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Re: 270 or 280

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17 January 2004, 09:22
Lou270
Re: 270 or 280
Quote:


I think its a bit incorrect to make it sounds like both the 270 and 280 has a similar amount of difficulty getting off the ground. In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a round as deserving as the 280 that had a bumpier road to success (to be sure, not success on the level of the 270, but respectable success nevertheless). I think no small part of the 270s success is that it had a few decades to "get popular" and prove itself before any magnum appeared on the scene; that gave it enviable momentum in owndership and "tradition" and has surely been a foundation for staving off the onslaught of superior medium-bore magnums. Moreover, it really fit a niche market; there were basically no competitors to the 270 (in the pre-mag era), so if you wanted something a bit flatter shooting than an '06, you got a 270. Simple as that. The 250-3000 and 257 Roberts didn't interfer with this; and 6.5mms were even more shunned than 7mms. An enviable position.




I think we agree on just about everything. I think we are only looking at the history of the .270 a bit differently. My contention is that the .270 did not have it easy and it was not a matter of it was the only choice and had time to get popular that it succeeded. The .270 proved to world that we "needed" a round smaller than the .30-06 on the same case. No matter what shadow the .270 & 7mm Rem Mag cast over the .280, it pales in comparison to the shadow the .30-06 and decades of big bore lever guns cast over the .270. Back then, people measured killing power by the hole in the end of the barrel. The .270 had no competitors because the .270 ushered in the need for competitors. J'OC did not come around until the mid to late 30s and he certainly was not the powerhouse writer we know him to be today when he started, yet the .270 managed to hold on and steadily gain popularity for several decades despite minimal press and meanwhile changing what hunters consider ideal for big game hunting.

I am not by any means, saying the .270 is better than the .280, or that the .280 did not have it tough or that it was not deserving of the popularity it did achieve. My theory is that had the .280 been introduced instead of the .270, it would not have been different enough from the 06 to differentiate itself and gain the popularity the .270 had, considering the already very simliar .280 Ross was around, the 7x57 mm was very familiar, there were several other 7mm "mag" wildcats about, and Elmer Keith was playing with the .285 O.K.H. and nobody was too excited. If the .280 launched any of it's characteristic bullet weights to 3160 fps, like the .270 did with it's 130, then it might have, but a 140 at 3000 fps does not look that much different to a 150 out of the .30-06 at 2970 fps to a neophyte.

I further contend that the .270 would have been popular no matter when it was introduced simply because it acheives greater than 3000 fps with it's characteristic bullet weight (130), which has good sectional density and BC to maintain the velocity downrange. Further, this bullet weight is adequate for large game and the round does not kick you to get the 3000 fps. You can surely get the same velocity (3050-3100) with a heavier or lighter caliber assuming equiv SD/BC, but you need to step up to the magnums to do so. Surely it would not have reached it's legendary status that it has today, but I do not think it would have struggled too badly.

Again, all this is only theory, but since we are theorizing that the .270 would never have succeeded had the .280 been introduced first, I can theorize that the .280 would not have been popular had it been introduced first. I'm very happy the way things worked out and I own both.

-Lou
17 January 2004, 09:50
Lou270
"Again, all this is only theory, but since we are theorizing that the .270 would never have succeeded had the .280 been introduced first, I can theorize that the .280 would not have been popular had it been introduced first. I'm very happy the way things worked out and I own both."

Let me rephrase the .280 would not have been popular to .280 would not have killed the .270 due to it's popularity before it started had the it been introduced first.

-Lou