Poll: 308 vs. 270

[salmonriverjohn]

Sounds like just the sort of Grandfather I hope to be one day!

All of my Grand kids have rifles that I have given them, most of them are under seven.

 

[orygun]

All of my Grand kids have rifles that I have given them, most of them are under seven.

I have one grand kid, a boy. He's only 4 but has his own BB gun and 30-30. We need to get one of those little .22 bolt actions for him before too long. Oh yeah, he's got a Honda 50, too.
Now we have a granddaughter on the way. Looks like I've got some shopping to do...
Grandkids are the best!

 

[salmonriverjohn]

I have one grand kid, a boy. He's only 4 but has his own BB gun and 30-30. We need to get one of those little .22 bolt actions for him before too long. Oh yeah, he's got a Honda 50, too.
Now we have a granddaughter on the way. Looks like I've got some shopping to do...
Grandkids are the best!

Yes Sir orygun, all of them so far have been old school .30-30's.
It may not be the most inherently safest choice to give a young shooter, but that's where I come in, along with their dads, SAFETY! Kids, if we don't take the time with them, someone else will and it may not be the type of time that we would prefer.

Sorry for the theft of the thread, but I couldn't help myself. If your not a Grand dad yet, hopefully you will be and you'll hopefully know as we do, they matter the world.

 

[whiskeybill]

My sweetheart "other" rifle is the 6.5x55 Swede. I built a custom years ago and went elk hunting with a buddy from Wyoming who is himself a professional hunting guide there. When he saw what happened when it hits an elk, he was sold. Not much for recoil and a handy gun to pack around. Nothing against the other cartridges discussed here, I've seen .270's and the like perform well (Who's going to argue with the great Jack O'Connor?), but the Swede is an often overlooked and dismissed wonder. Then again, there's the 30-40 Krag. That's taken a lot of game over the years as well!

 

[jluck]

Every dead elk I have asked, Declined to comment if they knew it was a .308 or .270 or if they liked one over the other.

 

[usmc]

todays modern bullets have transformed the hunting world.you could take a cartridge that is ballistically inferior to another and put a premium hunting bullet in one and have it perform better than the other.maybe not by speed but in terminal performance. so today with so many options, most similar cartridge comparisons are moot.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

todays modern bullets have transformed the hunting world.you could take a cartridge that is ballistically inferior to another and put a premium hunting bullet in one and have it perform better than the other.maybe not by speed but in terminal performance. so today with so many options, most similar cartridge comparisons are moot.

Hey, I know that Bull in your picture! And to the rest of ya's, that's no bull, it's true. I've met that nice bull on a couple of occasions.

 

[orygun]

todays modern bullets have transformed the hunting world.you could take a cartridge that is ballistically inferior to another and put a premium hunting bullet in one and have it perform better than the other.maybe not by speed but in terminal performance. so today with so many options, most similar cartridge comparisons are moot.

This is very true, and one of the reasons I will eventually change from my standard 180gr bullet to the 165/8gr bullet in my '06. I'll give it a shot (pun intended) for sure! Honestly, for most of the stuff I could probably go with 150gr, but the longer, heavier bullets have a much better BC and help cover mistakes in range estimation.

 

[jluck]

This is very true, and one of the reasons I will eventually change from my standard 180gr bullet to the 165/8gr bullet in my '06. I'll give it a shot (pun intended) for sure! Honestly, for most of the stuff I could probably go with 150gr, but the longer, heavier bullets have a much better BC and help cover mistakes in range estimation.

When I changed from 180's to 165's in the wifes rifle the groups went to crap, I compromised with a 168 Berger VLD and it shoots pretty good now but the fast twist of the Steyr Pro-Hunters sure like big pills. YMMV

 

[orygun]

This is very true, and one of the reasons I will eventually change from my standard 180gr bullet to the 165/8gr bullet in my '06. I'll give it a shot (pun intended) for sure! Honestly, for most of the stuff I could probably go with 150gr, but the longer, heavier bullets have a much better BC and help cover mistakes in range estimation.

When I changed from 180's to 165's in the wifes rifle the groups went to crap, I compromised with a 168 Berger VLD and it shoots pretty good now but the fast twist of the Steyr Pro-Hunters sure like big pills. YMMV

I shoot a Ruger with a 1 in 10 twist. In my previous Ruger the best ever group came from 150gr bullets, so I'm not afraid to try a lighter bullet. My current (and likely forever) rifle shoots 180gr bullets well enough that I have no reason to switch, except for velocity.However, we all know each rifle is it's own enemy and I'll just have to give it a try to see.

 

[husker]

I have hunted on farm land in eastern Oregon for 30 plus years and for me a 270 works great. The 270 is a fast round and it will reach out a good distance.
The problem with the 270 is if you hunt in the woods the bullet will deflect easy if anything is in its path so you may want to look at the places you plan to hunt also.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Yea, and if there's a blade of grass.. like right at the muzzle and the target is at 400 yards. In other words they all "deflect" given some brush, grass or timber, especially considering respective distances with potential variables.

 

[tahoe2]

So many great cartridges out there, the author has selected two of the best, and would be well served by either caliber, if any cartridge is the do-all for North American hunters I would have to say 30-06, but I'm a metric man and my caliber of choice is 8x57 mauser. I voted other. I also have an elephant gun; 7x57 mauser (275 Rigby) LOL

 

[Jamie6.5]

So many great cartridges out there, the author has selected two of the best, and would be well served by either caliber, if any cartridge is the do-all for North American hunters I would have to say 30-06, but I'm a metric man and my caliber of choice is 8x57 mauser. I voted other. I also have an elephant gun; 7x57 mauser (275 Rigby) LOL

There's not a lot you can't do with the X57 Mauser casing. I have a couple of friends that took it out to .338, and Ackley improved it.
The friend that lives in Alaska uses it for bear and moose medicine, and to say he is pleased with it would be a gross understatement.

For the kind of game we have in N. America, and the bullet sizes we tend to use, All one really needs is either the X57 casing, or the '06 casing.
Anything beyond those is want. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

 

[usmc]

how about the 22lr, i have a winchester model 63 from my great grandpa and he shot most of his game with it lol. i would imagine that it has killed more creatures in this world than any other.its all about shot placement, and for everything else the 338 win mag hehe.

 

[Engineer1982]

Thanks for the information, everyone. Tough choice here.

 

[Beefcake]

Sorry for the late reply, but I've been fighting the same decision. My family wants to hunt this year, and I can't afford new rifles for everyone, so I'm compromising. We bought a y0uth .243 for the 12 y.o. and my 5'2" wife, and I recently sold my trusty .300wm to buy something my 16 y.0. stepdaughter can handle (I'll have to share it with her this year).

After pouring over ballistics charts, I had it narrowed to .308 and 7mm-08 until I looked into the .270. The 7-08 and the .270 have similar ballistics profiles, but ammo for the .270 is more plentiful and much less expensive ($20 vs $28 / box at Bi-mart). I was hung up on wanting the .308 because a 30-cal can handle heavier bullets, but the ballistics of the .308 stink in comparison (loses power more quickly and drops like a rock beyond 300 yds). I mostly hunt deer, but I want the ability to hunt elk with it, and I was amazed to factor energy imparted at various ranges into the equation. There are arguments about how much energy is the minimum to effectively kill elk, but I made my comparisons using one commonly quoted figure I found of 1,200 ft/lbs. I was amazed to see that a 130gr round out of a .270 had more stored energy at 350yds than a 150 or 180gr round out of a .308.

For my uses, I think the .270 is a perfect compromise of trajectory, power, recoil, and ammo cost / availability. I know most serious hunters will cringe, but I'm a fan of Remington Express Core-lokt ammo (cheap green box) within its effective range limits (I think premium bullets make sense beyond 300-350 yards, but that doesn't fit my hunting style or skillset, and the Core-lokts seem to perform well within my range). The specs on their 130gr psp are great, but I also noticed 150gr psp rounds at my local shop that I can't find on their web-page. If my new gun likes them, I think they will be money.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

You'll do just fine with the core lokt bullets.

 

[twowheels]

Remington core lokt is excellent ammo.

Don't over think calibers. A .308, a .270, a 30-.06, a 7mm mag, or many many other calibers will get the job done. My main hunting axes are a .308, a 7mm mag and a .300 win mag. I've recently let go fantastic older Sakos in .270 and an .06, with which I've taken dozens of big game animals. Both rifles were passed on to good friends so they are still in the extended family. All of these, and other, calibers do the business to elk or deer with placement trumping ballistic charts. Find a rifle that you are confident and accurate with. Get as close as you can. My last 6 deer were taken at no more that 120 yards with 4 of them closer to 75. Don't worry about what the charts say.

 

[tj3006]

both rounds are great.
But the .308 is Chambered for smaller lighter rifles. I have 3 already and only 1 .270.
You mention a 300 yard max range . Good judgment by the way.
A guy today could get a ruger american rifle, (not my style but they shoot well ) and put a redfield 2x7 or 3x9 cost would be about 500.00 and shoot any animal short of a grizzly on the continent... tj