Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How many still like the .270 Winchester

Morning Mr. Randy.

I have a question. I have been on this board almost since its beginning. Does anyone remember when and why the 270 bashing started?

I bought a Remington 700 Classic in 270 the first year they came out.....1978, I believe. It was the only rifle I used for about 25 years, and I probably averaged killing 2 deer a year with it. It was, and still is, a very accurate rifle. Used O'Connor's load of 60.0 grains H4831 with a 130 grain bullet. If there is another combination that kills a deer any quicker, then it has yet to be invented.

I have not used the 270 to deer hunt with in several years. That's partly because of bad shoulder, and with recoil bothering it, although the 270 isn't that bad. I have just started using other cartridges, mostly the 243 and the 6.5 Creedmoor, because they have little to no recoil, and kill a deer just as dead. Plus, I also don't hunt as hard as I used to, and could care less if I shoot anything or not. My goal is let the grandkids kill a deer.

But, I will say this.........if something happened, and I won a trip to someplace where the chances of taking a B&C deer was really good, or I draw a Kentucky elk tag, or I was faced with having to kill a deer, or else.......I would use my old 270 and never give it a second thought. I have that much confidence in the rifle and in the cartridge.

Like many others, I read Jack O"Connor and thought the 270 was about perfect. Being a Remington guy at heart, I still tried to like the 280 more. However, every 280 I owned didn't shoot as well as the various 270s I owned. That is why I currently own two 270s and no 280s. I just might have to own another 280 Ackley, though.....

I have one but don't use it very much. I may use it this year some.

For most mere mortals I think the 270 is about the finest general purpose round for Western hunting ever conceived. Light enough recoil, but plenty of reserve power for the likes of elk. Couple it with a 243 for deer and antelope, a 22lr for vermin, and you've got all the rifles you'll need to hunt a place like Montana.

I have looked at the .270 wsm, 7 mm wsm , the creedmoor, several a.i .chamberings and I see no advantages. I have a neighbour that regularily brags up his 270 wsm , his loads etc
One day I will put his rifle over my chronograph and compare it to my WCF.
My rifle has a 22" barrel and the 270 wsm a 24.
His jaw will be surprised when he sees the tiny difference over a chronograph. I easly push 150 partition 's at 3040 from the. 270 Jack. That is good elk medicine, Jack.
On deer sized animals It is too much , imo.
The. 243 is a better whitetail chambering but a little light on larger bodied bull elk, imo

The 270 falls into the pretty ok category for me. It's really more a case of what rifle it's chambered in.

Steve,

I am not sure if he started it, but Ingwe started the 270 is light in the loafers comments. I am not sure if anyone else disliked it too.

I started hunting with my dads Remington pump 270 two years ago for the memories. It kills deer about as dead as they can get. The accuracy could be better but the other day I checked zero with 3 shots at 200 yards cold bore and the group measured 1.1 inch. Close enough. Ed k

I have had 270s for over 50 years.They all served me well.I never had one that did not shoot.

Desertranger,

Have been gone three days helping a friend look for a bighorn ram in the Missouri Breaks, where he finally drew a Montana ram tag after 38 years of applying. Got rained out (that country is impassable to both vehicles and hiking when it gets really wet) so came home to find the Campfire is once again up to its old tricks.

Bought my first .270 in 1974 (don't want to do the math of how long ago that was) and since then have both used it personally and seen it used on a wide variety of big game, including piles of pronghorns, dumptruck loads of deer, enough elk to know it kills them fine, and other elk-sized animal from Shiras moose to African plains game to know it works fine on them as well. In fact I know it works fine even without the magic monolithic bullets. Have never used it or seen it used beyond 500 yards, but then have not seen most big game rounds used beyond 500.

Have extensively used a bunch of other cartridges in the same class from the .270-sized 6.5's to various 7mm's (including the more moderate "magnums" and the .280 and .280 AI) and the .308 and .30-06. Have not seen a trace of difference in how "well" any of them killed with at least a dozen different kinds of expanding bullets. Which is why I've come to the conclusion that the reasons some people "prefer" other rounds in the same class to the .270 a normally more theoretical than real, usually involving a few fps, or relatively minor differences in bullet weight and diameter. Or some more nebulous reason, such a "panache" or the latest styles, which in hunting cartridges can change almost as fast as trends in cell phones.

Have always had at least one .270 since 1974, and my present one is a Winchester Model 70, a Jack O'Connor Commemorative Featherweight with a walnut stock that has VERY fancy figure. It's very accurate as well, and yes, I have hunted with it. However, I tend to use a wide variety of cartridges, due to my job, so continue to search for a round that works better than the .270 for general big game hunting. So far haven't found it, but the search continues.

Shot a couple handfuls of game with a 270, including some last weekend. Has been efficient and effective so far from 50 yards up to 300 yards.

I like its moderate recoil and readily available ammo. Actually bought it back when Obama was in office and fear of ammo shortages had people buying up any ammo in sight. I noticed 270 was always on the shelf at WalMart, so thought It would make for a great hunting caliber since the prep’ers don’t have any interest in it. That logic hasn’t proved me wrong so far.

I suppose the answer is lost in time. Thanks for the response.

Oddly, after reading this thread, I have this urge to buy a 6.5x55. . Cheers.

Don't understand the "still" part of the question.

Thought I might give one a chance about 35 years ago but then I got the sticker price from Shilen. Decided being a 1/4 bore whore was cheaper, and the landscape was more diverse.

I received my 1st 270Win for Christmas from my parents when I was 15. A brand new Win M70 Lightweight. The reasoning was simple enough, dad was a reloader and shot a 270Win. I could shoot a 270Win essentially for "free" as there were always quite a few components on-hand. That was pretty much the extent of my decision regarding what I should use. Win 760 and a 140gn Nosler BT @ 2850ish was just right for deer, and I could run them on dad's Dillon 550 ALMOST as fast as I could shoot them up.

I've been though several "stints" with other chamberings, but have also always kept at lest 1 example of a M70 Lightweight/FWT. Then, I was able to nab a M70 SS Classic Fwt that is exceptionally accurate AND, Barnes introduced their TSX line of projectiles, and everything fell into place for me. Since I'd always shot 140's through the 270, that seemed a logical place to start w/the TSX's. I grew up with a Dillon 550 at my disposal and as such also have a strong attraction towards powders that meter well through automatic/Culver style measurers. Shortly after my 1st box of component 140TSX's I came onto this board and MuleDeer (JB) suggested that he'd experienced good luck w/Ramshot Hunter and 140's from the 270Win. So I stuffed some together. Accuracy was fantastic and velocity is a bit over 3K FPS. That was 14-15yrs ago. That 270Win M70 SS Classic Fwt is in a McMillan Fwt pattern stock and is one of the most "honest" rifle's I've got. It's extremely predictable, needs to be scrubbed every 80-100 shots, retains POI after 2 foulers, and doesn't offer up "bad" surprises.

I was lucky ~2yrs ago and stumbled into a 2nd M70 Classic SS Fwt, acquired a Brown Precision stock for it, and, lucky for me, it will shoot the same ammo as my other SS Fwt. I can run brass shot from either rifle through a Forster bushing sizer, load it, and it will cycle well through either rifle with nary a hint that it won't fit one or the other. It's a wonderful situation in that I can grab both rifles, 1 box of ammo and hunt anything I can draw or buy a tag for anywhere within a 2-day drive. Those 270's using the 140TSX have taken deer a bit beyond 500yds and well under 100yds. Caribou just under 400yds and elk just over 400yds. I recently added a Kimber 84L with a 1:8 twist LIlja in the factory bbl contour. In that rifle I'm shooting the 150 ABLR and though I've only had it a short while, I've killed an elk and a couple of deer with it from 75yds out to just under 550yds. They just work, and I'm not giving up my 270's anytime soon.

I'm a 30 cal guy. My Grandfather hunted with an -06, My father hunted with an -06 and my first deer rifle was a M94 30-30. A few years ago after just having re read one of JOC's books I saw a BACO M70 FWT in 270 on GB for a very attractive price and bought it as a poor man's JOC commemorative. It was my first 270 and I am very lucky that I didn't buy it sooner or I wouldn't have a safe full of other rifles. From the first time I shot if I haven't hunted with anything else.

I have a Finn Aagaard quote on a "post it" note in my reloading notebook. "...the true general purpose big-game cartridges used in this country come in but two calibers, 30 and 7mm (the .270 Win., is merely a slightly aberrant 7mm whose bullets are .007 under size.)

I took a .270 in on a trade once, but did not put it in a gun safe with other guns because of what Ingwe and others have said and I thought it could be contagious. Peddled it within a few days.

There you go again, playing the experience and logic card. No place for that crap here!

Brad,

Please stop

1) This makes sense

2) More importantly this would put a swift and permanent end to years of cultivating the idea to my spouse that I need multiple rifles and calibers to do the same thing. She would most likely frame the quote and point to it at the mere mention of a new rifle.