Is there a good .270 Winchester load for the American deer woods?

[Chuck R.]

Some folks might want a rifle for both the woods and the plains. It seems as the short-action cartridges are the best woods stuff while long-actions do best out in the open. It seems like it would be much cheaper to change the load specs of the ammunition for the game and shooting situation then buy another special rifle for a special shooting situation. There might be multispecies hunters. Do we have a true multispecies rifle and caliber? Some guys might shoot mulies, whitetails, 'lope and blacktails but might also shoot elk or moose once in a lifetime. What do one-12-ga.-shotgun wing shooters do to adjust for different species and shooting situations? Change loads. Change chokes. Can my 12 ga. 28" Mossberg 500 take doves well in the sunflower field over MOJO decoys? How will the same gun fare in a pheasant field or in a duck blind?

Why don't CF cartridge makers offer various short and long action caliber loadings for: Plains and Woods the way we get Dove & Quail Loads, Turkey Loads and Heavy Hunting Loads in shotgun shells?

I'm sure they could factory tailor .30-06, .308, .300 Savage, .270, .257 Roberts and 6.5 Creedmoor for optimal ballistics for the woods in one type of loading and for the open plains in another type of loading in a given caliber. It has to do with the powder charge, bullet weight and bullet type.

Some multispecies hunters may only want to use one special rifle, say in .257 Roberts, inherited from grandpa for everything big game wise. People get attached to single guns and single calibers.

IF I was a one rifle kind of guy, I would simply tailor my loads to the game and conditions.

I take it a step further because it's not just the ammunition/terminal effects, it's also how suitable the rifle/optic package is to the game/conditions.

My open country set-ups, while could be used in a wooded environment are not ideal. Too long, too heavy, and too much magnification for close shooting in wooded terrain. Maybe from a stand with cleared shooting lanes but even from stands I'd like a shorter more compact rifle. I would not take a 24" barreled long action with a 4-16X scope on a deer drive, nor would I still hunt with one. I also wouldn't take my 350RM 20" M7 out to WY for antelope.

You can probably play 18 holes with a putter, but it's not exactly ideal.

Factories make what sells (for the most part), wishing different isn't going to change that. IF you want true flexibility you're going to have to handload for your one caliber, or start buying different rifles to suit your terrain and game.

 

[NMachine]

You forget the Winchester model 88.

Yes, but @codytrucker had my back and also mentioned the Winchester 1895.

 

[BringHomeTheBacon]

IF I was a one rifle kind of guy, I would simply tailor my loads to the game and conditions.

I take it a step further because it's not just the ammunition/terminal effects, it's also how suitable the rifle/optic package is to the game/conditions.

My open country set-ups, while could be used in a wooded environment are not ideal. Too long, too heavy, and too much magnification for close shooting in wooded terrain. Maybe from a stand with cleared shooting lanes but even from stands I'd like a shorter more compact rifle. I would not take a 24" barreled long action with a 4-16X scope on a deer drive, nor would I still hunt with one. I also wouldn't take my 350RM 20" M7 out to WY for antelope.

You can probably play 18 holes with a putter, but it's not exactly ideal.

Factories make what sells (for the most part), wishing different isn't going to change that. IF you want true flexibility you're going to have to handload for your one caliber, or start buying different rifles to suit your terrain and game.

You can probably play 18 holes with a 5 iron and that sure would even be more practical than with a putter. A full golf course with just a driving wood, I don't know about. Is a .308 bolt-action rifle the "5 iron" of hunting guns?

 

[Boattale]

Honestly this "briefs well" but at times just isn't possible. So why not tailor the rifle/load to the most likely distance you'll encounter?

I've killed a few over 50 deer (WT, BT, and Mulies), couple elk, 5 chamois, Russian boar, American feral pigs, in terrain that varied from mountainous to open plains to Pacific NW forest where 50 yards was a loong shot. I've been on a few deer and boar drives and I've yet to see a standing broadside shot during one. There were many presentations that were not ideal, nor was their time to wait for better. Taking the shot you had meant filling a tag on a nice animal, or going home empty handed.

Why would I not want to use the best tool or load for the task at hand? Why would I want to put a 3000+ FPS bullet into a shoulder at 25yds, when I could have chosen something more appropriate?

I'm not the one all worried up about meat loss.

 

[armedwalleye]

Honestly, I never think of rifles in terms of long or short actions. It doesn't mean anything to me. My grandfather had a Husky in .308 which I fired at the range. I also had a Browning A-Bolt II in .25-06 with a BOSS on the barrel. I never noticed as to whether the .25-06 was more cumbersome to cycle than the .308. The .25-06 was recoil-less while the circa-1962 Husqvarna in .308 sans butt pad hurt my shoulder. I would have a PAST shoulder pad if I were to ever fire such a rifle again.

Please don't ask me about long actions or short actions. My father never explained it to me. My grandfather never explained it me. The army never explained it to me. About what percentage of American rifle hunters even know anything about it?

A short action is shorter, with a shorter lever or bolt stroke, A shorter overall legth and a lighter weight. 30-‘06, .270 and all the 300 calibers are long action, ..308 and derivatives like 7mm-08 are short actions. Most American hunters and riflemen know and appreciate the difference. The army, not so much.

 

[BringHomeTheBacon]

A short action is shorter, with a shorter lever or bolt stroke, A shorter overall legth and a lighter weight. 30-‘06, .270 and all the 300 calibers are long action, ..308 and derivatives like 7mm-08 are short actions. Most American hunters and riflemen know and appreciate the difference. The army, not so much.

I believe the .300 Savage is SHORT too. This is the iconic caliber for the Model 99 and my grandfather had such a Savage lever in that caliber.

 

[mgmorden]

Just about any high velocity rifle round is going to ruin the shoulder it impacts. Doesn't matter if it's .270, .30-06, .308, .243 - long action or short action, that's just the way such cartridges work. The specific area of the ruined tissue may vary a bit from round to round and loading to loading but that's just splitting hairs. Does it really matter if you ruin a circle 10" in diameter instead of 12" in diameter? They still put the animal down very, very reliably.

To get different performance you have to completely switch up your paradigm to a slow, heavy bullet trudging along. Something like the .45-70, .44 Magnum (in a rifle), etc - or even shotgun slugs. They deliver similar amounts of energy at lower speeds so there's less ballistic shock.

As to long and short action - yeah I don't get the big deal either. The extra bolt throw and weight is miniscule and doesn't bother me, plus several of my "short action" guns are just the "long action" with spacers added (or its a single-shot where the concept is non-existent), conveying absolutely no benefits.

 

[Olympus]

Seriously guys…why is everyone still humoring this guy and continuing to post? First he’s got a Savage 99 in 270 and then he’s shooting 1 MOA groups OFFHAND, which later he clarifies that the rifle was resting on a bag and he was actually sitting down, but had no idea this wasn’t considered “offhand”. ***?

I’m all for helping newbies, but this guys is beyond help. We’ve got 4 pages of wasted bandwidth here. SMH

 

[BringHomeTheBacon]

Seriously guys…why is everyone still humoring this guy and continuing to post? First he’s got a Savage 99 in 270 and then he’s shooting 1 MOA groups OFFHAND, which later he clarifies that the rifle was resting on a bag and he was actually sitting down, but had no idea this wasn’t considered “offhand”. ***?

I’m all for helping newbies, but this guys is beyond help. We’ve got 4 pages of wasted bandwidth here. SMH

Pardon me, but I don't have a Savage 99 in any caliber. As far as I know, it was never offered in .270. A Husqvarna bolt action in .270 is under consideration for me to someday purchase. My grandfather owned a Husky in .308 and a Savage 99 in .300 Savage. I no longer own either of those guns. They were both lost in a 1999 home burglary, sadly.

 

[Robert]

We've covered this pretty well, let's call it a day.