I hunt with a Model 70 Lightweight Carbine (20†barrel) in .270. So far I’ve managed to put down 40+ (probably close to 50) head of big game, most with only one shot. I would tell you at what ranges a few were taken at but you and the others probably would doubt my word (longer than any ranges mentioned in this post, so far…).
Mine will put the first the three shots in a group that you can cover with a nickel at 100 yards, after three the light barrel starts “walking†badly but the only shot that REALLY matters is the FIRST shot out of a cold barrel anyway. I don’t care what ANYBODY tells you or what you’ve read in magazines, unless you’re foolish enough to go up against Brown Bears with it don’t use ANYTHING but 130 grain bullets.
I lived for years and years in north central Montana and all of the guys would kid me about my little “toy†rifle. The same guys, when they drew an elk tag for the steep mountains, would come over and beg me to borrow my light rifle. So while I have not personally shot an elk with it my rifle has taken 6-7 Rocky Mountain elk.
They’ll always be someone who’ll say that you can’t shoot gophers with anything less than a 458, I know for a FACT that a 270 is ALL the gun 99.999% of the American big game hunter will ever need. Not to say there isn’t other fine cartridges out there (30.06, 308, 7mm-08, 260 etc etc etc) but you won’t be making a MISTAKE buying a 270.
Good Luck,
Ed