Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Weight of Jack O'Connor's favorite .270

As I recall, about 75.

Jack's background as a college English instructor could pose insurmountable communication issues.

Where are the Winchester 21's?

He was a tough ole guy for sure. I'm 74 and have drank icy water from the mountain creeks, but lately my conditioning only allows hunting plains or mid west areas.

I have very much enjoyed this thread. It has made me reflect on the nature of guns today. Many guns are made using CNC machinery to extremely tight tolerances. They are made with space age materials without concern for beauty. I think that the readership to Guns Digest and the Shooter's Digest have declined. Both tomes were filled with beautiful(even if they were in black and white pictures) custom rifles by the best makers. I remember actually working side jobs to get each year's copy of each. People aren't as captivated by fine wood and blued metal. I think that right now there are some Beretta Semi-auto shotguns that have fake fancy wood. You have to look at it close to notice that its not real wood.

Hunters are less connected with the tradition that harkens back to the Pennsylvania style flintlocks made by early craftsmen. A man used to be measured by the quality of his rifle. I don't think that this is the case anymore as most people get their food from Amazon.com or Walmart than from the land.

JOC had the magical ability to take you away from the land of mundane guns to a place where guns had an almost magical ability to have their own personas. JB does this a little with his pet Nulas or that Kilimanjaro stalking rifle.

There used to be more to going to deer camp or hunting camp in the old days. People were judged by the equipment that they used. Accuracy was important. It always has been important but function came first. Every small town had gunsmiths that could work on your rifle and tweak it for better performance. Some smiths were better than others. Today we see all kinds to rifles that have been butchered by back alley hobbyists that were named Bubba. Some smiths were extremely good and reached levels approaching perfection. JOC was writing to a more educated population. He could explain the nuances of an Alvin Linden or Al Biesen Model 70 fwt custom sporter in 270 Win. Jack was great on concentrating on little details. He worked on rifle marksmanship and probably went through the elements on his favorite rifles enough times to definitely qualify as a rifle looney. He practiced what he preached. Many times with gunwriters there are hunters and shooters and Jack like JB was both.

Jack sought a rifle that would appeal to him first but worked every time. Function was the number one priority. I think that this was because he had a problem rifle early in his career. The balance and ergonomics of the rifle was also ultimately very important for JOC. It had to be able to handle snap shots, seated shots and prone shots off of a pack or rest. Finally, I am sure that accuracy was important to him. However, you can have the most accurate rifle out there but if you can't shoot it and handle it well then what good is its accuracy potential.

When you grab a Pre-64 model 70 Winchester fwt, it has a balanced feel. You get a little of this with Rem 700s but its just not the same. There is something that makes the Pre-64 feel like it is ready to go. I don't think that JOC was entirely too worried about the weight of his rifles. It was a consideration but it was not the primary consideration. Jack was into new concepts. It is interesting that his prototype of the Eddie Bauer Skyline down jacket is still the puffy to beat.

He didn’t suffer FOOLS well at all.

Jerry

I think Big Stick would have given Jack the vapors......

Seriously though those two in the same sentence makes no sense. Maybe that was your point?

Jack loved the art aspect of his rifles..... Stick see's them as tools nothing more

After reading this thread I want a Dakota 76 in .270...
Bob

bwa ha ha ha ha that is funny!

BS doesn't have the class to clean JOC's toilet. Pretty sure he would be on ignore.
Have you seen the way BS converses with JB? He would be just as big a dips%^% with JOC.

He is simply a F'stick, to be placed on ignore and allowed to mire in his muck.

Some how i believe he would still like the 270 or maybe the 280. He and ackley were good friends ,though. He might have eventually wound up with a 280 ackley. I believe that this new generation of bullets, guns and scopes would keep him interested tho. He used the 7mm rem mag a good bit when it first came out and was not impressed. He said that the 7 mag was deadly on elk with the 150 grain core-lok. But he said that it didn't do any thing that his 270 couldn't do just as well. The 270 would be better in the field for him, because his rifle would hold more ammo than the 7 mag. He said also that it would have to be a pound or 2 heavier with a longer barrel also..he also said that recoil was higher too. I think the last gun that he was building was a 280 before he passed. I believe that with the 280 his thought was that it would shoot heavier bullets like his 30/06, without the drawbacks, of a magnum.
He also did not like variable power scopes, but i remember him talking about varmit hunting. He wished he had a higher power scope because he had several misses. He said with more power the better you see. I'm not so shure tho that he would like variable power scopes still..

I would also if I didn't have a Tikka......





BTW, it's a T 3 Lite SS 22 3/8" bll.

Jerry

NOT to argue:

I'm going from my FMD (fading memory disorder) so take that into account.

I 'remember' JOC saying that he HAD cut the barrel back 2" on the 7 mag and the velocity was more or less the same as the 270. ???

SINCE we're speculating about TODAY'S rifles, The "Diamond Standard" rifles TODAY don't have to be HEAVY. And M D is correct about
Senior hunters - and I'm one - liking/preferring LESS recoil. We have Decelerators and Limbsavers TODAY they didn't have in the 60-70s.
Therefore the recoil of the 7 mag can be negated.

ALL this in speculation, just discussion for FUN.


Jerry

I'm a sucker for Garands. Offer me an AR or a Garand and I'm stupid. I'll take the Garand every time. Now if they just made that AR in .30-06.....

Nobody has been able to or will ever convince this old tired head that a 5.56mm is as good as a formidable 30 caliber. They haven't even convinced me a 7.62 x 51 is as good. To me that's like saying a 7x57 will do everything a 7 mag will do. Nope, not buying it.

JOC was used to dealing with very opinionated folks.
I’d imagine at the end of the day he’d still be using number 2 now that I think about it.

If he were buying new it’d be a Ruger. Hawkeyes are really nice and he was fiends with Bill Ruger. His relationship with Winchester was pretty poisonous at the end. I wish they made the walnut Hawkeye in 7x57

As to the pre64s....

A 1950 .270 was my main, and for some years only hunting rifle, for about 30 years and it just plain worked in that role. After I wised up and scrubbed the bore really well, it was also very accurate. Still, if any of my FNs were fitted with an M70 safety and hinged floorplate (so far that's not happened) there's no doubt in my mind that it would be a better and safer rifle, and just as functional afield. So, after passing the M70 on to my son, I'm not looking for another one. The current Hawkeyes, I think, fill the role of an affordable and reliable CRF rifle pretty well, and if you shop around, current M70 Classics can be found at surprisingly good prices too. I've mostly moved on to lighter push-feeds that, surprise surprise, are also totally reliable and come in at about 2 or 3 pounds lighter than my old .270. My arms really appreciate that difference on my trip out of the woods when the day is done.

That 270 would be a great rifle,

For kids, women,

Or,

A man of small stature.

"Brad told me that No. 2 is still very much in use; he shoots it and lets other people shoot it. He says that's what it was made for, and he's absolutely right."

https://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/gun-nuts/2012/02/jacks-rifle/

He was lucky. My father somehow blundered into shooting Expert with the BAR during training and had to tote one of those all over Europe. He also "lucked" into a weapons platoon, which meant always staying on the line instead of getting relieved by reserves.

His second wife bought him a carbine, which I have, in the 80s, but he really wanted the Garand, but the price put him off.

The problem with variable scopes in JOC day was reliability, today's variable scopes do not suffer that problem. With that fact in mind I think Jack O'Conner would embrace variable scopes with todays reliability