Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .270 Winchester: What is the best big game for this cartridge?

That's a wrap! Put this thread in the can.

Sean nailed it.

Not sure coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, or grizzlies would agree...

They're a given....

Whatever fits on a plate.


Denny

To be VERY specific, I'd say the .270 is at its best shooting deer that weigh between 150 and 250 pounds live weight with ranges between 150 and 300 yards.

That's very specific... what do you base this specific statement on?

Obviously, the .270 is more than suitable for all kinds of game at all ranges, but I figure the .270 is needlessly powerful on smaller critters at under 150 yards or so and, ideally, I'd like a little more gun on animals larger than 250 pounds at distances longer than 300 yards.

The OP asked a specific question so I figured a specific response was in order

I was being a smartass, sort of.

With sensible bullet choice, the 270 can pretty much do it all.

Years ago I read an article in Shooting Times written by a man in his nineties.He stated that he bought a Winchester Model 70 shortly after the model came out,chambered in .270 Win.He lived in Alaska and claimed to have shot and killed over 200 Brown Bears with that gun.He said that about all but several were one shot kills and he only lost two.He blamed his poor marksmanship and not the rifle or the caliber for losing those two bears.He said in those days shooting Brown Bears was a necessary thing when trying to homestead in Alaska.He said they were big bears.I wonder if its possible to find that story on line,I thought it was really good reading.Anybody remember that one?I believe from the early 1980's it was.

I wouldn't doubt it.
Of course, that was back in the day when a rifleman simply placed a good bullet in the right place and didn't over think the whole damned thing.....

PERSONALLY in my experience, the 270 win loaded with a good 150 grain has proven to be an excellent choice on deer, and a good but not ideal choice on elk.
loaded with a good 130 grain its been really effective on antelope

Those pronghorn chops were just about the best meat I ever ate. So, if I had a .270 and the choice of game, I'd probably pick that.

I'd say it's ideal for deer. When I was young I knew a guy who hunted deer with a 760 Remington in .270. He was hell on wheels on running game but one year he jumped a buck and he hit it four times as it ran away. He couldn't find it but a week later a couple guys I knew found it dead. that's how we know it was hit four times. Not a decent shot in it but I was told he didn't get it because of 130 grain bullets. Everybody else I knew that used the cartridge used the 150's. The 150 round nose was legendary here in PA. So when I got a .270 I only used 150's even out west. I used the 150's on all my pronghorn kills. I got my son a .270 and I decided to break tradition and load him some 130 NBT's for deer. He shot a forkhorn last year and after 300 yards I lost the blood trail. The buck went onto a neighboring property that I had no permission to be on. When I saw the property owner I asked him about the buck. He said his nephew killed it later the same day and it had a shallow wound in the shoulder. So this year I had the boy loaded up with 150 grain NBT's. Once bitten twice shy I suppose.

I have a now deceased uncle that shot the front leg off a blacktail buck, with the 130 grain bullet from a .270.

He found chunks of bone and blood, but eventually lost the trail and the buck. He was forever denouncing the .270 as "too fast" and the bullets as "to soft".

Afterwards, he sold his miserable .270 and bought a much more appropriate .280...

He took great joy in showing me the B.S. tables in the latest Shooters Bible, to prove to me that the .280 with the 125 grain bullet was so much superior to the junk .270....

I was barely in my teens but knew enough to roll my eyes and pass gas at his assertions...... Then I bought a .270

I've killed a semi trailer full of deer with that rifle, not to mention a mt goat and a few elk. The only time I've ever had a problem killing with it was when I didn't do my part to put the bullet where it belonged..

I can say the same thing about a 1/2 a dozen other good cartridges, too.

I'd use in on anything short of griz.

it would probably be good for skunks in a leg hold trap grin

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/.270+Winchester.html - hard to summarize all of the info. The writer says his wife took over 900 head of game mostly with a .270 150-gr HotCor loads. Appears they get lots of experience from their guide services and their own shooting.

@Marlin1895 - that guy also says the .250 Savage is hardly adequate for deer.

Wow! That's a long read.... I had to get a sandwich

Been used successfully on them,too.