270 vs 7mm Remington Mag

[Dub]

I've owned both...handloaded for both...I grab .270 Win most of the time.

The article by Petzal was a slant piece, for sure. Opinionated & geared towards kicking up dust and selling more magazines.

Linked within that article was this one:


https://www.fieldandstream.com/blog...g-semi-auto-shotguns/?traffic_source=Connatix


It's even worse than the .270Win vs 7mmMag piece.

Some blatant inaccuracies in it as well. Makes me wonder if anyone edits this stuff before it's "printed".

 

[Ray357]

I've owned both...handloaded for both...I grab .270 Win most of the time.

The article by Petzal was a slant piece, for sure. Opinionated & geared towards kicking up dust and selling more magazines.

Linked within that article was this one:


https://www.fieldandstream.com/blog...g-semi-auto-shotguns/?traffic_source=Connatix


It's even worse than the .270Win vs 7mmMag piece.

Some blatant inaccuracies in it as well. Makes me wonder if anyone edits this stuff before it's "printed".

I do agree with their #1 shotgun. It does not recoil. It's unreal how soft V3 and Versa max are.

 

[Darkhorse]

What's the best? The .270 or 7mm Rem. Magnum? I say it depends.
Depends on what? I say it depends on the bullet used and the target animal.
Here is a small example based on over a decade with the 7mag as my full time weapon and the 300 win mag. pulling the same duty for an equal amount of the time.
In the 7mag. my main bullet was the 154 grain hornady spire point loaded to near max. or max. I tried several other bullets but this one proved to be the best for me. It didn't matter what I shot, near or far, a deer or hog hit in the vitals either died right there or after a very short bloodtrail. And in those 15 years there were a lot of animals killed with that rifle.
In 1996 I had booked a migration elk hunt out of Chama, New Mexico. Even though the 7mag. had dropped a bull at 281 yards with one shot I still felt like I needed another rifle. Actually I needed a .300 Win. Magnum because I had always wanted one for western hunting. I called Hornady and spoke to a bullet engineer. He said the 165 grain bullet was designed as a deer bullet and the 180 was an elk bullet and you could tell them apart in a loaded round because the 165 grain (maybe the 180 can't remember) had a groove cut into the bullet just above the crimping groove. Good info. Just what I wanted to know.
So first up for the 300 turned out to be a good 5X5 at a little over 400 yards. The 180 grain spire point at max. loading with IMR 4350 took him through the shoulder, clipped the spine and exited into the Colorado dirt. The bull flipped onto his back, kicked once with the hind legs then lay still. I had my elk bullet.
When I got home I hunted deer with the 165 grain bullet, mostly on a couple of huge clearcuts in ladder stands I had built with a solid rest on the rails. I killed 2 bucks that year, one dropped on the spot the other ran 100 yards. But I also killed 3 does, one went 30 yards. Then I shot 2 off a sandbag, the first went over 250 yards and I had to track her down in the dark in thick pines. The second went about the same distance, both were shot through the heart, and I just watched them run wondering if I had somehow missed.
But no, I hadn't missed at all, but I was shooting the wrong bullet and it showed the 7mm to be a better deer killer than the .300 mag. But if I had of been loading a 150 grain or even a 165 grain with a thinner jacket in the 300 then it would have proven the 300 to be a better deer killer.
In the 10+ years I carried that rifle full time I only hunted with it when bucks only were my targets. I killed more deer with a dead right there, one shot killed than with any other rifle I've owned.
The same lessons I've applied to the 7mm mag. and would the .270 if I owned one, and that's to make the effort to discover the bullet performance on deer, elk and large hogs. Then select my bullet from that data.
Far to many deer are wounded and lost because the hunter is using the wrong bullet. The right bullet kills out of a .243 or a large magnum. The wrong bullet often gives poor results.
I know this was long winded and now I'll step down from my peach crate, thanking all who made it this far for the opportunity to speak my mind about bullet selection.

 

[deers2ward]

"The 7mm Remington Magnum is a fine cartridge. Theoretically it should have a little more killing power than the 270. It uses heavier bullets at somewhat higher velocity, but if there is any practical difference I have not seen it." Jack O'Connor

I believe during Jack's time, the standard loading for a .270 was loaded hotter than the standard loading now, so the difference in the two cartridges would have been narrower then in terms of factory offerings.

Also, later in life, after he had cemented the legendary status of the 270, Jack really came to love, and even prefer, the 280 rem. And the 7mm is to the 280 rem, as a 300 win is to a 30-06.