which gun is best for deer (25-06 or 270)?
by admin on Saturday, November 26th, 2011 | 12 Comments
i love the 25-06 but from what i have heard the 270 is supposed to be bad @$$ so… im kinda stuck and dont know which one i should get, i looked up the ballistics for them both they r both great for smaller big game all im hunting is whitetail and might accasionally shoot a squirrle or cyote if they keep aggrivating me to death.. please help me choose
25.6 love them.
Well I can tell you that you can get .270 ammo anywhere.Not so for a .25-06 and .270 will be a lot cheaper.The .270 is one of the most common cals. out there.I mean look at the first answer 25.6 ?
Interestingly enough, BOTH are made from the 30-06 case.
Start with a 30-06 case…
Neck it up to 35 caliber and you have the 35 Whelen.
Neck it down to .277 and you have the 270 Winchester
Neck it down further to .257 and you have the 25-06 Remington.
The 280 Remington is another cartridge based off the 30-06 case, but the shoulder has a different form to it. But suffice to say that the 280 Remington was Remington’s attempt to turn the 30-06 case into a cartridge that will fire a 7mm bullet.
Lastly. It is possible, but not recommended, that you can cut the 30-06 case off nearer the base and it has the same rimless dimensions as a 45 ACP. The “problem” is that the 30-06 rifle casing will have thicker brass walls and the 45 ACP jacketed bullets would not fit properly unless you shaved the inside structure of the cartridge case wall evenly.
Get the .270.Do not shoot squirrel with either one unless you want to have your rifle confiscated,lose hunting rights for a couple years and pay a fine.
Wasting game meat is illegal
Its not about the cal. Its about a well placed hit. Its only a deer, not a cape buffalo. I would chose a cal. that’s easy to get anywhere. Did you ever give some thought to the 308 ? You can use a shorter action length which makes a lighter rifle. and you have a great choice of bullets for any occasion Don’t get lost in the ballistic charts and velocity. that is only good for quenching the ego.
I would choose the .270 any day over the 25-06. You can get ammo pretty much everywhere and I just prefer a .270!
xmas forgot about necking the case up the a 338-06, actually there are a lot of 30-06 wildcats out there. The 25 was a wild back in the day but became mainstream.
As far as the OP asking for better. Which gets you wetter, falling in a lake or falling in the ocean? Point being they will both do an identical job on deer. The 25 will burn less powder to do it, but if you don’t reload it’s a non issue. You can get premium bullets in both.
If game larger than deer is on the table (elk size) the 25 isn’t sufficient, the .270 is what many consider to be the entry level round from game that size. If elk and bigger are going to be game, the 30-06 is a better choice. If large dangerous game is going to be an issue, the 30-06 is going to be the entry caliber and larger would be preferred.
.270 is better in my opinion for higher accuracy, flatter trajectory, and more power.
I would choose the 270. The guns and ammo are widely available. You can get .270 ammo at every little store that has ammo. .270 ammo will be cheaper than 25-06. The .270 will have a longer barrel life. The heavier bullet of a .270 will hit harder
* 270 *
For deer toss a freaking coin. Both will do what needs to be done in that category for deer if the trigger man is on que.
Neither uses more or less powder than the other if anyone wants to get technical about it, same case different bullet diameter of .2 calibers (big f-ing whoopty doo). Ammo prices are ridiculious for both no matter how you wanna look at it and for most any ammo these days for that matter.
2600 ft lbs of energy 25/06 verse 2700 for the 270.
Flatter trajectory 25/06, lighter (faster) better BC to and on target.
Both are used on the same game up to elk, and both are maxxed out here at the CXP 2 game limits no matter what people want to beleive the 270 will do or Jack freakin O’conner thought about it in his death defying circus shooting acts on larger more dangerous game such as lion’s and bear before the ban on certain calibers was well established.
I’ve owned my share of 25//06′s and 270′s. On game or paper I bet no one can tell me what either one was shot or hit with when using either of these 2.
For ground chucks, squirrels and coyote both have been used successfully here.
The 25/06 more so because it’s considered both a large big game/ varmint round due in part to a better selection of lighter bullet weights and is even still produced in varmint style rifles like the Ruger MK II and the Ruger No.1 V.
They are both adequate for whitetail. Actually, if you disregard the 25-06 because of the bullet weights available, most of the cartridges based on the .30-06 case are pretty much interchangeable. As an example, the 130 grain bullet is pretty standard in the .270 for hunting pretty much everything the caliber is suitable for. I can shoot 130 grain bullets from my .30-06 at the same velocities as the .270. All I give up with the .30 caliber is some ballistic coefficient, which at most hunting ranges doesn’t matter a bit. For hunting game such as deer, the difference in bullet size doesn’t really mean much, either.
Either one of them will work. Pick the one you shoot best and have at it.