Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game .270Win. worst cartridge ever!

Well I certainly don't want to be the gaylord, so might have to pass.

I don't own a 270, but have nothing against it except for one thing that makes me scratch my head.

Many Guys have told me that they have lost more animals with that caliber than any other...WHY?

To me, the 270 is not an Eastern cartridge. Have never understood its appeal in the East. It's at its finest as an all-around Western Cartridge, antelope to moose.

If Montana had a standing army, all would be issued 270's.

That is a very good point Brad... they are probably just too fast for Eastern range shorter shots.

I guess there should be two different caliber categories for Eastern vs Western Hunters.

There once were many small dairy farms in the North East with open pastures where the 270 works very well. I've hunted one for the last decade or so and my average shots are about 200 yards...often farther. My 270 WSM really shines there but that's the only property where I use that rifle.

Dan

Of course "dead is dead", but I always tend to a more lightly recoiling cartridge for a given chore. Eastern Whitetail generally don't require the power or range of the 270. But everyone to his own choice... there's no "right" answer.

The old farmer that let me hunt his land and taught me how to deer hunt used a custom 257 Roberts. When I decided to have a custom of my own I chose a 7x57. Both cartridges worked very well on his farm.

Dan

Yes I've heard that too which is exactly opposite of what you'll read here from 270 fans.
Of course a couple of the Benoit brothers killed many deer in Maine, Vermont and Canada with their 270s. Big deer and not exactly open country.

LMFAO!

Placement trumps headstamp or something like that. Guess I'm saying the cartridge isn't the failure in those stories I'm guessing...

It's the only cartridge I've lost an animal with.

Years ago the guys who bought 270's here used to say "I plan to go out west someday". That was their rationale for picking it over the 30-06. I remember, because I used to ask them. Today, the .300 Win and Weatherby magnums have replaced the 270 for the guy who "plans to go out west". Mostly because a western hunt used to mean Mule Deer and Pronghorn but now means Elk.
So now the 270 is popular here just because it is popular, not because it makes sense.

That makes perfect sense.

Here we go again. Some people need a job or a hobby.

Interesting, the 270 is never a wrong choice for deer IMO.


If one loses a deer using a 270, pretty sure it is not the fault of the cartridge.

you gentlemen must hunt in a far different world,
Ive used everything from a 257 roberts to a 62 caliber front loader, they all worked just fine!
while I prefer a 35 whelen over a 270 if your restricted to the 30/06 case family
, Ive had zero problems using a 270 on deer Ive used it on,
and its certainly been working well for decades,
for one of my hunting partners, who has used it in a ruger #1 for over 45 years.

given a choice Ill grab a 340 wby or a 375 H&H almost every time
but Id certainly feel well equipped with a 450 marlin, or 30/06 BLR , or a browning 78 single shot in 300 wby,
and simple compensate for the cartridge being used by hunting the areas best matched to its limitations
Ive killed deer and elk with a 44 mag revolver and successfully used archery equipment, on dozens of hunts over 5 decades
surely if I can work in that limitation on range and power you can use a 270-308 win or 30/06 and put game on the ground.

https://youtu.be/sKTeEmNUkjw

Hunting whitetails east of the Mississippi River can be done a variety of ways, just as it can be done west of the Mississippi River.

For those hunters who take a stand and over-watch an open area, like a power line ROW, a logging clear cut, or a farm field/pasture where the shots tend to be longer and more deliberate, the flat trajectory of the 270 with 130 grain bullets is an advantage over cartridges providing lower velocity and a more curved trajectory. For the hunter who is still-hunting or tracking in the woods, the higher velocity offers no advantage that i can see and therefore might not be the first or best choice for people who primarily hunt in that manner. To me, the Remington 760 family of pump guns are classic eastern hunting rifles and although they have always been available in both 270 and 30-06, the 30-06 has out-sold the 270 by a wide margin. I seem to recall hunters favoring the 30-06 over the 270 because they felt that the 270 bullets were too fast and too fragile, so they tore up too much meat, and the 180 grain 30-06 bullets "bucked brush" better than lighter faster bullets. Most of the people who I knew who hunted with 30-06 rifles favored the 180 grain Remington RN-CL or Winchester/Western PP factory loads. Most of them were WW2 vets who had confidence in the 30-06 and the Remington 740/742 series rifles that they often carried. They favored Weaver K2.5 and K3 scopes with PCH reticles mounted via Weaver tip-off mounts so that they could use their open sights at very close ranges.

When I was a kid, both New Hampshire and Vermont were covered with small family dairy farms and Maine was covered with timber. Fifty years later there is very little farming in either NH or VT, so many of the former fields and pastures have grown up into thick cover, as most have not been managed for a timber crop. ME is now a patchwork of clear cuts where there had only been dense forests. When I last lived in New England, 10/84 thru 04/90, tree stands were just starting to catch on and most people were still-hunting, making small drives (where it was legal), and/or over-watching small fields/pastures that were typically between 0.5 and 20 acres in size.

I think that the 270 is/was fairly common/popular among older hunters due to their reading of JOC's many articles in OUTDOOR LIFE magazine. I only recall one 270 shooter from when I lived in New England, a guy who worked at Ruger's Pinetree Castings plant in Newport, NH, and hunted with a Ruger 77 in 270.

Moosemike: The fact that the 270 Winchester is the only cartridge you wounded a Deer with is absolutely NOT the fault of the cartridge!
It absolutely IS the fault of... YOU!
It just so happens over the last six years I have cleanly and humanely harvested six dandy Whitetail Bucks with the 270 Winchester.
In each instance I carefully and intentionally placed ONE Nosler 130 grain Ballistic Tip bullet in the heart/lungs of these large mature Bucks and went forth and tagged my well bled out trophy.
The closest of those 6 Whitetail Bucks was 250 yards by the way - some much further.
I have been harvesting Blacktail Deer, Antelope, Mule Deer, Elk, Mt. Goats, Black Bear and Whitetail Deer with the 270 Winchester cartridge for 50+ years now and I know how well the 270 Winchester performs!
It performs EXTREMELY well.
Your inference that the 270 Winchester is an unworthy Deer cartridge is laughable!
Your lame and embarrassing attempt to besmirch the 270 is more of an indictment on your marksmanship!
PERIOD!
The 270 Winchester cartridge has been going strong for nearly 100 years now - I don't think it is going to stop doing so just because you can't shoot very well.
Long live the 270 Winchester.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Could be, but I doubt anyone here is man enough to stand up bare chested and volunteer to be hit by one.

I am of the opinion that the shell makes a lot less difference then the bullet that makes the hole.

Bullet HOLES kill, not shells and not even bullets. A bullet that misses the vitals doesn't kill. Many vet are walking around today because of that fact. Anyone thing a vet wounded with an AK47 means the AK47 just isn't good for killing?

A good bonded, Solid Expanding or Partition bullet in a 223 makes a good deer rifle out of a small shell.

But I have seen a 9.3X74R with the wrong bullet only go 5" deep into a small white tail buck. ("Seen" meaning I shot that deer myself with my own rifle.)

In my opinion any shell that launches any bullet that gives a would channel of 5/8" diameter or larger, and goes clear through and exits is a good deer shell.

In my 50 years as a hunter and a guide I have seen many dozens of hits on various game animals that seemed to be perfectly placed, yet the game ran off and had to be tracked down. What I think is interesting is that the 2 calibers that have given me that result more then any others (and really, as many as all others combined) have been the 7MM Remington Mag and the 300 Winchester Mag. In most cases the long runs and tracking jobs were the result of a poorly placed bullet, but in maybe 40% of those times it was from using a bullet that came apart and penetrated less then it should, or veered off course in the game and missed the things on the inside it was supposed to hit.

But only a fool would say the 7Mag or the 300 Mag are too small or weak for deer. They are excellent even with standard Cup and Core bullets, as long as those bullet go clear through in a fairly straight line.

About any powder bottle you like from a 223 up is fine for deer, if you shoot a bullet that expands and yet doesn't come apart.

It really about bullet HOLES. Where are they placed ............and do they go straight through.