Jack's favorite caliber

From experience, I would say :
It will kill anything with proper shot placement.
Unfortunately, sometime those shot are not that perfect.
For that reason, I believe the 270 is an awesome caliber but not my cup of tea for real Big game IE Moose/Grizzly
 
I owned a gorgeous Ruger No.1 in 270 and a 1947 M70 in 270, both of which were super accurate rifles.
I tried and tried, but I just can't like the .27 Winchester - shot a couple of deer with them and sold them both!
Personal prejudice is all, take it up to 284 or down to 264 and I'm a happy camper.
.277? No thanks!!
Cat
 
With a 30-06 I don't think it would have made a difference, but with a 35 whelen loaded with 250s I think it would have made a difference IMO

Maybe the bear would've died two minutes after killing the hunter instead of three. It would seem that the poor guy was surprised at close range and made a bad shot, could happen to anyone even carrying a big bore.
 
I always thought the best way would be to go with new rifle sales from each manufacturer over a 5-10 year period.

The trouble with that is rifles last forever, and even if few new ones of a certain caliber are being sold if could be because everyone already has two. I don't know the last time someone bought a brand new .303 British, but the ammo still seems to keep moving. Another factor is new calibers show up well because there are more people that don't have one.

Factory ammo sales don't work well, because a small percentage of people with .223s buying bulk can skew the results. Then there's the argument that people with expensive ammo tend to handload. That makes sense from a dollar point of view.

Handloading die sales do tend to indicate that someone is shooting a caliber, but although it doesn't seem likely to a bunch of gun nuts most people don't reload. Also, those who shoot less expensive factory ammo may be less likely to think its worthwhile.

You can go by what most of the people you know own, but most of us have more guns than they can take hunting as it is. If someone has 20 different hunting calibers he probably uses a couple of those hard and the rest idle. That could be because he likes a couple rifles more than the others and the caliber doesn't matter much at all. He probably loads for all of them, doesn't buy factory ammo for any of them, and if he needs another he probably orders a barrel. Which brings us to reamer sales.

Reamer sales could be broken down to sales to gunsmiths and sales to owners. The gunsmiths will tend to buy what they use the most, and the enthusiast will tend to buy the oddballs. He is less likely to buy the common ones because the gunsmith already has those, but a typical gunsmith has access to the reamers of his best customers who in turn buy most of the reamers.

Someday someone will develop an algorithm that will calculate the popularity based on all the factors, but it will likely turn out the magnum deer hunters that might shoot an elk will use 7mms, and magnum elk hunters who shoot deer will end up with a 300. Non magnum shooters in each class will split along the 270 and 30-06 lines. Short action and non bolt guys cling to their .308s but they won't go anywhere. In the meantime the deer hunters that dream about Alaska but don't go will get .338s and those that dream about Africa and don't go will buy .375s. While all this is going on, thousands of people that do go will do it with a .300 because the money is on the line and they suddenly cant remember why smaller was supposed to be better.

Popularity is a funny thing. I remember some girls who were "popular" but they were seldom best and never keepers except for those that didn't know better.:d
 
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My first centerfire was a .270, at age 15, and I traded it away after a few years of hearing my dad always call it "that little .270". As a teenage boy, hearing your dad always refer to your rifle like that can wear on you.

Many years later, after shooting lots of game with many other cartridges, I started to notice how little difference cartridge choice seemed to make in 95% of hunting circumstances, and fondly remembered how my "little .270" had never failed to flatten game.

Now I've got a .270 again.
 
Its hard to say what the most popular caliber is. Do you go by rifle sales, ammo sales, or reloading die sales?

I would bet that the most popular centerfire caliber in North America, is .308". Given that it includes the 30-30, 308winchester, and the 30-06, I don't see any centerfire caliber that could possibly be more popular.

I myself have absolutely no use for any cartridge that uses .277" bullets.
 
I would bet that the most popular centerfire caliber in North America, is .308". Given that it includes the 30-30, 308winchester, and the 30-06, I don't see any centerfire caliber that could possibly be more popular.

I myself have absolutely no use for any cartridge that uses .277" bullets.

Does that caliber/cartridge hair really need to be split?
 
Last fall a couple of friends and I were doing some shooting and just for fun tried out some totally unscientific penetration tests in a cardboard box tightly full of old magazines, catalogs and hard cover books. We shot a 308 with 150 gr bullets, a 6.5x55 with 120 and 140 gr bullets, a .32 Win. Special with 170 gr bullets and a .270 with 130 gr bullets. All the bullets were ordinary cup and core bullets.

To our surprise the .270 penetrated the furthest. I would have bet on the 140 gr 6.5x55.
 
You are of course right, but I have story to tell....
About 20 years ago I read in newspaper about hunter from Kelowna, B.C. being killed by grizzly bear.
I think many of us in B.C. remember this unfortunate accident.
He was suprised (stalked?) and had only shot once his 270Win rifle killing the bear but was mauled by grizzly anyway.
Both were found dead some time latter.
I allways kept asking myself; would hunter be still allive today if instead his 270Win he had say 30-06Spr or 35Whelen in his hands?
This is not to start "best bear defence caliber" but simple yes or not for an answer would do.

You don't seriousky believe that do you? The hunter probably didn't shoot the besr in the vitals. Hence the besr mauling him and dieing later on. If you took a 338 lapua magnum and shot him in the ass he could still maul you. Never mind the small difference between 30/06 or 270.

This topic is hilarious to me. Has anyone actually ran the numbers on the difference in ft lbs of energy between the 30/06 and 270? The question is not can a gun kill an animal. Trust me a 223 in the heart will kill a moose. All day long. The reason why we use heavier calibers on larger game is to allow room for error. Because 90% of guys hardly shoot there hunting rifle and don't get good with them. So they need ridiculous calibers to basically explode the internal cavity of a animal to make sure it's dead.

In Europe the most popular caliber for moose hunting is a 6.5x55 which is almost identical to a 260 remington. Less powder and smaller bullet then a 270. Learn how to use your gun and make shots in any conditions and under pressure. You will kill any game you point it at.

I like to hunt with 308 only because all my precision shooting is with 308. 270 will kill moose all day.
 
us southern boys shoot a 270 because it is the biggest cal we are aloud to shoot nothing to do with good old jack .we can get away with one gun to cover are small game and a once a year trip north .works for a lot of us Dutch

I'm also one of the southern boys. When the biggest caliber your allowed is a 270; it quickly becomes your BIG gun! We didn't realize that 30 cal & up killed any deader.
 
The trouble with that is rifles last forever, and even if few new ones of a certain caliber are being sold if could be because everyone already has two. I don't know the last time someone bought a brand new .303 British, but the ammo still seems to keep moving. Another factor is new calibers show up well because there are more people that don't have one.

Factory ammo sales don't work well, because a small percentage of people with .223s buying bulk can skew the results. Then there's the argument that people with expensive ammo tend to handload. That makes sense from a dollar point of view.

Handloading die sales do tend to indicate that someone is shooting a caliber, but although it doesn't seem likely to a bunch of gun nuts most people don't reload. Also, those who shoot less expensive factory ammo may be less likely to think its worthwhile.

You can go by what most of the people you know own, but most of us have more guns than they can take hunting as it is. If someone has 20 different hunting calibers he probably uses a couple of those hard and the rest idle. That could be because he likes a couple rifles more than the others and the caliber doesn't matter much at all. He probably loads for all of them, doesn't buy factory ammo for any of them, and if he needs another he probably orders a barrel. Which brings us to reamer sales.

Reamer sales could be broken down to sales to gunsmiths and sales to owners. The gunsmiths will tend to buy what they use the most, and the enthusiast will tend to buy the oddballs. He is less likely to buy the common ones because the gunsmith already has those, but a typical gunsmith has access to the reamers of his best customers who in turn buy most of the reamers.

Someday someone will develop an algorithm that will calculate the popularity based on all the factors, but it will likely turn out the magnum deer hunters that might shoot an elk will use 7mms, and magnum elk hunters who shoot deer will end up with a 300. Non magnum shooters in each class will split along the 270 and 30-06 lines. Short action and non bolt guys cling to their .308s but they won't go anywhere. In the meantime the deer hunters that dream about Alaska but don't go will get .338s and those that dream about Africa and don't go will buy .375s. While all this is going on, thousands of people that do go will do it with a .300 because the money is on the line and they suddenly cant remember why smaller was supposed to be better.

Popularity is a funny thing. I remember some girls who were "popular" but they were seldom best and never keepers except for those that didn't know better.:d

All that is true, but I'm thinking that the recent rifle sales would let us know what people are interested in shooting in the last few years, which is interesting enough. :)
 
A couple of years ago, checking my meager collection, I decided it was one of the more popular calibres of the day, that I hadn't used and didn't have. I had an uncle that had spent some time in Europe during WWII, doing some 'long range' work and his #1 calibre of choice in the B.C. central interior was the .270 Win. While I can still make use of it, I decided to fill that void in my cabinet and purchased a nice Husqvarna model 3000 from Why not?



It was one of two possibilities I considered for this years draw for Antelope in Alberta but the Schultz & Larsen in 7x61S&H won out. The .270 will get the 'call' for the next trip to Alberta for Mule Deer.

 
I believe that the 30-06, 270 and 308 are rated as number 2,3,4 as the most purchased/popular cartridge in North America,...............anyone care to take a guess at the number #1 most popular cartridge?............pretty elementary. OP, your choice is most sound.

Its hard to say what the most popular caliber is. Do you go by rifle sales, ammo sales, or reloading die sales?

If we're measuring rifle cartridge popularity here in N.A. by ammunition sales then I'd venture #1 is either .223 Rem or .22 LR.
 
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