By Horace Gore
The author’s custom Winchester Model 70 with engraving, chambered in .270 Winchester.
I have long enjoyed shooting a Winchester Model 70 .270 on North American game, but it hasn’t always been that way. When I was young and money was scarce, I shot any rifle I could beg or borrow. In my days at Texas A&M, I had a $40 war relic Enfield .30-06 that I “sporterized” with a Weaver J2.5 scope on a side mount. My Enfield “deer” rifle was accurate, and I took 15 deer with it, including my first yearling buck in Brazos County in 1958.
I eventually traded the old Enfield .30-06 for a Remington 721 .270 that I used on deer and pronghorns. As I traded up, I got a “tack-driving” Winchester standard Model 70 in .270 from Ernie Davis that I used on big game from the Rockies to Mexico. My good friend, Dean Davis of Gonzales, has the rifle now, and I’m satisfied that it’s in good hands.
Enter Jack O’Connor
Jack O’Connor’s promotion of the .270 sparked my interest about 65 years ago. I looked to Jack for shooting advice, and his regular column in Outdoor Life hooked me on the .270, which has enough hydrostatic shock and bone-busting power to bring down any animal I ever shot at. Handloaded with 60 grains of H4831 in Winchester cases, and a 130-grain Hornady Spire Point, the 24-inch barrel shot the bullet at 3,140 fps, and was deadly from 50 to 300 yards.
The Winchester .270 cartridge will be 100 years old in 2025, and is still a favorite of Texas hunters in both factory and custom rifles. The Remington model 721 was an economical version in .270 I liked very much. I recall a new Model 721 being $87 in 1964, and a used one will bring $500 today. A clean, used Winchester Model 70 in .270 will sell for three times that much.
Jack O’Connor grew up hunting with his grandfather in Arizona Territory and used a .30-06 and 7mm Mauser for wild sheep, Coues whitetails, mule deer, and other game. When Winchester developed the .270 in 1925, and brought out in their Model 54, Jack bought one and liked it. Eleven years later, Winchester brought out the .270 in their Model 70 with a completely revamped stock, action, and trigger, and Jack liked it even better.
The Rifleman’s Rifle
In 1936, the new Model 70 in .270 really caught the journalism professor/outdoor writer’s interest, and Jack used the .270 exclusively after moving to Idaho. He ended up working for Winchester and promoting the rifle and caliber as “The Rifleman’s Rifle” for the next 30 years. Jack was responsible for Winchester developing the Model 70 Featherweight in .270 and the new .308 and .243 cartridges, with 22-inch barrel light enough for the mountains.
Many of us whitetail, mule deer, and pronghorn aficionados have enjoyed the .270 in a variety of rifles, and this probably comes from successful hunts with no regrets. My personal preference for the Winchester Model 70 in .270 came from its killing power, mild recoil, crisp trigger, and good design.
My hunting exploits with the .270 go from Wyoming to Mexico, and several places in between. I have used a standard Winchester Model 70 to take whitetails, mule deer, pronghorn, elk, aoudad, and several deer-size exotics such as the Japanese sika and India’s spotted axis.
Gore’s custom Model 70
In 1990, I traded for a fine custom Model 70 .270 from Joe McBride in Austin that turned out to be one of my favorite rifles. The rifle had good walnut wood and checkering, and was even finer after Robert Bueltel cut the barrel to 22 inches and Tommy Kaye graced it with whitetail motif engraving on the floor plate and trigger guard. Later, Tommy added a nice pronghorn and “pineapple” engraved the bolt knob.
For 20 years, I used this custom Model 70 .270 on whitetails, mule deer, pronghorns and hogs. The lightweight barrel wasn’t too accurate, but I killed everything I shot at, which proved to me that a hunting rifle does not have to be a tack driver. The .270 with hand loads would hit a golf ball-size target with every shot at a hundred yards, and that was good enough for me.
Shooting nilgai
Even though I never used the .270 on nilgai, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot one with a 150-grain Nosler bullet if the distance was no more than 250 yards. Unless the shooter is close enough to shoot a nilgai where the neck joins the shoulder, most nilgai get taken with a bullet directly through the shoulder blade and into the lungs. This requires a heavy, deep penetrating bullet.
I’ve never seen a bull nilgai fall in his tracks, so don’t fret if he throws up his tail and runs 150 yards before collapsing. For long-range shooting at nilgai, I would leave the .270 and other similar rifles at home and depend on a heavier .30 caliber bullet to penetrate the shoulder bone and destroy the lungs—a little much for a .270 at 300 yards.
Shooting elk
Bull elk can be taken with a .270 and good, deep penetrating bullets. A young bull taken with my .270 while mule deer hunting in Wyoming took two 130-grain Sierra bullets—the first to stop him, and the second to put him down. My other bull and several cow elk were taken with a .300 Weatherby and a .264 Win. Mag.—both very good Magnums. Of course, the bottom line is to put the bullet in a vital spot, and the rest comes with a good skinning knife.
So, I was drawn to the .270 at an early age by a persuasive and articulate gun writer. I say this with respect, because Jack O’Connor was my idol during my formative years of hunting, shooting, and writing. I never met him, but I owe a lot to the world’s greatest gun editor.
I have read nearly everything Jack wrote about guns and hunting, and I’m confident in his early days, he liked his Springfield .30-06 as well as he liked the Winchester .270. The difference was he eventually became an employee of Winchester, and his rifle preferences were driven by the monthly check and paid hunting trips. On eight African safaris, Jack still relied on his Winchester Model 70 .30-06 for bigger horned game, but on the North American continent, Jack relied exclusively on his custom Model 70 in .270.
Final trophy
After hunting big game with a .270 for a half-century, I would recommend it to anyone. The key to success with the .277 caliber is to use proper bullets for the game you are after. In my case, all the deer, elk, exotics, pronghorns and hogs I’ve taken with the Winchester .270 would feed a small army, and each hunt always ended with a smile.
I took my final trophy whitetail buck in 2016 with my new Jack O’Connor Commemorative Super Grade Winchester .270. I went hunting with Marty Berry and Jason Shipman in Live Oak County. The heavy eight-point that grossed close to 160 B&C fell to a handloaded 130-grain Hornady SST bullet and 60 grains of H4831 in Winchester cases, my favorite .270 handload recipe for many years.
Today, hunters have many good rifle cartridges to choose from, but if you select the .270 in a good rifle, you won’t go wrong. The venerable cartridge has proven itself for 100 years, and I expect it’ll be a caliber of choice for another 100 years.
