Yup, I'll second what Form and others are saying, even though you don't like the advice.
You're going into this backwards. Being an avid archer, you understand what it takes to be successful at archery. You don't need the new Matthew's every year, you don't need high dollar broadheads or the latest camo pattern to kill. What you do need is insane amounts of practice, an intimate understanding of your setup and your own personal limitations, and some luck. The exact same thing is going on with long range shooting and hunting. A few boxes per summer is not enough practice, no matter what your granddad told you. When you draw a bead on an animal at 500 yards, you need to understand your own shooting ability well enough to know when you should and should not be pulling the trigger.
On my first "big" elk hunt a few years ago, I went every day, after work, all summer long, and would shoot one entire box of ammo from field positions out to about 800 yards. I did it in wind, rain, low light, you name it. I also went early mornings on saturdays and would shoot another box quite often. I went through roughly 100-120 boxes (2k-2400 rounds) of factory ammo leading up to that hunt, and boy did I feel like I was ready. Then, on the 4th day, I flubbed my setup time and missed an opportunity on a bull at about 500 yards. I luckily ended up re-finding him later that day and was able to put him down, but I flat out screwed up earlier that day.
What was my screw up? Time. I underestimated how much time setting up from standing, with my pack and rifle on, was going to take me. It took astronomically more time than I had anticipated, I hadn't really practiced it (even though I had shot a ton from field positions all summer), and it cost me chip shot opportunity that morning in Central Utah.
You don't need more gun, you don't need "more kinetic energy," or "hydrostatic shock" or whatever buzz word is all the rage right now with gun writers (go read the .260/6.5 thread and check out would channels and results from guys who use them, you'll see none of that matters in real world land). What you need is astronomical amounts of trigger time with applicable practice. Practice with your pack on and your bino harness (just like you would in Archery), practice in the wind (just like you would in archery), practice in poor light and bad weather (surprise, just like you would with archery).
That being said, I don't blame you for wanting to dump your Salvage rifle in favor of something better. A tight twist 223 Tikka makes great practice and is cheap to shoot (relatively), and another Tikka (honestly, I would stick with a 270, since you probably already have ammo for it), for keeping sharp on your hunting rifle will do anything you'd ever want to do. Pick an appropriate bullet for the 270, like an ELDX or SST, practice a piss-load with the 223, and come back in a couple years and show us the pics of the bull you end up with. That 270 isn't what's holding you back, and with the right bullet and enough practice, you'll never want for anything more.
