Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles "Why I hate the 270"

After reading all the responses, I would say the author accomplished what he sat out to do. It seems to me at times that he is somewhat lamenting the fact that he doesn't feel the same way most people do about the 270. Heck, I have read enough threads on here in the last year to know that most of us feel the same way about at least 1 cartridge. And, I get it, I don't want to hunt what everyone else does. It's the reason I bought my 1st M77 in a 25/06 in the late 70's. No one I knew had a Ruger 77 in my neck of the woods and no one had a 25/06. I remember a guy telling me several years later that he saw my rifle at the hardware store which had ordered it for me before I got up there to pick it up. He told me he had been wanting one and that was the 1st one he had ever seen. For a number of years around here, I knew of very few folks who shot anything other than a 30/06, 270, 308, or a 243...except we hunted with 1 guy who hunted a 224 Weatherby Magnum. No way I could compete with him for hunting a cartridge no one else had.

I have killed a number of deer with a 270 and have a couple of them still here at the house. But my favorite little gun shop that my friend owns had a run on people trading in 270's this past Summer. At one time, the 270 made up between 1/4 and 1/3 of his used rifles. The rest of them ran the gamut from a semi-custom 222 to a couple of larger magnums. I wondered why so many people were trading them in. Maybe it became too routine to see animals die when shooting them. The pawn shop close to me which has a much larger inventory of rifles had about as many of the 270 Win as they did other popular chamberings.

This is how I see it, a 270 is in an 06 case. If you have a 30-06, 25-06, 270, 280, 6.5-06, or even a 338-06, they're all the same from 0-300yds, maybe even further. I'm a .284 fan, love the caliber, love 280's, and have killed a pile of 350lb whitetail with them, as well as a pile of elk and moose with them. I've gone through my magnum phase and found that at 0-600yds they don't kill any deader than an 06 case bullet.

Animals are made of flesh and bone, an 06 case holds enough powder to drive a piece of lead deep enough through that flesh and bone to kill any North American animal out to 300yds with no problem, and if you choose the proper bullet construction, you can stretch that out a lot further.

The guy wrote the article to get a rise out of people and it obviously worked.


Despite what he wrote, everyone knows the 280ai is the king of cartridges, it just takes more time for some people to figure this out

I pretty much agree. First rifle I bought at 16 was a 7mm Rem Mag. I picked it because it was different than anything my family members used. I was started with a 30-30, my grandfather use a 300 Savage, my dad had a sporterized 8x57 Mauser. My uncle hunted with a 270 and my cousin had a 30-06. My uncle on the other side swore by his no jive 35 rem. When it came time to buy the gun my uncle tried to talk me into getting a Browning 30-06 similar to his .270. I ended up buying my 7mm mag in a model 70 classic stainless.

My dad bought reloading equipment and I started rolling my own. For deer I loaded 150 grain Nosler ballistic tip with 61 grains of IMR 4831, which is the starting load. I shot it and was so pleased with the accuracy I got that I never experimented with other loads. I wasn't pushing it to its limits but was happy with the results. Everything I've shot with that load has dropped in its tracks.

I could easily replicate that velocity in a 280ai.

Since purchasing that 7mm I've accumulated more rifles than I'd like to admit, but none in .270. I don't hate it but I've always wanted something else more. I eventually did end up getting that Browning 30-06. I found a NOS A-Bolt stainless stalker on gun broker a few years after my uncle passed and I bought it. I've never shot it with anything other than 150 grain factory core lokts, but it shoots as well with those as my 7mm hand loads and I believe kicks a bit harder.

I have probably killed close to 50 whitetails with the 270, anywhere from 15 to 450 yards. All were shot with a 130 grain bullet, most with the Sierra Gameking. Never had to track one, never had one jump up and run off after being shot. Don't use it much these days, as I'm trying other things. But, if I ever draw a Kentucky elk tag, the 270 is what I'll use.

I do not like Ruger's either! , nor 25-06's.

The author may have wrote the article to get a response, but I will certainly dismiss him going forward. If he was trying for satire, he sorely missed as a writer. I certainly question his credentials if he cannot make a 270 work.

That sums up my experience as well. Started with a 7mm RM in '82 and for 20 years it was my only Colorado-legal big game rifle. It has killed more big game than all my other rifles combined.

As I started adding to my collection in '02, it was with Marlin levers. Since then I've added Colorado-legal bolts in .243 Win to .338 WM. Somehow a .270 has just never quite made the cut. The closest I've gotten was a $15 disagreement on price for a Ruger stainless/skeleton MKII at a local gun show. Went back first thing the next morning, determined to buy it, but was 10 minutes too late - someone else was filling out the paperwork on it. (dammit!)

Thought about one a couple years ago when cdnnsports had the Rugers for $499. Got a .280 instead because I already had a pile of .284 bullets. Thought my girls might use the .280 but one sticks to my .257 Roberts, another got her own (lefty) .308 Win and the other doesn't hunt.

While I've long thought a .270 Win was as good as it gets for deer, it is now doubtful I'll ever get one - unless I run into a deal I just can't refuse.

Anytime someone tries to make a case for a particular chambering being ineffective while arguing that both smaller and larger chamberings are more effective, I have to doubt the validity of their opinion.

If a fella is honest and cursed with a curious mind, has an interest in "old" cartridges, seeks out rifles chambered in "old" cartridges, works up loads for them and takes lots of medium game with them and that curiosity evolves into finding rifles in "old, oddball" cartridges and does the same with them it becomes exceedingly evident that the old 8 X 57 with its original .318 bore can be just as accurate and kills just as good as the newest, latest, greatest cartridge put on the market. So do a thousand other cartridges. Hairs can be split over differences in trajectory, bullets can and do make a difference though I've not seen anything kill one bit better than a good cast bullet when put in the right place on medium game, sectional density can be argued/discussed. One experience can jaundice a hunter, one experience can gleefully convince another hunter and unfortunately both become rote....and neither is 100% correct. I'd be just as fat, dumb and happy in the deer woods with my wife's 243 as I would with my 9 X 71 Peterlongo, my 40-70 or 45-90 Sharps or my 270 or my old 9.3 X 57 Husky or any of a couple dozen other cartridges I own. Not a doubt in my mind all will cleanly kill a whitetail.

Most popular, commercially successful bolt rifle cartridges are based on basically two early cartridge cases. They are the 8 X 57 and the 375 H&H. Respectively a German and a British cartridge. Before anyone includes the 30-06 bear in mind it is a lengthened, necked down 8 X 57. Ain't nuthin' new there. Certainly there is many cartridges based on other cases or a proprietary design but compare their popular success to any based on the aforementioned cartridge cases and it has to be miniscule.

To reiterate my first post in this thread of now 4 pages, the article was "fodder for those who know not and know not that they know not".

.270 boring? Lmao
There is nothing sexier than a 8lb .270 spitting out 110grn Barnes ttsx at 3500fps. If that doesn't give you a Woody than Viagra won't help either.

HUGE difference between the two, isn't there? ........ esp with similar bullets.

So I'm confused a bunch of you are sticking up for the .270 Win.
Is it still gay, or am I safe now to admit that I use one without the wrath of the homophobes being unleashed?

The only
The only "perceived" problem with the 270 is that it's old and boring. That's it!

Shooters, esp younger ones are always looking for the next better thing but there really hasn't been much if any at all improvement in chamberings since the 270 was introduced.

I’ve had similar experiences with the .270 as the author. The only two deer I’ve ever lost have been with the .270. I’ve had two long tracks with it as well. I can’t tell you why. There is no logical reason why that has happened and every deer I’ve ever shot with a 30-06 more or less dropped on the spot. I can’t tell you why some of the most dramatic kills I’ve ever had were with a 7x57/7mm-08 and the .270 has been less than satisfactory.

All I can say is that my experience has been like his.

I'm surprised to hear there is anybody anywhere who has killed a "pile of 350 pound whitetails". Considering deer that size are as rare as hens teeth. Sure the scale isn't off?

A mature Alberta whitetail will tip the scales to 350lbs+, I've seen them close to 400lbs. I had one that was 178lbs on the meat hook without the head hide or hooves. I don't have a scale but it's not hard to tell when two guys can barely get a deer in the back of a truck that it's all of 350lbs. I don't want to derail this awesome 270 thread but I could pm you a few pics of my average size bucks. I only shoot mature deer.

Just two 350# whitetails would make a pile, really, particularly in a half-ton. It's best to carry a bathroom scale to make field estimations prior to dressing.

Odd is right...and apparently, anecdotal evidence for cartridges is far more compelling evidence for killing effectiveness than bullets or placement.... keep them convincing cartridge stories coming!

270 is to the 30-06 what 6.5CM is to the 308, just 88 years later. Glass, bullets, and placement is all that matters. The rest is bullschit and everyone knows it.


At least as it pertains to hunting.

Guess I forgot the (grin). this thread is funny though. Doesn't matter what cartridge you were to say something bad about guys seem to think something bad was said about their wife (grin)

Remembered the grin this time.

The .270 may be boring to some but Pamela Anderson probably couldn't excite those individuals either. Back in the day of coarse

9 out of 10 reactionary twits don't like the .270..

Or the the 6.5 Creedmoor.