270 in to the abyss

I have always loved the .270 winchester, here in Missouri it is absolutely a fine deer hunting cartridge.

I shot my barrel out of my Savage, and the empty action now resides in my toolbox. One day it will be back in the woods.
I also have a 1903 in a sporter stock that bubba drilled and tapped,(crooked) for peep sights. My plan was to have it rebarreled in .270, as there shouldn't be any magazine problems that I cant fix myself and that old action is as smooth as any out there.
I wish I lived somewhere close to Clark and F.Guffey....I could drive them crazy for sure.
 
While I believe the .270 is a great round, I'd keep the .223 and the 7mm Magnum and sell everything else.
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+1 to that (and I own a Model 7 in 7-08)

One for small, one for everything else. My 7mm mag loves 160 SMK and Nosler Partitions - will take anything out there with ease that I am going to hunt.
 
Every year I build rifles.
Every year I shoot animals.
In between is a month of long range target practice in the desert.

Lots of rifles can only keep it in the kill zone to 400 yards.
The 7mmRM rifles always seem to qualify out to 500 yards.

My guess is that 7mmRM with 140 gr boat tail is some kind of optimum in the trade offs for a guy like me who has low skill and can carry a 10 pound rifle to reach 500 yards.

My guess is that a champion shooter like David Tubb would hunt best out to 800 yards with a 300WM with 210 gr bullets in a rifle that weighs 10 pounds, due to his high skills in consistent recoil reaction, trajectory, and wind doping.
 
I have rifles in each of those calibers with one exception - I don't have a 7mm-08 but I do have a .243. Despite overlap, I'd keep them all (especially the .270) unless I needed the cash or didn't like a particular rifle. Oh, and my .270 is my favorite rifle: Brown Precision synthetic stock, Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8, consistently very accurate with my handloads, and got my largest mule deer (163" at over 400 yards near Douglas, Wy) as well as pronghorns, other mule deer, and a couple of whitetails. An elk hunting guide once told me he preferred hunters carrying a .270 because they were generally better hunters and better shooters. I was carrying my .300 Win Mag at the time. :o
 
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Keep the .270. Ditch the 7mm Rem mag. As a practical matter, the .270 can do everything the 7mm Rem mag can do, cheaper and less recoil.

But one alternative would be to ditch BOTH the .270 and .300 maggie, and keep the 7mm remmag, since you can go up to 175s on it and still shoot as flat as a .300 maggie. But if you're not ditching two, then the one to ditch is the 7mm remmag - in my view, with that specific set. The 7-08 I would keep - very efficient cartridge in a short action (lighter gun).

FWIW, my centerfire turnbolt lineup at the moment is .17 Hornet, .223 Rem, .243 Win, 6.5mm-'06, .280 Rem, .30-'06, and .375 HH Mag. I feel like this is the perfect stepped-up transition to cover all bases, keeping a good balance between efficient / overbore, at least on my particular budget (# of guns and optics I can afford - in this case, 7 centerfire turnbolts - first 3 are varminters up to coyote / beaver, and the other 4 are for large game). I like speed, but not a fan of *super*-overbore rounds. Three of my four big-game rounds are based on the .30-'06 case, as you can see.

But I would be almost just as happy subbing out .25-06 Rem for 6.5mm-06 and subbing out .270 Win for .280 Rem.....not more than a scrunthair of difference in those, really. But I prefer the "even" numbers which correspond to the 1/2 of a millimeter, rather than the "oddballs" which don't..... to my funny way of thinking, .24 cal (6.0mm), .26 cal (6.5mm), and .28 cal (7.0mm) just salves my OCD better than the "odd" number calibers: .25 cal (6.2mm) and .27 cal (6.8mm). Hence the .243 win, the 6.5mm-'06, and .280 Rem. Plus the 6.5mm and 7mm have better bullet selections than the "odd" calibers - .257 and .277. Also, when I shoot out the barrel on my 6.5mm-'06, I'm going to replace it with a 6.5x55mm barrel to eliminate my lone semi-wildcat for which factory ammo is not made.
 
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I like your analysis UD. If I could have only one rifle for critters from pronghorns to moose it would be a .280AI with a 24" barrel and a Schmidt Bender scope. (I would really like such a rifle even if I still had my other rifles.)
 
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Yeah, exactly, lefteye... I was gonna say, he could ditch all 3 of those (.270, 7mm remmag, and .300 maggie), and replace all three with a .280 AI - perfect. Or for that matter, regular .280, 7mm RSAUM, 7mm WSM, or maybe even .270 WSM. I had a .280 AI but sold it and kept my .280 regular because it was lighter - can't decide whether to ream my lightweight .280 to .280 AI or not. I'm leaning against it, but the pro in favor is that Nosler has *good* factory ammo for it. But I handload, so it's easier for me to load .280 regular than .280 AI (especially since .280 AI brass has been hard to get for several years now). Which is why I'll probably stick with .280 regular, and for really long ranges (tundra, beanfields, desert, high alpine, and open plains), I'll go with the 6.5mm-'06 or 6.5x55 when I re-barrel or re-chamber that one. Plus, my .280 is only a 22.25" bbl, not 24-26", so not much more performance would be obtained.

I just don't like that extra recoil of .300 magnums for what little you gain in external ballistic and terminal performance (which is to say, NO gain in external ballistic performance, and only the slightest gain in terminal performance). If I'm going past .30-'06 in recoil, I'm going all the way to 9.3x62 or .375 HH, to handle dangerous and XXL game as well (zebra, eland, blue wildebeest, and DG).
 
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I don't enjoy shooting my .300 Win Mag but it is very accurate with my handloads. My best hunting bullet for elk was the Nosler 180 gr. Partition Protected Point.
 
Of the 7mm08, 270, 7mm mag, 300 win mag, which ones do you find yourself shooting the most? Which ones do you like to hold :o You can play the numbers game again and again...but sometimes the intangibles are what's important.
 
.270 is the nicest to hold and shoot. It is small - like me, and old - but not as old as me. It is also light with a 22" barrel and synthetic stock. I'm not light and my waist is not small - not huge but not small.
 
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