Whats better for long range on deer and elk.. .270 or .30-06?

I'd want the 270 for deer and the 06 for elk.
But not a huge difference.

Modern guns and with modern recoil pads either caliber can be shot all day without any discomfort by most individuals. Other than personal preference I can't think of a single reason to chose one over the other for the OP's stated use.

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What he said. If you put a good recoil pad on a 06 and a 270, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference, and can shoot all day long. While I have been shooting white tail for a long time with a .270, if I was going to switch between deer and elk, I would probably choose the 30-06 for no ohter reason than the range of options you can find in 30 cal loaded ammo. If you reload your own its probably not a big deal.

.280 Rem

I have been shooting the same 270 for about 30 years. I have, until 2 years ago used Hornady factory loaded 140 grn BTSP ammo. This combo has never failed to ethically kill everything I have shot at ranges from 25 yrds to 350 yrds when I did my part. I now shoot the same bullet but I load my own. I have never shot an elk but I did kill a 1800 lb longhorn steer at 190 yrds with this load. And yes it was my steer. It needed killing. I ate it. IMO the 270 - 30-06 debate is like the Ford vs DODGE debate. With today's bullet and powder choices there is very little difference between the two. By the way I drive a Dodge.

For elk I use a 30-06 with a 180 gr Partition or a .270 Win with a 150 gr Partition.
For deer I use a 30-06 with a 165 gr Partition or a .270 Win with a 130 gr Partition.

Recoil-wise, trajectory-wise and end result-wise I can discern no practical difference between the two rounds on deer and elk.

The great difference and short coming of the 270 is its lack of heavier bullet selection to get it up to a prime elk cartridge. I am not a big fan of the one size fits all hunting rifle and my choice of 2 would be the 25-06 over the 270 and the 280 over the 30-06.
You will have a hard time finding a better medium sized big game round than the 25-06 with 100-120 gr bullets and the 165-175 gr premium bullets in the 280 will shoot flatter and carry a lot of energy down range on an elk.
My current choice for elk is quite a bit bigger than the 280 but my experience with it gives me a lot of confidence in the cartridge.

better b/c .270
10% bigger hole to bleed out .30-06

they energy difference between the two is negligible.
they are both point blank to about 280 yards which is the edge of most reasonable hunting shots.
.270 is actually based off 30-03 case

i lost a nice buck I shot with my .270 remington 7400. I hit him good with 130 gr coreloct and watched him stagger off. I went to track him too soon and jumped him. There was no blood and no recovery. Sold all the .270 guns I owned out of spite. If i hit him with a winchester ballistic silver tip it would have been a blood bath but bad voojoo is bad voojoo. I am a huge fan of .30-06 these days.

the one you can shoot the best.

How about 280 Rem instead of 270 Win ?

HOw about 7 remington magnum instead of .30 06 ?

7 mag if forced. This months shooting times has a good article on that.

Between the two you offer, toss up really. I'd ask the size of the game for one. They're pretty close, but the .30-06 has the edge on really BIG game just because it can shoot heavier, better bullets for big game. Get inside 300 yards up to elk in size and just pick one. The .270 is easy on the shoulder if that matters. On deer, I'd go with the .270 at long range. But, the range advantage won't be that big a deal IMHO.

And, yeah, lots of variables like the bullet matter. The .270 does tend to shoot a little flatter in general, though. The difference ain't enough for me to waste ink writing home about, though.

i lost a nice buck I shot with my .270 remington 7400. I hit him good with 130 gr coreloct and watched him stagger off. I went to track him too soon and jumped him. There was no blood and no recovery. Sold all the .270 guns I owned out of spite. If i hit him with a winchester ballistic silver tip it would have been a blood bath but bad voojoo is bad voojoo. I am a huge fan of .30-06 these days.

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Lots of variables in your story. Generally, premium bullets solve your problems in .270 and, well, I handload. I don't use sub par ammunition. I've killed DOZENS of whitetail with the .257 Roberts. Lots are killed here with .22-250 and up. Blaming the gun/caliber is lame on deer if you're shooting a .270, real lame. Hell, deer are lost with the .30-06, too.

If you want "a bigger hole", why not .35 Remington, .358 Winchester, maybe .375 H&H? If all that matters is "the hole", there's .45/70, or heck, .50/110 sharps. Of course I do realize this question is about "long range" whatever the definition of the OP for that is. 300-400 yards, I don't consider that 'long range", though I will limit my shots to under 400 yards for reasons that are mine. I want to limit the chance of a cripple and I simply don't have a place to practice at longer ranges. I have taken a couple of deer at 300 with a .257 Roberts, DRT, was plenty of bullet/load pushing 100 grains at 3150 fps MV, a Sierra Game king boat tail.

Same parent case necked down to a projectile 3/100s of an inch thinner? Compare similar weight bullets in each and see if you find a practical diff. Course, every year each hunting rag must have this same debate. I think it's all marketing. Oh, and either is awesome. Buy one and argue its superiority. 30.06 rocks.

I had an 06 and .270 both in the Savage 110. A 400 yard shot with either was possible. The 06 grouped slightly better on the bench at 100yrds but the .270 grouped better at 300yrds. I sold the 06 and the reason being was the .270 could do anything that the 06 could as far as my applications go but with slightly less recoil. Hope this Helps.

I asked myself the same question about 5 years ago when I was shopping for a new rifle. I couldn't make up my mind so I split the difference and got a .280

I haven't taken an animial with it yet (moved a couple of times since I bought it, haven't been doing much hunting as a result), but I can tell you that it shoots well (can cover 100 yard groups with a quarter), doesn't recoil too bad (at least not compared to my Dad's .338 Win Mag), and is nice for reloading because of all the cool 7mm bullets out there. Honestly, check the B.C. on 7mm bullets, most are better than either .277 or .308 diameter bullets. This will make no difference at close range but can be important at distance...

They're both good choices but I hunt elk with .308 carbine and 180 grain ammo. Farthest shot: approx 225 yards or so.

TR

I own a 270 and 30-06. It really depends on the hunting conditions. For wide open long range I prefer the 270 with 130 grain bullet. However a 30-06 with a good 150 grain bullet isn't a slouch either. If you are going to have only one rifle the 30-06 is more versatile. I grew up shooting an 06. I inherited the 270 from my dad and he killed everything from Coastal Blacktail deer to Moose in British Columbia with it. Shot placement was never a problem for Dad. He was one of thos riflemen that was so good it was weird. You cant go wrong with either one. If you are worried about recoil go with a 270.

You are correct to say the 30-06 has more energy but the difference is probably not significant whereas the flat shooting could be an advantage.

30/06 only because I don't have a .270.............

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& just the opposite...

.270 only because i do not have a 30/06.

I don't like a ton of recoil, so these two choices are both good.

An elk is a big animal so lots of hunters like larger guns....

Either one.

The Bullet , the aim , the Trigger squeeze .....far more important than the difference between .277 and .308 .

Which do you own ?

Which do you shoot more accurately with the proper bullet ?

Vanilla Milkshake or Chocolate ?

To 300 yards, no matter. I don't think I want either beyond 300 yards and I wouldn't shoot any farther than 400, personally, just me.

I'm a short-action type of guy, so I pick .270 WSM


But between .270 and .30-06, I personally would rather have a .30-06. As an earlier poster stated, you can learn trajectory, but there is a limit to how much energy a round can have. A .270 can get the job done, but I prefer to have a little more energy.