rifle caliber in southern Ontario, 7mm or 270?

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xingyc

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Getting a new hunting rifle, I'm wondering which caliber I should get, I'm hoping to use the rifle for coyote, black bear maybe moose...
I know there is a restriction on caliber in southern Ontario, A person hunting small game may not carry or use a rifle of greater caliber than a .275-calibre rifle (copied from 2015 hunting reg, pg79).
so the question is can I use 270 win??? 7 mm-08???
technically, 270 shots 0.277 bullets, does it mean 270 can't be used in southern Ontario for small game?
according to google's conversion, 7 mm =0.275591 in, if you round down it will be within legal limit of 0.275 in, I think 7 mm-08 has lower muzzle energy, can you use 7mm in Southern Ontario? anyone got in trouble for using 7mm?
 
Good to go with .270 in your area.... Make sure you are actually in one of the counties where that rule applies..... otherwise there is no restriction on what rifle you can use for small game....

.7mm is a no go if you are in one of the counties as it is over .275 ..... stupid I know, but they go by the headstamp....
 
Just remember that is only for "small game" and if you are in one of those restricted areas you can't hunt deer with a rifle - shotgun only (or bow or black powder, but you get where I'm going).

So if you live in South Western Ontario - doesn't apply much east of Oshawa or north of Barrie (give or take a little) - and you can only have "one rifle" then 270 is the way to go (MNRF considers a 270 to fall within the regs even though it shoots a .277 bullet).

If however you can afford two rifles then why not get a .223 for small game (which is much cheaper to feed = more shooting) and get a (second) big game rifle. Especially if your big game hunting if going to be a "rare occurrence" (really tough to pull a moose tag).

A 270 is more than fine for moose and bear (in Ontario), maybe a bit much/expensive to shoot if you are taking out yotes and ground hogs.
 
As Super Brad says, 7mm cartridges are .284 cal. They let .270's slide because they are extremely close in size, but I'm sure if you pissed off a ministry officer enough you could get in trouble for it. If you want less muzzle energy, handload or get your rifle in another cartridge like 6.5x55mm which has been used successfully for all the mentioned game.
 
thank you all for replying, I'm going with the 270 win.

I'm buying the new rifle for up coming bear and moose season(if I'm luck enough to draw a tag for moose)
I don't really hunt coyotes, but they took a deer on our property close to the city and I can find coyote tracks all over the place. I just got into hunting, only have one shot gun and 2 mil-surp rifles, first used M38 Swedish Mauser for coyote, but I realize I can't see the coyote in the grass under low light condition. I refuse to drill and tap an old mil-surp, so I want the new rifle double as a coyote gun.
I too considered 6.5x55 swed, since I already have a rifle in the caliber, but the ammo are hard to come by. My friend has a 270 win Browning, it would be better for us to have the same caliber.
 
65x55 ammo 'hard to come by'?not really and all you need to do when you find some us get a few boxes(Tradeex carries it) ..great caliber and after 100 yards ballistically equivalent to a 270, but with a higher SD..
 
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With light bullets the 65x55 is a varmint cartridge, with standard 140 gr bullets it's a superb deer cartridge and with 160 grain bullets it's a moose cartridge ...pretty close to the 'one gun' Arsenal.Tradeex generally has a good assortment of 'sporterized' swedes with excellent barrels and often already drilled and tapped for a scope in the $250-$300 range .
 
passer544 said:
That's a weird law. I wonder why the caliber distinction. Not like a 44-40 is more powerful than a 270 lol
Click to expand...

Because it's South Western Ontario (that's the answer) they also require a "county licence" in many places for small game - and that's in addition to the Provincial small game licence :)

But the whole province is screwed up like that. Outside of South Western Ontario (which is all shotgun deer) we have a number A and B wildlife units. The A units you can hunt deer with rifles, the B units, located mostly in "active" farm country are restricted to shotguns. The theory is, according to the MNRF (and it seems sound) is that a projectile for a shotgun is "less likely" to stray from your hunting area into an adjacent farm and unintentionally kill livestock.

Ok, I'm reasonable and that makes sense - shotgun/muzzle loader or bow, which does have a shorter range than say a 7mm RM to save a cow if some yahoo pulls the trigger and misses bad.

But if you are hunting "black bears" in any of those "B" units you can use a rifle - hmmm, so the MNRF considers Black Bear Hunters to be drastically better shots - they won't miss and accidentally take out a cow in the next field over? You could argue that there is less bear hunters, but that still isn't the point. If it's dangerous to use a rifle in farm country, then it's dangerous....
 
passer544 said:
That's a weird law. I wonder why the caliber distinction. Not like a 44-40 is more powerful than a 270 lol
Click to expand...

Yup. I can legally be target shooting .50bmg in my back yard (heck, 20mm for that matter). But if a critter comes along, then suddenly a piddly 9mm carbine pushing 300 ftlbs is WAY too much gun to be safe. So instead I have to step "down" to a truly soft and fluffy round like the .270wssm with its harmless 3500 ftlbs of energy. Not to mention the difference in range.

Ridiculous. But it is what it is.
 
You guys are too clever for your own good.... They don't allow the .270W because it is 'close' nor do they chose to turn a blind eye. They allow it because the .270w is under the specified .275 caliber max. referenced in the regs and therefore legal. If you care to check you will find the the barrel specs for a .270w call for a BORE diameter of .270in. and a GROOVE diameter of .277in. ... Since caliber can be either measured by bore OR groove diameter..... The .270W is legit!!!! This has been answered before.
 
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