Question about .30-06 and .270

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Malone LaVeigh

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2002
Messages
2,136
Location
Washed out of Four-dollar Bayou. Now I'm... somewh
My neighbor has a die that allows him to neck down .45-70 to .33 for his antique carbine. That got me thinking about the .30-06 and .270. I had heard the .270 was built on the .30-06 configuration, and thought it should be a lot easier to neck down from .311 to .277 than from .45 to .338. So I got out the calipers and checked out dimensions of a couple of cartridges. The .270 shell I had was about 4 hundredths longer than the '06. Everything else was very close. So maybe I've answered my own question before asking, but I'll ask anyway:

Can the .30-06 case be converted to .270? Sure does seem to be a lot more '06 brass lying around the range than .270. Heck, I even find it in the woods.
 
25-06, 270, 280 can all be formed from 30-06 brass. Your 30-06 brass will stretch a bit when its run through your sizing die ( full length ). Measure after sizing you might need to trim to length.

If I was loading both 270 and 280 I would either buy one kind of brass so it couldn't get confused or paint the bottoms of one of the calibers to absolutly keep them seperate.

06 brass can be used the other way also making 35 Whelen, 375 Whelen, or 400 Whelen, but usually requires fireforming and I am not a big fan of that unless absolutly neccessary.

Military brass is a lot more work usually cause the cases are so much thicker, so I usually seperate it out and keep it for my 30-06

There are some other cartridges it can be worked into also, I always pick up 06 brass it is very usefull stuff.
 
there's zillions of conversions. I have a very thick book that lists literally hundreds and hundreds. I used to think there were a lot of new or cifferent cartridges. Now I know that there are basic cases and are stretched, squeezed, and shortened into everything imaginable

I believe that all belted cases are based on the .375 H&H. There are dozens of variations.

If you try to neck down, you'll probably need to neck ream, trim to length, and anneal the cases when done
 
Necks can get thick too leading to pressure problems. Be careful.

With the cost of proper brass the only reason to make 270 or 280 or anything else is to get the thick necks intentionally for neck turning and use in a larger than minimum chamber, as in trying to make super accurate ammo for a typical hunting rifle chamber.
 
.30-06 brass can be resized to .270. Just remember, as HSMITH says, case necks that are too thick can cause nasty things to happen.

Actually, I do just the opposite and resize .270 to .30-06.
 
Sizing down

When I bought my 6mm Remington, ammo and brass was hard to come by and expensive so in my current collection of 6mm ammo I have brass marked 8mm, 7.92, 30-06 both GI and Civilian, 280, .270, 7mm and others. I sized them down in steps in the other reloading caliber dies just mentioned as I have most all reloading caliber reloading dies, inside neck reamed them and over all length trimmed them in my C-H powered case trimmer and keep them all together in ammo boxes. They do not conflict with anything else I have like my 30-06 or .308.

The 30-06 was developed from the German 7mm and 8mm designed cartriges and the 45acp was developed from a cut short 30-06 case by General Thompson in WW1 as a trench clearing gun.

Fitz
 
"I have a very thick book that lists literally hundreds and hundreds."

Donnelly's book of cartridge conversions, right?

I have a copy of that. Belonged to Pete Dickey of NRA's Technical Staff. When he retired he sold it to me, along with a lot of other of his books.

It's a valuable book, but some of Pete's notes are even more valuable!
 
Malone,

Yup, the .270 is essentially a necked down .30-06, but as others have pinted out, neck thickness (especially) & subsequent length are to be considered if you don't want to run into pressure problems. Too thick a neck/too long a case for the final chambering can cause major problems & that's where you want to be careful.

The resized case must always conform to what you've resized it to. Hard & fast rule for any case reforming/resizing/fireforming - whatever.

Some of my most old-time accurate .243 loads were made from military .308 brass.

Every one of my .309 JDJ Contender loads are made from resized & then fire-formed .444 Marlin cases - total caliber resizing & fire-formed to fit.
 
I've been around people doing this all my life - even I am guilty of loading some 7mm-08 ammo out of some extra .308 brass. However, I don't encourage it. I got fed up and cleaned out my inventory of all the .270s, .25-06s, and .30-06s that were loaded up in cases with another caliber printed on the case head. I just have this fear of someone, someday, loading a hot .25-06 load into my old 03 Springfield and who knows what would happen next or who would get hurt. To me, the cost of brass is a cheap way to prevent this. For my hunting cartridges, a bag of 100 rounds of brass tends to last me forever. It is my ARs and FAL that tend to stay "hungry".
 
Malone,

All military brass for same-same calibers ought to be reduced 10& under that & 10% reduced for starter loads - except when using particular powders that have somewhat of a "pressure curve," under those particular starting loads - seems parculiar, no?

Just take a look, & question here, whether or not they're in the ballpark ... OK? We've some experience here & won't blow you up. Really.

Some of them go "weird," sometimes.

But, if you configure any brass to it's SAAMI spes, you should feel entirely comfortable with doing any starting load with anything given in any standard rifle handloading manual - other than those "substand loads."

Just ask, really, & for whatever rifle you have, you'll get a true answer.

Trust us, OK?
 
Jeez Labgrade...

you must have been smooth in high school...just trust me....he, he, he...

one of my old lines....

wonder how many little Labgrades are running around out there???


:neener:

oh, back to topic...I think it's one of those things that, if you like dinking with stuff and want the satisfaction of doing something most others can't or won't do, then go for it. Not that hard, you just need to know the proper steps.

If you want the quick, easy, (and in the long run probably cheaper) way out, just buy the brass

I just think it's fun to do and know how to do for the experience. And, think of how much fun you'll be at parties talking about reforming rifle brass :D
 
Malone, if you're just hurting for .270 brass...

Send me a PM, because I got a bunch of the stuff just sitting here, and I doubt I'll ever buy or build a .270 rifle once I sold my soul to the 6.5-06 fraternity. I found that 7x64 Brenneke brass works best for making 6.5-06, btw, hence the surplus of .270 brass I'm sitting on :(
 
I ran a .30-06 shell through a .270 die to see what happens. As stated the 06 case is a little shorter. The shoulder had a ripple in it. I'm not sure if it set back or what but it looks like it needed to be fire formed.

As others have said, buy brass for the caliber you load for. My brother lost an eye (Not from shooting) I would rather pay $100 for a box of 20 than go through what he did.
 
always thought .270 was a necked .30-03

I learned, quite possibly wrongly, that the .270 is slightly longer than the .30-'06 and has more in common with the .30-'03. Of course the .30-'06 does stretch in sizing down and the difference is in any case negligible.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

K
  • Locked
30-06 vs 270
Replies
8
Views
799
James2
J
Skinnedknuckles
  • Locked
Resizing .270 Win Brass to .30-06
Replies
24
Views
3K
Skinnedknuckles
Skinnedknuckles
B
  • Locked
is there sucha thing as LC 270 Win brass?
Replies
5
Views
825
Match10
M
C
  • Locked
Got a few questions about necking down brass.
Replies
12
Views
562
gamestalker
G
Nathanael_Greene
  • Locked
.270 a companion to 30-06?
Replies
10
Views
1K
Nathanael_Greene
Nathanael_Greene
Back
Top