridges, it's just that I can't convince myself that I need them for me. I keep an eye towards buying rifles that suit my son or my wife. There is a good chance that they will be well suited with a good .270 as well.

Thanks for the post because I have been having a dabate a day with my self 270 or 270 wsm. Today the 270 wins out. I have read ballstic charts talked to guys at the range on the internet until I am tired but I think you hit it on the head the 270 can do a lot and now after shooting a couple it is a pleasure to shoot as well.

One thing I dig about the two-sebbny is all the cheap ammo and reloading stuff at gun shows. Makes for a cheap shooter.

338,
I agree. I traded for 80 rounds of Federal Premium loads at the last gunshow hereabouts. They are loaded with 150 grain partitions, and I will keep them in reserve till I need to shoot something on the large end of the scale.

I would love to trade for a case of 130 grain Fusion loads for my old rifle. Either those or some plain old Remington Core Lokts.

I am beginning to think that I may be too lazy to load for a .270......

Hey, keep that stuff quite! I've had a 270 for 35 years and the wife doesn't need to know that all those others in the safe don't have real needs! Mine has become my bigger than deer gun, I prefer my .257 Roberts and .250 Savage for local whitetails. That doesn't mean it wouldn't get the call for open country mulies though.

;)Yeah I know, my wife smoked 2 elkies on Sat morn with our lil .270 and after she tipped em both over she just asked me why anyone would want anything else.....

I was just quiet (for once) as I felt sort of set up...

Dober

Cartridge selection with today's bullets is pretty much gun gack, avoiding the extremes.

For close to 30 years now, my dad has used but two centerfire rifles. His "bush" rifle for deer is a 1957 M94 carbine 32 Spl he bought new as a 19 year old kid.

Then in the mid-80's I bought a 1957 M70 standard rifle in 270 for him. I mounted up a very early Leupold 6X42 scope (1988 as I recall) with a heavy duplex. With my early, sloppy handloads it would shoot way under an inch with 140 BTSP Hornady's at 3050 fps. Still does. Just try and convince him it's not the perfect field rifle!

And you know? I've played with an obscene number of rifles in the past 30 years. None work any better than that old 270.

Rifle opens here Saturday. With everything else in the safe my old 700 BDL 270 is crying for me take her. I mean I let her kill some groundhogs this summer with 90 grain HPs. Saturday was going to be Mr Weatherby's day but the old girl sings take me Marc take me! What to do?

You bought the wrong one, everyone knows the 280 is soooo much better than the 270, lol. enjoy.

I know, but the store was all out of Pre-64 M70's in 280 Rem.

4 the most part I'd certainly agree. 4 me, it's about the rifle a good bullet and a good bullet in the right place.

And a goodly share of the rest of it is ballistic gack 101...

Sober

no sense messin' 'round with the kids (270, 280, Whelen) when you can just go with the daddy -- 30-06 -- a round that was invented before the word gack.

Been investing in .270s lately myself. No sweeter rifle exists than a Dakota 10 in .270 WCF with a Leupy 2.5-8X32. My thinking is that some people hunt with a bow, a single shot is infinitely more deadly, especially in .270.

I agree that we need to keep it quiet. I definitely don't admit it out loud.

Dober happy birthday glad to see your humor has not gone away with aging.

The late Jack O'Conner was rather fond of the 270 and I value his opinion.

Forget O'Conner, John Jobson was partial to it and so was Bob Lee.

Over the hills and through da woods with this ol' smokepole for 53 years.

Guess I ought to have it rebarreled in 280.

The 270 is a great one gun choice, when I wanted ONE gun I could leave at a friends back east to make traveling to hunt easier the 270 was the best choice..good for Whitetails, good for black bears and you can find ammo anywhere....even the local Kmart stocks core-lokts for $11

Can you get it rebarreled to something like this ?

Sako 85 finnlight in 270 Win / McMillan stock - BTW she just started shooting one hole groups with 57.5 grains of H4831 under a 140gr. accubond.

Purty.Hopefully you will still have it 50 years later.

I received an old (not sure what year) Remington .270 from my uncle, that I believe was my grandfather's. If it was my grandfather's, it would be from the '62-'69 range. It's just been sitting in my safe, but as I was sitting in the woods, watching for a spike elk, I got to thinking that I should pick up a VXII 3-9 and get it ready for next year. Never loaded for a .270. I suspect that a 130 or 150 Partition should do what I need done.

But I gotta get some blue tape. All the kewl Montana guys use it.

My plan was to get a couple of good sako's, and that custom shop model 70 of mine and then stop buying new rifles.

I think I'm good -

I hunted Elk with my 30-06 Sako and OMG I love the 85 setup.

Spot

IF Sako only made that rifle in 338/06........then I'd spring for a long action...but a 6.5x55 might tempt me.....but the 260 is there in SA......Nice Sako.

Don't you guys even watch hunting shows? nowadays you can't kill deer with anything less than a 300 Ultra mag. Everything else just bounces off.
That said, I love my 270 but being single I don;t really need a reason to buy more guns other than " hey that's really cool"

You know, I have a .280 in the safe as well, and I have hunted with it successfully. I like the rifle and the cartridge, but I bought it for my son. It is a 700 Classic from the year he was born.

I sold my 7/08 mountain rifle this past year, in the fallout from a divorce. I kept the rifles I had bought for my boy. Figured to hunt with that .280 this year, and then as things have started to even back out again financially, I added this .270.

I like the rifle alot. I have seen what the cartridge will do, as I mentioned my hunting partner has hunted with a .270 for the the ten years we have hunted together.

I look forward to making memories with the old cartridge as well.

Nothing wrong with a .270 for a hunting rifle. It's what I would recommend for anybody who isn't a handloader. Safe bet even if you do handload. (grin)

the difference between a 270 and 280 is only .oo7" arguing for the 280 seems to fit the new is better mold.

Yes I do hunt with a flintlock, only because I can. 45/70, 4590,45/110 are good, 7x57, 6.5x55, 30/30,30-06. The rest are newcommers. I have to admit the 257 Roberts is my giving in to the modern is better concept.

I'm kinda just funnin ya here, but am an oldy is better guy.

Randy

I've got a .270 Rem 700 ltwt that I use on hogs with 130 Gr. TSX's. DEADLY!

Haven't got to hunt anything else with it yet, but I've also fallen for the .270.

I love both the 270 and the 280. As has been mentioned, the differences are almost negligable. However, if the .280 had come first, any argument people have between the two would be the same except the flip-flopped per their preferred caliber now. Everything we say now about O'Connor with respect to the .270 today we would instead be saying about O'Connor with respect to the .280. In my opinion, that is.

It�s hard not to like the .270 Winchester.

For me, the standard .270 is the base line for western hunting cartridges. It�s easy to shoot well, widely available (guns and ammo), fast and flat, and it hits all manner of game with reassuring authority. It�s perfect for deer and antelope, and good-to-go for most elk hunting. Sheep, caribou and even moose are no problem.

Plenty of milder cartridges also hunt well and you can certainly go with more thunder, but a familiar, accurate .270 Winchester is almost never a bad choice.

Timing is everything, to be sure.

My .270 Win. was made in 1953 too. I got it used & had a bit of work done on it but the metal is all original. That puppy puts 150 gr. Partitions into 3/4" with boring regularity. Load yours up with 57 gr. of Rldr-22 & go for everything in N.A. except for the largest bears. I've been using a .270 Win. of one type or another for 40+ years here in Ak. & it just plain works.
Bear in Fairbanks

I don't care what anyone says or has said about the 270. I bought a rem 700 in 270 24 years ago, it being my first bolt action "Western" cartridge. It's still my favorite because it works and I've got some serious faith in the rifle and cartridge. This could be said about many, many cartridges out there, especially, like Steely said, with todays bullets. Pick your fav and go hunting.

It's all I ever needed for the big game I've pursued (deer, antelope, elk, and black bear). I hand loaded 150gr for elk and bear and 125gr for everything else. I tried 90gr and those were killer (literally) for marmot at 400 yds. I still have the Win model 70 in 270, but can't even fire it here in Illinois. Some day I'll head west again ...

I sure have grown more fond of mine over time, it does not kick the crap out of you with the 130 grain and does a very good job on deer.

Good luck to ya wit dat.


Came close to buying an 85 this years in a heavy barrel varmint configuration reamed to 7/08 but my dealer told me that it wasn't available in thie U.S.


???????????????

Don't kid yourselves...the search ends with the 30-06.

CrimsonTide: Geez man! What are you trying to do here? Mostly I've found well informed folks on this site. How did you mange to slip in here?

I hope my wife never meets you. A 270 is totally inadequte for pronghorn. No respectable pronghorn would be taken with anything less than a 257 Weatherby. For caribou, a 6.5 x 55 is perfect. Mule deer will require a 7 mm Rem Mag, and should you do elk, at least a 300 Winchester. If you move to the timber for elk or decide to do bison a 45-70 is an absolute must. With black bear the 30-06 is perfect. Basically, every species requires a specific well tuned rifle. I could go on for ground squirrels, coyote, rabbits, bobcats, mt lion, hogs, etc, but I think you get the picture. I even have rifles for species that haven't been invented yet. Should I ever luck out and draw a bighorn tag, there's nothing in the safe that will suffice. Again, stay away from my wife. 1Minute

The first new rifle I ever bought was a .270 post-64 Model 70 featherweight. Good looking stock, and sub-moa accurate with factory 140 gr. Hornady Interlocks. Awesome on deer. Last several years I have been using an accurized Rem 700 Classic in .25-06. Against my better judgement, I recently sold the .270 to fund a custom rifle project. But I'm already thinking I should have kept it, and now I'm looking at a Rem 700 LSS Mountain Rifle in .270 that has caught my eye. Gotta do my part to help the economy, you know.

I actually think that there are four guns that a self respecting looney should never own: .270 Win, .280 Rem, 7mm Rem Mag and 30-06. Own one of them, and making an even semi-factual argument as to why you need to own others is tough. The only defense is to own them all so that you speak knowledgably about the differences between them as an ideal all-arounder.

i think the only real argument between which is better 270 or 280 would have to do with bullet variety. im thinkin there is a better selection of bullets in the 7mm category than the 270 so maybe its a bit more versatile and a bit better

Thank you. please explain that to my girlfriend, who thinks one gun will do everything because her dad has hunted for 40 some years and only owns one rifle

Variety of bullets is overrated when you have the 130 gr NPT.

In Alabama you got to have a 300 winny for clear cuts,30-06 for harwood bottoms,308 for beanfields,7-08 for cornfields,280 for hunting in pine timber,30-30 for open swamps,45-70 for thick swamps,a good BAR of any caliber for drives even my wife knows a 270 just good on the green fields

Couldn't have said it better myself........

This is a great thread. I have been shooting the same .270 (700 BDL Custom Deluxe) for almost 35 years. Lately I have been toying with buying a new rifle to "replace" the .270. I have been researching different guns and calibers for the past few weeks. I have yet to decide on which gun I plan to buy but I'll be darned if I can find any good reason (for me) to buy anything other than a .270! I even purposely exposed myself to a bad strain of "magnumitis" but I must be immune because I didn't catch it!

ME

The only change I'd make would be to get it in a Mod. 70 FWT.

Relax my friends. If you want to buy a safe full of rifles for every hunting condition, that is perfectly alright with me. I even see the use in a lightweight rifle, but I am nearly convinced that it will be a .270 when it shows up.

My trusted 338 is gathering dust since I succumbed to the "dangerous" 270. I'm sure it has always been a great cartridge but bullets like the NPT and my favorite, the TSX, have made it even better. A 7x6 bull elk last year and a moose this year never knew what hit 'em. About the only thing (in north amaerica) that will make me grab the 338 again would be a chance at a big bear.

ttpoz

The 30-06 is indeed a fine round, and the one others are compared to. I have the 270 Wicnchester and 30-06 Springfield. Love them both. But in all honesty they do much the same thing and I would be comfortable with either one. The 30-06 has one benefit, in that there are more varied factory rounds out there, and it shoots 110-200gr well if loaded properly.
Which is better will fill the writer mags for ever, or until they finally outlaw our guns. But that is a different thread for a different forum. Dan


"no sense messin' 'round with the kids (270, 280, Whelen) when you can just go with the daddy -- 30-06 -- a round that was invented before the word gack."

I have owned and used 270's since the mid 70's. I load it down a bit for most deer hunting and the 150 grain Speer, Hornady or Nosler Partition loaded to top velocity do all my large chores. My present 270 is my loaner rifle and everyone that uses it wants to buy it.

30-06 "The No-Gack Round"

Nice....grins

Cept I thought it was the 06 Improved aka the .270...

Dober

Actually, I've been thinking in the other direction lately:

the "270 Improved" is actually the -06!!!

As you know and have stated many times, it's mostly all gack when it comes cartridges, bullets do the work.

Unless you handload, the .270 Win would be my choice. Even though I do handload, the .270 Win would be my choice - if I need more I'm going to use MORE. That's what my .300WM is for.

I just bought this Interarms Mark X in .270. I want to shoot it some before I do anything to it. The stock will probably get refinished after hunting season. The scope will get replaced after I shoot it a little bit.

The best-selling long rangebig game cartridge ever commercially produced;it had no military use to establish it as one of the most popular hunting cartridges of all times.Proven on every continent on the globe and used on so many types and sizes of big game it would impossible to calculate.

Everything that was invented to compete with it has choked on its' dust, including the 284,7/08, 280,etc ad nauseum. The 270 WSM will never approach it in game tallied or popularity.Besides, the 270 does its'work with a 22" barrel while the WSM needs 24";even then it only has 100 fps advantage over the Winchester round.The "advantage" of the short action is off-set by a longer barrel. In the end, nothing is gained,and the short action is a silly reason to buy a cartridge anyway.

Among commercial rifle cartridges(non-military)only the 7 Rem Mag has come close to matching the 270's' universal appeal.

Sure it's dangerous;it sort of eliminates the need for anything else in its' category. Guys buy other cartridges, thinking they'll "do better"(me,too).In the end, they don't.....


At the end of the day, there are really only two big game cartridges; the 270 Winchester and the 375H&H.

I actually like the .30-06 better, but I have both.

I think the cartridges from about .264 to .30 cal based on the 308 and '06 (incl the .284 because of it's volume) cases pretty line up the laws of physics to affect perfect balance. .277 fits right in there.

I agree with Dober that the rifle means more to me now and then good glass and a good bullet. No matter how many wunder cartridges roll out the factory door there is really nothing new under the sun and the same laws of physics have to be obeyed.

There is a lot of old stuff (or old fashioned) that is still unbeaten or better and I think it's true of cartridges too.

I gotta agree with 99% of this.... however, I still believe a Sako Forester chambered for the 270-08 Imp would be the catzazz!

My .270, a remodeled Rem 700 is the last rifle I will ever part with, because it does all I need to do exceedingly well and instills great confidence when I use it.
This is her with my boys when they were half/pints hunting blacktails in the Applegate.

Fifty years of hunting had reduced my 270 to this.



I decided a face lift was in order.



This old girl deserves to look like a new model because she has never let me down in all the years I've owned her.

I'm very fortunate to have been raised in a serious hunting family. As long as I can remember my Dad has owned matching .270 Win, .300 Win Mag, and .375 H&H Model 70s. After 4 decades of tagging along in 18 states and 7 countries it'd be hard for me to argue against this triumvirate.

My best friend and business partner, the finest and most prolific (and productive) hunter I've ever met (the World Slam of sheep and goats, and one desert bighorn sheep away from his second North American Grand Slam, just for illustration) uses predominantly a matching pair of LSS Mountain Rifles in .270 Win, full length neutral bedded.

Our last elk hunts, African plains game trips, and Highland stag stalks have yielded some 3 dozen+ animals between us - and left (me at least) wondering why we hadn't just been using matching .270s all those many years for 99% of everything, with a 6 bits in the safe for the dangerous game only forays...

IDARED,

The old girl looks real good in the new dress! Good on ya man!
I need to have mine refinished by someone that knows what their doing and a classic checkering job. Then she'll be ready for the grandkids to admire

I used to favor cartridges like the 257Wby and 300Wby but got tired of the expensive factory ammo (don't reload yet). I figured if I went with a standard cartridge, what I would loose in trajectory/energy, I would make up for with practice/shot placement so I decided to go with some VANILLA round of the '06 variety.

I couldn't decide on one so I did what every good gun-nut would do: I bought a 25-06, 270, 280 and 30-06 and shot them side-by-side all summer long. It didn't take long to see I favored the 270Win and I ended up selling off the others and haven't looked back since. I just really dig shooting the 270 (cheap ammo is nice too) and have a TON of confidence in the round. It's certainly the perfect cartridge for me, that's for sure!!

I do not know why but in my 40yrs of gun tuning and hand loading , I have found the 270 Win to be the most accurate off the shelf deer rifle. I have spent may hours at the gun club helping people sight in their deer rifles. The 270 out shoots the 06s , magnums , and the 308 that is a fine shooting cartridge in target guns.
Can anyone expain that or do I need another 40yrs of test firing?

Journeyman: Great post and well stated by someone who has clearly "been there"...

Wow, I thought something was wrong with my computer until I realized we were being treated to life size photos.