[quote author] ..... the 270 itself has passed its heyday though. It's sort of an orphan in todays market having been flanked by other cartridges better suited for the same purposes and not as flexible as some others ......
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What a dumb and ignorant statement! I lived in Utah before moving to the pacific NW, and nearly everybody I knew who hunted deer or deer/elk (with few exceptions) owned and shot a .270 Winchester! The exceptions were the few hunters who carried a .30/06 or even a couple who liked the .25/06. I'm talking friends, aquaintences, other salesmen, their friends, etc., etc., etc!
The 150 grain bullet in .277 has the same ballistic coefficient (oops!) "SECTIONAL DENSITY" as the 180 grain .308 bullets (is what I meant to say), and YES, the 150 grain .277 slugs are deep penetrators and kill as effectively as the .30 cal bullets![/b] I've taken 2 elk with the .270 Win, a half dozen pronghorns and more than a dozen mulies with bullets weighing 130, 140, or 150 grains. Almost all Nosler's.[/i]
The .270 Winchester (in a long action) is a great round for expert or beginner hunters, kicks less than a .30/06, and kills like lightening. I like the .280 Rem and .308 Win best of all - the .280 because it has a slight edge over the .270 and the .308 is excellent in short-action (light weight) backpacking rigs. However for several years I hunted with the .270 exclusively for big game and never found it inadequate.
Also when I worked as a clerk in a couple local sporting goods stores, our ammo sales VERIFIED the claims by ammo companies that the .30-30, .30/06, and .270 Winnie are the THREE MOST POPULAR (in that order) big game catridges sold in the USA. (the .243, .308, 7mm RemMag and .300 WinMag round out the next fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh (top seven American) most popular BG rounds, according to Peterson's Hunting/Publishing).