Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Boddington on the .270 Winchester

As my only 6.5X55 at the moment is a Howa 1500(not a bad rifle) I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up, Gerry!


I need to start frequenting gun shows more often and maybe I could pick up an older Sako in a Swede?

Thanks for watching my back...

Is this a bad time to mention my Sako is a 270 Win?

Nope. I'd be proud to own one myself.

Ive got 2 Tikkas...both 270 win. Never a bad time to mention a Sako

We have a Tikka 6.5x55 though so it's not quite a Sako but still acceptable. I must confess though no 9.3x62 here but I do have a 35 Whelen in a Rem 700 though

Sakos are great guns.

As a result of reading this thread, I think I'm gonna get a single shot 6.5 Grendel. It's the one in the middle. The cartridge, not the rifle!

Choosing between you and JG will be really easy..

DF

The 6.5 CM is a relatively new cartridge. The, dare I say, venerable?.270 Win. has been proven in the game fields worldwide for almost a century now. For decades, the which cartridge is better debates have raged on and on. Most recently the 6.5 CM vs. practically all cartridges and yet we still hear and read about .270 vs. .280, .270 vs. .30-06, .308 vs. .30-06, .300 WM vs. 7mm RM etc..... The 6.5 CM fanboy talk is heard on my club range, at work, at the LGS's and around the hunt camps in the area. The same 'drivel' (facts, yes facts stating the marginal superiority of the 6.5 CM, that in practical use mean virtually nothing) that Bob spouts is heard repeatedly. Many, around here, like him, have apparently imbibed copious quantities of the 'extra strength' CM Kool Aid. I'd wager that 99% of the CM fanboys have never shot there CM's past 200 yards (most not past 100) and don't have many opportunities to do so where they hunt, especially around here. Is the CM a good hunting round? Yes. Does it kick a lot of other hunting rounds to the curb? No. The ranges where the CM starts to excel past the others are so long that less than 2-3% of hunters should even attempt those shots. The main advantages I see for the CM are lots of different rifles are available, lots of really good factory ammo and recoil is very mild. One of my favorite hunting rifles is my Sako AV Classic Hunter in .270. I also own two 6.5x55's and a .260 Rem. so I see no need or want for a CM. That said, if I run across a rifle I really liked chambered for the CM there is a possibility I might buy it. I'm a rifle looney and I've done stranger things. If I could only have one rifle for deer sized animals it would probably be my .270 Win. or lately gasp! my .270 WSM. For larger game I'd opt for one of my more suitable rifles. UH OH! I just did it myself.

Well, I *guess* we can forgive you for that?

Exactly. It's about 600 miles from where I typically hunt to the nearest grizzly as the crow flies. If I was somewhere I needed a grizzly stopper and still wanted some long range big game performance from the same load I'd use the 8mm WSM with 220gr. Weldcores (it was born for that application). If I was just worried about stopping a grizzly and not hunting a deer species at the same time, I'd take the .50-110 or .416.

The 6.5mms and to a lesser extent the .270s are suitable for elk sized game. The 6.5s do it far better, but then we knew that.

What's ironic, in my case, is I was a huge devotee of the 6.5x55 and ballyhoo'ed it to anybody foolish enough to let me near them. After messing with Swedish Mausers for ten years I glommed onto one of the very first Winchester XTR M70 Featherweights that were chambered for the round, back in '85 or '86, I don't remember. That fueled my proselytizing of the 6.5x55 even more, often making my point by comparing it to the .270. Jeezuey, I think the longest kill I made with it was 150 yards, maybe. Nowadays I would rather hunt deer with a .30-30 bolt gun or Savage .303 and cast lead bullets, so there. I predict that trend to be the "Next Big Thing". Or not.

If I get another 6.5 it'll be a 6.5x55 (I have a line on a #1 single shot in that caliber), or a 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer, or both. I'll probably shoot cast bullets out of them too if they come to pass. ELD/VLD means absolutely nothing to me, no matter the cartridge it's launched from. That's not to say I'm not enjoying this thread- I do like hearing what's on other folk's minds.

Thank you I appreciate it.

I do also have a Sako currently in 7 mm RM but that's off the topic here lol.

far better...your a trip

they don't do anything far better than anything except sell guns magazines to the millennials and tacti-[bleep].

Id like to hear any possible scenario where a 6.5 does anything far better in the hunting fields to say...500 yards.

again...its the people

Easy - the 6.5s have higher sectional density and thus better penetration on big game starting at the muzzle. You don't have to get to any distance to see the benefit of shooting a 6.5 over a .270. Load up the 160gr .264 Weldcore, and you've got one of the best big game bullets on the planet and there's no .277 equivalent usable in factory rifles.

Yeah, so what? The .270 will still kill anything the 6.5 will, as a practical matter, at the ranges most folks shoot (under 400 yards). That's what it's all about, anyway. Will it kill your critter at the distances most folks shoot? Yes it will, end of story. End of argument, period. A few BC points here or there, or SD points, don't matter a bit. Good bullet construction is what counts, and being smart enough to shoot within the distances you can make a good hit. Anything else is just bullcrap.

Show me an animal you would hunt with a 6.5 that a .270 won't shoot through with ease. Ive seen .270s blow out the far side of moose...id venture a guess that a 150g A Frame or any of the monos would too.

exit wounds are exit wounds

again...its the people

Yup, ignore those inconvenient facts Some of us prefer the superior performance of the higher-SD 6.5mm bullets. The 160gr Weldcore consistently gives an exit on elk even on shoulder shots, which can't be said for anything expanding in .277. It's simply superior.

here is a link to the article fwiw. I always enjoy CB https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2019/4/25/a-new-look-at-the-old-270-winchester/