The .270 Winchester is a rifle cartridge developed by

Winchester Repeating Arms Company The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivershi ...

in 1923 and unveiled in 1925 as a chambering for their

bolt-action Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed). Most bolt-actio ...

Model 54The Complete Reloading Manual for the .270 Winchester, Loadbooks USA, Inc., 2004, pp.13,19 to become arguably the flattest shooting cartridge of its day, only competing with the .300 Holland & Holland Magnum, also introduced in the same year. As the .280 Remington, and the .30-06 Springfield, the .270 Winchester derived from the .30-03 parent case and the bore diameter was likely inspired by 7mm Mauser. The .270 Winchester uses a .270 inch (6.86 mm) bore diameter and a .277 inch (7.04 mm) bullet diameter.

History

Introduced in 1925 along with the Winchester Model 54 bolt action rifle under the name "270 WCF" (270 Winchester Centerfire), the .270 Winchester was not an immediate success due to the popularity of the relatively recently introduced .30-06 Springfield, chambered for the M1903 Springfield bolt action rifle, which was commonly "sporterized" for hunting purposes. However, the .270 Winchester attained great popularity among hunters and sporting rifle enthusiasts in the succeeding decades and especially in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

period, ranking it among the most popular and widely used big game hunting cartridges worldwide, especially with the widespread popularity of rifle scopes. Shooters started noticing that the .277" caliber cartridge was capable of shooting flatter than the popular 30–06. The .270 Winchester, conceived solely as a big game hunting cartridge, became very popular, in part, due to the widespread praises of gun writer Jack O'Connor who used the cartridge for 40 years and touted its merits in the pages of '' Outdoor Life'' as well as other renowned gun writers of the time such as late Col. Townsend Whelen. The cartridge was initially commercially loaded to drive a 130 grain (8.4 gram) bullet at approximately , later reduced to , demonstrating a high performance at the time of its introduction while being marketed as a suitable cartridge for big game shooting in the range. Two additional bullet weights were soon introduced: a 100-grain (6.5 gram) hollow-point bullet for varmint shooting, and a 150 grain (9.7 gram) bullet, offering a higher sectional density, which made it suitable for achieving better penetration for large sized deer, such as wapiti, and moose. However, the 130 grain bullet remains the most popular option. For decades the only other commercial 6.8mm cartridge available for sporting purposes was the .270 Weatherby Magnum, which offered a flatter trajectory based on the larger powder capacity allowed by the

belted magnum The term belted magnum or belted case refers to any cartridge, but generally a rifle cartridge, with a shell casing that has a pronounced "belt" around its base that continues 2–4 mm past the extractor groove. This design originated with the B ...

case, however due to the higher price and offer limit, it never reached the popularity of the .270 Winchester. Nowadays a new breed of .277" caliber cartridges have been introduced to the market, including the .277 Winchester Short Magnum, which launches a bullet of the same weight 200 fps faster from a short action mechanism; the 27 Nosler, which is even faster but requires a long magnum action, and the recent 6.8 Western, which is basically a modification of the 270 WSM firing a heavier and larger bullet with a higher ballistic coefficient. Nevertheless, none of these new cartridges matches the popularity of the old 270 Win and offer little advantage for practical hunting purposes. Other of the main reasons why the .270 Win is still one of the most popular loads is because of its acceptance worldwide. Internationally, ammunition and firearms manufacturers offer this chambering in a wide range of firearm options including

single-shot Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many cen ...

lever-action The toggle-link action used in the iconic Winchester Model 1873 rifle, one of the most famous lever-action firearms Lever-action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocking handle located around the trigg ...

s (such as the Browning BLR),

pump-action Pump action or slide action is a repeating firearm action that is operated manually by moving a sliding handguard on the gun's forestock. When shooting, the sliding forend is pulled rearward to eject any expended cartridge and typically to ...

s (such as the Remington 7600), autoloaders (such as the Remington 7400), and even a few double rifles.

Sporting use

The .270 Winchester is a suitable cartridge for hunting deer-sized game at open ranges making it suitable for plains game and mountain hunting. Standard ballistics tests show that the .270 is highly appropriate for hunting screeching boars and pigs. It may be chambered in standard length actions and though the optimum barrel size is considered to be 24 inches, it doesn't lose much muzzle velocity with 22 inch barrels, making it a suitable cartridge for developing a light mountain rifle. Loaded with a 130-grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of about 3060 fps. and sighted to touch 3 inches above line of sight at 100 yards (90 meters), the .270 Winchester will not rise more than 3.5 inches, to touch the line of sight at approximately 270 yards, providing a maximum point blank range of about 325 yards for a 7-inch diameter target, matching the vital area of deer sized game, allowing the hunter to shoot within that distance without having to think about compensating the bullet drop. The cartridge loaded with the 130-grain bullet will also retain 1500 ft-lb. of energy up to 400 yards, which is considered the minimum suitable for elk.

Performance

Cartridges are commonly available from sizes with loads being by far the most popular. Though handloaders have a wider range of options with the availability of bullets in a number of weights from 90 to 180 grains (5.8 to 11.7 grams), rifles are barrelled with 1:10 inch twist rifling, which may stabilize bullets up to 150 gr in order to provide the required accuracy expected. Common bullet weight recommendations for shooting different game are as follows: * bullets: varmint and small deer * bullets: deer size game including

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related w ...

, white tail,

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticat ...

, mountain goats,

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mam ...

* bullets: deer, elk,

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult m ...

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subs ...

, and some larger animals. However, bullet construction shall be more important than bullet weight in order to shoot the heavier game. Recent introductions of low-drag bullets suited to the .270 Winchester such as the Nosler Accubond Long-Range, Hornady ELD-X and Matrix long-range bullets are promoting renewed interest in the cartridge among long-range hunters. While it is true that a .270 Winchester case can be formed from a .30-06 Springfield case, the case length of a .30-06 is while the case length of a .270 is , within .5mm of a .30-03 Springfield. However, "The slight difference in length of reformed cases doesn't make any practical difference."Speer Reloading Manual Number Ten (1979), p. 182

References

C.I.P. TDCC 270 Win.
{{DEFAULTSORT:270 Winchester Pistol and rifle cartridges Winchester Repeating Arms Company cartridges

History

Sporting use

Performance

See also

References