Pump action and semi auto Remington's in .30-06 was the east Texas gun of choice

Way back when I was repping for a Dallas based SG distributor in the late '70's, a dealer in Longview, Tony Valentino @ Tony's H&T, who delighted in ribbing everyone, but specialized in getting reps goats whenever possible...asked me a question in front of a retail customer of his who couldn't make up his mind in the classic 270 x '06 question that I'd never heard before...."Where would you need to live to own a 30'06 or a 270 to be accepted in deer camp??" I answered that since an old time gunsmith in Gregg County apparently had proclaimed 30'06 was king and derided everyone miserably that owned a 270...you'd prolly need to live in Longview to own a 30'06...Tony laughed, thought about it, and then gave us a name of a long dead 'smith that fit my description. Then asked the 2nd part of the 270 ??...and I replied ..."Smith County, since I knew that Richard "Mac" McBride in downtown Tyler across from the fire Station sold the poohwah out of 270's whenever possible"...That settled the deal since the retail customer was from Van Zandt County that is closer to Tyler than it is to Longview...and he walked out with a brand new 742 in 270...one of only 5 or 10 that Tony had in stock...to the never less than 50 or 60 742 '06's at any one time after September 1st...and sell out what ever he had left at Christmas.

I wish I had a Dollar for every Remmy 742 or 760 30'06 & case of Green box rifle ammo I sold all over East Texas from Paris to Beaumont in those days, as my retirement would be forever secure. I sold mostly Bolt actions west of Tyler ...and Houston or DFW and 90% Winchester ammo west of I-35.

Folks used to ask me what to buy caliber wise incessantly in those days...my standard answer was...what does your preacher, granddady's, daddy, uncles and cousins all shoot ...and thats what you buy so you can get some sleep at nite in deer camp without any harrasment.
Ron

Y'all are so right. The old Remington pumps and autos (Gamemaster 740 and Woodsmaster 760 IIRC) in .30-06 were the most common rifles in every east TX camp. Of course, the Winchester 94 in .30-30 was pretty dang common too.

I have a 1970s winchester model 70 with the 20" barrel in .270 inherited from my grandpa. Not the prettiest rifle in the world but I love it! Stupid accurate with the 150 gr SP Core-Lokts, and tons of knock down power. Neck shot on this doe back in January right around 120 yards. DRT

Call me a psychopath, but that's my favorite shot on does and coyotes, and I do it suppressed.

Peeeww, thump...thud.

No tracking, no meat damaged. (deer meat not coyote meat)

Not quite...the 280 headspace is longer so as not to be chamber-able in a 270.


And the overall case length is the same as the 270...longer than the 30/06.

I have heard comments about the twist on the .270, what would be the ideal twist, 1-8 or 1-9?

Berger recently made a 170 gr high BC bullet for the .270. It will need a 1:8 twist to stabilize. That's half the battle, the other half is getting barrel makers to make that twist in .277

I only see a small section of shooters that will be interested in the bullet and the barrel to stabilize it. And that will be the ones that already have lots of .270 brass and dies. Anyone else wanting to build a long action hotrod will probably just go to a 7mm or 6.5mm,like has been done for decades.

Yep when I read about the 170 grain .277 bullets berger was making I was almost committed to yanking the barrel off my 270 for a build, but then thought about it for a sec and said heck if im going to build one its gonna be something other than a 270 limited to one bullet choice.

^^Exactly.

Go down a caliber, and up a caliber, and you get yourself a wide variety of bullet choices. Especially when going to the 7mm. Keeping the same action it would be too easy to re-chamber it for 280 Ackley. And bras can be had without fire forming.

I know you can chamber/shoot 280 in a 280 AI, but can you accitentaly chamber a 280AI in a 280 Rem? My thoughts tell me no. I load for my dad's 280 and don't want a 280AI if it would lead to issues with that.

280 A.I. won't fit in a 280 chamber. Straight walls, and a different shoulder angle.

X3

Jack O'Connor was right then and still is today when he wrote: "If the hunter does his part, the .270 will not let him down."