"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.
