Cartridge Families (5) - The 270s
Kim du Toit
June 17, 2006
6:08 AM CDT
Between the quarter-inchers and the .30s is yet another family, sometimes called the “ ‘tweeners”—between .25 and .30. They’re classic “wide-open spaces” cartridges.
I like to call them “damn effective”, and this group may well represent one of the best compromises between speed, range and bullet weight. Here are a few:
The .264 Win Mag is an absolute monster, shooting a (relatively) tiny bullet out of a modified .458 Win Mag casing. It rivals the .257 Weatherby Mag in terms of velocity, but arrives with more authority because of its bigger bullet.
The fabled .270 Win needs little introduction, of course, and is probably one of the better antelope- and sheep cartridges ever made. (A couple of the cognoscenti disagree, by the way, saying that the .270’s bullet weight is on the light side.)
The .280 Rem on the right is an interesting one. Technically, it’s a 7mm cartridge (the actual bullet diameter is .284”, which is 7mm), but it shares the .270 Win’s case, and in terms of performance it’s only a hair ahead of the .270 Win*, which is why I included it with this family. The heavier bullet gives it more “punch” at the other side, but at the expense of trajectory—Sir Isaac Newton will not be denied. As both the .270 Win and .280 Rem use the .30-06’s casing, there’s a lot of powder behind either bullet. (The .280 Rem begs the question: “why not just use the .30-06?” and that’s no doubt why it isn’t more popular than it is.)
Like all the Weatherby Mags, the .270 Wby has a loyal following, with good reason: it’s a screamer, and probably the flattest-shooting round in this family, albeit with more pain on the shoulder (see Sir Isaac Newton, above).
But I have to say, all things considered, out of this family I think I’d go with the .270 Win: it’s hard to argue with a cartridge with a proven track record, and which is sold everywhere guns are sold. In fact, the last time I fired a Remington 7400 semi-auto rifle, it was chambered in .270 Win, and a real pleasure it was to shoot, too: acceptable recoil, and results at the naughty end were as advertised.
Frankly, if I were hunting pronghorns in Wyoming or bighorn sheep in the Rockies, I wouldn’t feel deprived or under-gunned with any of the cartridges in the picture. Not much wrong with that.
*Factory loads: handloadings are another story altogether.
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