.270 Win Adequate For Big Game?

Is the .270 Win adequate for big game?

  • Yes

    Votes: 53 94.6%

  • No

    Votes: 3 5.4%
  • Total voters
    56
I used a Remington model 700 .270 for years. It's just right for deer, maybe a bit light for elk, but will get the job done. Its great for bighorn sheep, mountain lion and antelope. I swore I'd never replace it. Then they came out with the 7mm STW.
 
yes

absolutely my little bro. has shot numerous elk wiht his savage 270 and they were all one shot kills, shot placement is everything.
 
With proper shot selection, good bullets and bullet placement, the .270 Win is adecuate for anything that walks North America. Though I'd deffinatly want something larger on the griz variety of bruin... Just in case. The rest - I've already taken with mine, excepting Caribou which I doubt would be hardier than Moose! It's always functioned just fine.

But, that being said, if you are willing to settle for less than ideal bullet placement, plan to take running shots, or just have trouble keeping groups small enough to hit the vitals at hunting ranges - take something larger with more power. Then the answer is "No. It is not adecuate to take big game." But than again, given such circumstances, neither is a .460 Wetherby. ;)
 
I'd use it for game up to elk size. Black bears too. I would want something with a little more power for dangerous game (grizzly, brown bears), but below that, it should be good for just about anything.
 
I'm not sure I'd use it for much of anything bigger than whitetail.
Click to expand...
dude,how big are the white tails around there? ;)

my .270 took 5 deer this year, in the hands of two people and a follow up shot was not neseeary on any. i would have no innner conflict about taking it after moose or elk, id just select the right shots.
 
Surprisingly enough, out here in brown, furry country, the majority of locals use, carry and shoot .270s. They seem to get the job done well enough.
Though you definitely want to use premium bullets on critters larger than caribou.
 
Hecks yeah it is, with the right bullet selection and shot placement that it.....up until you're talking coastal browns or polar bears anyhow; then it's not ideal.
 
Rich's answer stands: what do you mean by "Big Game"? In Africa and parts of Asia, North American deer and elk would barely class as "medium game." There are a lot of hunters here who hunt BIG GAME. (Big browns, buffalo of all kinds, African lion, elephant, hippo, Alaskan moose, etc)

Jack O’Connor "proved" that you can effectively use the .270 for just about anything. That doesn't mean that it's the RIGHT choice for Polar Bear, but he managed to do it. With the heavier bullets, I'd feel fine with anything in the Americas with it, with the possible exception of big browns. (But with the right shot, maybe even then, though it's not optimal.)
 
Like Sharp Shooter said, shot placement is everything. Don't take any risky long shots or from odd shooting positions and you'll do just fine with a .270.
 
Jack O'Connor shot some pretty large animals with the .270, but he could SHOOT and knew their anatomy, and used Nosler Partition bullets...an important point. I ws very impressed with the results tht he got on oryx, a notoriously tough antelope, with the .270.

But Jack is often maligned by some who don't realize that even he used heavier calibers when wise. He owned .338. .375 H&H and .416 Rigby rifles, too. I don't recall him shooting a polar bear, but he took a .338 to Alaska for brown bear. If he DID shoot a polar bear, I bet he didn't choose a .270 for that job! He did note that Alaska warden Hosea Sarber shot many brown bears with a .270, and liked the cartridge.

Lone Star
 
.303 British has been used on every kind of game there is, not that I would recommend it. .270 can be used as well. Of course, if you have the money to go after Cape Buffalo or Big Brown's, you have enough to spend on a big bore.

Davis
 
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