Is the 270 Win going the way of the 280, and slowly dying?

[Johnny Tyndall]

Thanks for that bit - I started another thread indirectly asking about this very topic and hadn't heard much.

"Thank you for reaching out to Nosler with your inquiry below. We’re currently running 6.5-140gr AccuBonds followed by 7mm-160gr AB, 270-150gr AB’s, 270-130 AB’s and then the 270-140gr AB’s up after that so it’s going to be a few more months until we see those again. If you haven’t done so already, we recommend setting up an in-stock product alert on our website so that you’ll be notified as soon as those bullets are available again." 6/30/2022

 

[Comerade]

Really? it equals or outperforms so many of the new stuff. It actually better today than it was 20 years ago. Recoil is tolerable , it has plenty of downrange power, cheap to handload for, works wellin a 22" barrel..I could continue

 

[S-3 ranch]

Hell no. The 270 is not going anywhere soon. Most of the gun talk on these forums is pure fantasy. Nail biting over perceived advantages most never utilize. An accurate 270 with good ammo will kill anything anywhere in NA. People are suckers for good marketing. Social media seems to have exponentially magnified that fact and have people constantly chasing the next shiny thing. That said the 270 has witnessed a lot of new shiny things come and go.

tell me what a 6.5cm does better then a 270 ? It’s marketing
HL Mencken quote “”People can easily be persuaded to accept the most inferior ideas or useless products”

I was guiding a lady on a aoudad ram , @ 400 yards she chambers a 130gr nosler partition and says “ I am going to crush him “ and down the cliff face he came ! 270 & 280 are not heavily marketed, because they don’t need the hype
to preform

 

[General RE LEE]

I bought a 6.5 PRC and kinda wished I had got a .270. The 6.5 PRC is cool but due to very tight SAAMI spec chambers, some brands of brass will not be useable after a couple firings unless a special reamer is ordered to loosen the chamber.

I can get a sub 8lb fully rigged Tikka in 270 with a 22” barrel and match the 6.5 PRC in performance.

 

[Flyjunky]

I got a 270 by chance because I bought a used rifle in it and that's just what it was. I had never wanted one in the past as it just seemed so boring, but I was wrong. Boring is awesome. Why is the boring 270 so good?

- Plenty of cheap ammo for practice and premium ammo for most all game.
- Practice trumps fanciest new calibres. that goes for any caliber
- Easy to reload for if you want, but factory ammo is often very good. same for any caliber
- My friends have smoked their 6.5 PRC barrels in less than 1000 rounds where 270 can go many thousands. any cartridge you “hot rod” will be hard on barrels
- 130gr. bullet does an honest 3100-3200fps without any special tricks and high pressures. how is that different than 6.5prc?
- It's accurate and fast. superperformance in my rifle shoots 3155 into 1/2MOA. with what bullet, im guessing 130gr, and how is that different than a 6.5prc?
- Great for LR work. I use it for wallaby culls out to 800+ meters. how is that any different from 6.5prc?
- Newer ELD-X heavier bullets have wind performance so close to many 6.5s that it doesn't matter.
- Plenty of cheap ammo for practice. Practice trumps fancy calibres again. again, practice is always important but why practice with a load/bullet you're not going to hunt with
- Can load up to 150s for sectional density performance on par with 180gr. .30 caliber but much faster velocities. what 30 cal are you comparing to? Don’t start comparing the top end load for a 270 against the least performing 30 cal load. Compare best to best and then see how they stack up.
- Hits HARD. I drop everything from wallabies to large Reds and they hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. I went out on a cull hunt with my mates last year and everyone knew when I was the one that made the hit on an animal. They just drop. a 6.5 doesn’t hit “hard”?
- Manageable recoil for the power and flat trajectory. 6.5prc has less recoil
- I can go into any store and find 270 ammo, and usually a good selection. true
- Works as a varmint calibre up to wapiti (elk) with one rifle. 6.5 doesn’t?

The more I shoot the 270 the more I realize Jack O'Connor was right all those years ago. It just flat out works, hits hard, and is accurate at range. Take that with the availability of ammo and it's just a fantastic all around caliber. I’m a 270 fan, own 2 of them, but when you take into account quality brass, bullets, optimized barrels/twist, etc, the edge goes to the 6.5, especially when going to longer ranges.

Sorry, expand the above reply

 

[cacklercrazy]

Yes. The 270 is a great cartridge, but IMO it is a one trick pony. It drives 130 grain bullets fast and flat. If that is all you want, go for it. I think there are so many other more versatile choices out there. Maybe I'm wrong.



chris
I think this is why the 6.8 came out.

 

[Mulyhuntr]

tell me what a 6.5cm does better then a 270 ? It’s marketing
HL Mencken quote “”People can easily be persuaded to accept the most inferior ideas or useless products”

I was guiding a lady on a aoudad ram , @ 400 yards she chambers a 130gr nosler partition and says “ I am going to crush him “ and down the cliff face he came ! 270 & 280 are not heavily marketed, because they don’t need the hype
to preform

Coal short enough to optimize loading heavy high bc bullets in a Tikka or short action. Factory twist rates optimized for said bullets.

 

[LTZ5.3]

The .270 will be around a long time

 

[BrettJolly]

Love my 270s, wife and I both use them everywhere we hunt.

I’m in the process of rebarreling my tikka T3x to a new 22” carbon six prefit barrel that is threaded so I can use it with a suppressor. Need some advice on barrel twist rate? I want to be able to shoot some of the newer Higher BC bullets, but still be able to shoot 130s. For an all around twist rate should I go 8 or 9? Is that even possible to have an all around twist? Thanks!

 

[Durran87]

I don’t think so. All of my friends and family are shooting .270, it seems to have a huge following still.

 

[westsloper]

Basically everyone I know shoots a 270 or a 30-06. Most of us have sons who are gonna grow up hunting with these calibers as well. It's not gonna die anytime soon... like for generations. Hunting and firearms are likely to be banned before then.

The only person I know IRL who hunts elk with a new-ish cartridge is also a member of this forum.

 

[Rambo85]

.270 and ‘06 will be the choice of hunters that don’t read Internet forums and magazine articles on how the new caliber will cause game to be even deader, I too fall for it sometimes but it’s just my short attention span. Should I ackley my .280 rem that’s what all the cool kids are doing now right?

 

[SwiftShot]

The 270 Win will not die in our lifetime. There are too many great guns chambered in it out there. It does its job well. Will it fade, yes. You will see fewer and fewer rifles sold in 270 Win, but it will be decades before it fades.

 

[mitchellmountain]

Too many rifles been produced in the past for ammo manufacturers to disregard the market for ammo sales. If rifle manufacturers started putting fast twist barrels on their 270's to utilize the longer high BC bullets and did a little marketing to show them off, bet the sales would pick up too.

 

[hiker270]

Mine is going antelope and mule deer hunting this fall. I bought my Rem. 700 270 in 1965. It shoots MOA and has never left me down.

 

[Hawk3473]

I doubt it. 270 and 308 seem to be the only loaded ammo around in any quantity right now. Seems to be fewer choices if you’re trying to buy a new one right now though.

 

[Unckebob]

1) The 6.8 Western came out as a replacement for the 270WSM and to sell new Winchester and Browning rifles. That doesn't mean it is a better cartridge.

2) I love my 6.5 CM, but the 270 simply is faster with the same bullet weight. I use the 6.5 on whitetail deer when anything more would be overkill. Will the 6.5 benefit from sleeker bullets at extreme long range? Probably, but nobody buys a 270 for extreme ranges and nobody smart buys a 6.5CM because it hunts better than a 270.

3) At ethical hunting distances, there is no material difference in velocity between a 270 and a 6.5PRC. The 270 has more frontal area. It didn't stick around for 110+ years because it was mediocre.

4) The 6.5PRC (for hunters) solved a problem that had already been solved by the 270. If you want to take an animal that the 270 cannot handle, the 6.5PRC is the wrong answer.

The 6.5 PRC exists to move product for Hornady and gunmakers.

 

[Scottf270]

If your a true long range target shooter or someone who will try a shot on a game animal at 500 yards plus, you may find a benefit to the newer Creed or PRC cartridges. They are certainly designed to provide every advantage for long distance shooting.

If you are an occasional shooter or what I call an "average hunter", the old standbys will work like they always have. I'll not talk bad about any of the new upstarts, but I'll die clutching my beloved .270 Winchester!!

 

[Steve O]

1) The 6.8 Western came out as a replacement for the 270WSM and to sell new Winchester and Browning rifles. That doesn't mean it is a better cartridge.

2) I love my 6.5 CM, but the 270 simply is faster with the same bullet weight. I use the 6.5 on whitetail deer when anything more would be overkill. Will the 6.5 benefit from sleeker bullets at extreme long range? Probably, but nobody buys a 270 for extreme ranges and nobody smart buys a 6.5CM because it hunts better than a 270.

3) At ethical hunting distances, there is no material difference in velocity between a 270 and a 6.5PRC. The 270 has more frontal area. It didn't stick around for 110+ years because it was mediocre.

4) The 6.5PRC (for hunters) solved a problem that had already been solved by the 270. If you want to take an animal that the 270 cannot handle, the 6.5PRC is the wrong answer.

The 6.5 PRC exists to move product for Hornady and gunmakers.

VERY well said!

 

[Drob1260]

I have always been a 270 Win fan, it is my one gun for game from antelope to elk and it has never let me down, but I have noticed fewer and fewer rifles being chambered in this caliber. Using conventional bullet killing formulas (for what they are worth), at 400 yards (my personal maximum hunting distance) the 6.5 PRC is arguably more effective on game with less recoil. The 6.5 PRC’s energy, speed, HITS score, Optimum Game Weight, Momentum, and Killing Power scores are higher at 400 yards, and for any longer ranger hunters with the 6.5 PRC’s higher BCs, the advantage only grows when comparing ELD-X bullets for both. Compared to the old standby, the 30-06 is more powerful, versatile, and has a longer barrel life albeit with some added recoil. Additionally, it seems that more and more new gun owners are into target shooting and not hunting. The 270 Win has always been associated with hunting. Its slow 1:10 twist rates prevent the stabilization of the new higher BC bullets thereby keeping away the new wave of long-distance hunters. All this has me thinking:

Is the 270 Win going the way of the 280, and slowly dying?

My opinion is no and here is why. the 280 was never a popular round. should have been but never was. Remington changed its name(7MM Express) and back to the 280 to try to light a fire under it. even the great 264 win mag couldn't budge it. today's hyper popular 6.5's are displacing some of the popularity but at the same time you see people moving away from the Creedmore to the PRC because some have learned or heard that it's not as great of long range round as people have made it out to be. i think the reason is lack of down range energy. the 270 with a good 140 grain bullet(read Berger) at 600 yards, with a 200 yard zero, drops 8.8 minutes, 2.8 minutes of drift 10MPH wind, still carrying nearly 1600Ft-lbs of energy. the Creed with 140 grain Berger, almost 12 minutes and drifts 2.9 while carrying 1250 Ft-Lbs of energy. While bullet placement is king sufficient energy is very much necessary. if compared to the PRC as you did. the PRC drops 8.8, drifts 2.4 and carries just over 1600 Ftlbs of energy making the 270 and the 6.5 PRC near twins. they have very near powder capacities as well. recoil? nearly the same. short vs long? While i like the advantages of the short action slightly lighter weight most short actions calibers benefit by being in a longer action and being able to seat the bullet a little longer. Another issue alot of these new cartridges have that's not talked about much is feeding. they are relatively straight walled and sharp shouldered. I've heard of a lot of feeding issues in push feeds that most people are shooting. Now want to improve the "old 270"? rebarrel to a 1-8 use a Sherman or standard Ackely and shoot the 165 or 170 at 2900+FPS. now you're comparing energy, drop and drift to 7PRC or 7 Rem Mag. JMHO!