I'm an unbashful .270Win fan. That said, there's really nothing it does or doesn't do that can't be did or not-did by a dozen other cartridges with similar capacity and the same or very close projectile diameters and weights.
I have a pair of M70 SS Classic Fwt's that shoot 140gn TSX's @ 3030fps better than I'm capable of most days. I've taken game w/both of them out past 500yds. They shoot the same ammo so I'm able to grab a box of 50, both rifles, and it's a coin-flip for which is the primary and which is the backup. I can load ammo for them relatively quickly as I'm using Ramshot Hunter powder and have a tool-head set up to run them through a Dillon 550. Assuming I'm starting from prepped brass, I can prime/charge/seat a bullet on 100 rounds in ~15Min.
The 270 case feeds very smoothly through nearly any action brand/style. There's enough variety in projectile weight and construction to make it viable in pretty much any/every NA big-game situation. A 22" bbl is plenty to get anything/everything one wants/needs from a big game rifle and I find 22" to be very handy without being so short as to be also obscenely loud. In most 7.5-9# factory rifle configurations, the .270Win's recoil is very manageable as well.
Would you happen to know how much those featherweights weigh (just the bare rifle)? As you would probably know, J. O'C had two Model 70's in .270 with 22" barrels, one a featherweight which he replaced the alloy bottom metal with steel and the other a trimmed down Model 70. He said they were both 8 lbs scoped, but if he replaced the bottom metal on the featherweight with steel, I'm not sure how he got it to 8 lbs instead of say 8 1/4 lbs...unless the scope was extremely light.
