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Originally posted by Brad:
In other words you have NO experience witha anything other than whitetail deer except through the scribbling's of various authors found in magazines and books... exactly as I thought and precisely as you sound.

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Originally posted by 9.3x62:
Brad:

Finally, I wonder who has more *real* experience: the one making the case for the 270 over the 260 based on ballistic tables, i.e. a 250 ft/lb differential, and a slight trajectory differential, or the one making reference to performance in the field. HMMM...

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Originally posted by todbartell:
Barrel length - most 260's have 22" barrels at the longest, some 20" and 18.5" out there too. 270's almost always have 22" or 24", but there is some 26" and 20" as well out there on production rifles.

My mistake on the 30-06/375 elk test.

Of course there is no *real* advantage on deer out to 300 yards. The 260 does drop more at ranges past 300, compared to the 270, but only an inch or two at 450 yards. We have to argue about something though, and sometimes I gotta play the devil's advocate.

Personally, I didn't buy my 260 for 300+ yard shots on deer.

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Todd:

Tell me more about this 260 of yours - looks pretty nice.

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Originally posted by allen day:
General thoughts: Gunwriter Bob Hagle once made the comment that "no cartridge will kill any better than the cold, hard energy figures say it will", and for the most part I agree with him.

If I were to hunt those Hill Country whitetails I mentioned exclusively for the rest of my life, I'd feel very good about using something like the .260 Remington or .243 Winchester if I couldn't handle anything bigger. One of my hunting friends has a Remington 700 "C" Grade in .243 Win. as his only rifle, and with Texas' liberal bag limits on deer, he's taken scores of whitetails with that gun using handloaded 95 gr. Nosler Partitions. Another friend bought a Model 700 Mt. Rifle in .260 Rem. just as soon as that cartridge and rifle hit the market, and again, he's had nothing but good results with it on Texas deer. I've seen both of these gentlemen shoot quite a few deer over the years, and I have to say that despite the excellent results, neither cartridge is as convincing as the .270 Win. or .30-06, and I wouldn't consider either the .243 or .260 as a serious mule deer rifle for all of our western hunting conditions, especially if you plan to hunt elk and black bear with the same rifle.

Too many times, I've seen guys who dislike recoil try to make a direct or indirect case that the lighter cartridge kill stuff just as well as the bigger ones do, if not better, and there are isolated cases where this would seem to be true. But based on thirty years of hunting, much of it for animals a good deal bigger than deer, I must say that on a day-in and day-out basis, Bob Hagle's comments ring very true: All other things being equal, cartridges kill about as well as their real-world energy figures say they will - no more, and no less. I don't believe in trying to turn a light cartridge into some sort of giant killer. Such an approach is not realistic, and you can cut yourself a very bitter bargain indeed if you take this philosophy too far.

Last season, I hunted a new ranch in Texas for deer. Since this place is also full of wild hogs - some of them extremely big and agressive - I took a .338 Win. Mag. and ammunition featuring 210 gr. Nosler Partitions. My host was a bit surprised that I brought a .338 Win., but he was tickeled at the clean, efficient way it instantly dropped deer, and in the decisive way it hammered even the biggest boar hogs. After the hunt he said, "make sure you bring that Three-Three-Eight back next year", and I will come November. There's no good reason NOT to. That tough 210 Nosler bullet didn't destroy deer tissue any worse than a controlled-expansion .270 bullet would, and it was instant death on the biggest hogs.

A cartridge is only too big if you can't shoot it.....

AD

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