What ever became of the old .270? Is it still even made?
This pretty funny, but theres an element of truth to it. The generations that didn’t grow up with relentless .270 propaganda from Jack O’Connor are likely to overlook it. Or at least more likely to approach it with some skepticism.
In an era of Ballistic apps and such, people rely less upon what a gun writer might say.
Let’s say you’re a younger guy looking to buy your first hunting rifle and you have two friends giving conflicting advice. One says buy a .270. The other says get a 6.5 creedmoor.
You plug the common hunting loads into a ballistic app, choosing the Hornady 143 ELD-x factory load for 6.5 and the Federal 130 Nosler ballistic Tip.
The app shows that the .270 starts with 350lb-ft more energy at the muzzle, but by 300y they are dead even in energy.
The .270 shoots flatter of course, dropping 38.4” at 500y vs 43.9” for the 6.5. At 300y, the difference is only 3” favoring the .270. (200y zero).
Using a 4” vital zone radius, the .270 has a 271y MPBR. The 6.5 gives 10y less.
And the 6.5 has a perpetual windage advantage. It shoots comfortably inside this .270 load at every distance.
Is the flatness advantage enough to justify nearly 50% more recoil and having to use a long action? Is the short range energy advantage enough?
I think there’s a pretty good argument here that the 6.5 is close enough to the .270 that choosing the lower recoil makes a lot of sense. Being able to use detachable box magazines might seal the deal.
Of course, if Remington hadn’t screwed up the .260 with their classic combination of poor reamer design, slow twist, and incompetent marketing, we’d likely never have heard of anything Creedmoor.