One of the reasons the .270 became popular was because the recoil with a 130 grain projectile was a lot less than a 180 grain projectile out of a .30-06 case. It was found that most hunters could place their bullets better on distant game with the mild recoiling .270. So how does the 190 grain projectile from the .280 case, which is a necked down .30-06 case compare in terms of recoil to a 180 grain .30-06 projectile? And another reason the .270 became popular was because you could hold dead on out to 300 yards and hold on the backbone at 350 yards if you sighted the .270 3" high at 100 yards. So in other words it has a very good maximum point blank range. How is the MPBR with a 190 grain .280 projectile? And of course there's that saying bullets matter more than cases, so why doesn't Little Stick discuss terminal performance when he talks about these high bc match projectiles? I suppose metal plates and cardboard targets don't need to be killed. And Little Stick still hasn't answered my question on another thread, about how he gets any relevant hunting experience with each of his rifles when he has so many of them, and so many different projectiles for each rifle...unless they're mainly for the photographs to display on the internet forums.
Those same advantages work in favor of newer cartridges such as the 6.5 CM and others. You can kill an animal as dead as you do with the 270 at those distances, all with even less recoil. For longer ranges the short magnum and the PRC type simply outperform the old and venerable 270.
More options mean a smaller market share.
The 6.5 CM starts off several hundred feet per second less than the .270 with the same weight bullet e.g. 130's...it doesn't have the same MPBR, and it doesn't have the frontal area that the .270 has. if you accept the argument that there is a slight difference in killing power between various cartridges, then the .270 kills better at normal hunting distances by reason of its faster velocity and bigger frontal area. The 6.5 PRC is a better comparison to the .270, but then the .270 WSM is better still.
