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Jack O'Connor, the world-over big game hunter, author and long-time rifle editor for Outdoor Life magazine wrote that the first Grizzly bear he shot with a .270 Win hit the ground so hard it bounced.
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Yes, Jack O'Connor was a fan of the .270 for almost any game. In his day it was one of the highest velocity rounds commonly available. If he were alive today he would likely hunt with a 7mm RUM for the same reason he liked the .270. He was a fan of high velocity as that lessoned error due to range estimation and he hunted open country before laser rangefinders.
I've seen a Deer dropped with a 10/22.
These are TOUGH animals! The moral of this story: Shot placement matters but having enough gun matters too. If my first shot had been 4-5" farther forward, I would have simply wounded, and wasted, an animal. I don't believe in letting wounded animals go off & die from infection 2 weeks later.
I wish bow hunters felt the same way...seems like the more bow hunters for elk I talk to they say..."yeah, I shot a huge bull at 35yds, but I lost it in the brush...so I kept hunting and got another one...but I lost it too." Man that makes me mad when we stumble across an arrow, bones, and a great rack.
Haha! I just had an article accepted on this very subject today! According to Craig Boddington and several other authorities, elk calibers start at .30cal and go up to the .35s. He also points out that lots of elk are killed with .270s and 7mm. My article stated that .30-06 was the best all-around elk cartridge, based on my experiences as an elk hunting guide. It's plenty potent, and you can ALWAYS find ammunition in that caliber.
Congratulations!
A couple of points? We saw NO 30-06 ammo anywhere in E. Oregon this year, so "always" doesn't always apply. I "always" take lots of .270 ammo and I roll my own so that's not an issue here. I think I have a lifetime supply, tuned to my rifle.
I have never been able to discern a difference between a good shot (placement) with a .270 Win, a 7mm mag or an .06. Ballistics show that a .270 has more retained energy at distances greater than 300 yards than does an .06 due to cross sectional density and ballistic co-efficient.
While the .270 Win is a flatter shooter than an .06, I believe that both are great cartridges.
$.02
Baker Bi-mart had several boxes of 06 last week.
Not to mention, several 1000 round boxes of primers of two brands of all sizes. But they still had the ration sign just like here in the Metro area. Darn!
Congratulations!
A couple of points? We saw NO 30-06 ammo anywhere in E. Oregon this year, so "always" doesn't always apply. I "always" take lots of .270 ammo and I roll my own so that's not an issue here. I think I have a lifetime supply, tuned to my rifle.
I have never been able to discern a difference between a good shot (placement) with a .270 Win, a 7mm mag or an .06. Ballistics show that a .270 has more retained energy at distances greater than 300 yards than does an .06 due to cross sectional density and ballistic co-efficient.
While the .270 Win is a flatter shooter than an .06, I believe that both are great cartridges.
$.02
I have never been able to discern a difference between a good shot (placement) with a .270 Win, a 7mm mag or an .06. Ballistics show that a .270 has more retained energy at distances greater than 300 yards than does an .06 due to cross sectional density and ballistic co-efficient.
I agree with this statement, but I've always wanted to give the .280 Ackley Improved a whirl. And the .270. and the .300 Win Mag, and the 7mm......
I want to try them all!
I also "roll my own" and always take much more than I might possibly use.
The lowly .270 Win has the best cross sectional density and ballistic coefficient of all of the above including the 7mm mag and retains more energy at distance. All you get out of a 7mm mag for instance is more noise and kick.
Imho since the .270 has little kick, the average person will shoot it better. Good shot placement is always the key, and when that's true a .270 Win will kill anything in N. America.
I just looked at some ballistic charts and they seem to dissagree with the above comments about the .270 retaining more energy at longer ranges. The comments hold true only if you use bullets of the same weight. When you use a perportionatly heavier bullet in the bigger caliber, the bigger caliber retains more energy.