I have given this a LOT of thought over more years than you can imagine, while I believe the 7.62.x is the most versatile of all the rounds out there and IMO the best ever, I absolutely love the .270 Win...
That said my criteria is a combat rd. I fully agree the 30 06 was an overkill, I mean you only need them dead once. And it was HEAVY and in a HEAVY platform, I know I carried a M 14 before I ever carried a M 16.
But as a Infantry soldier who paid his dues in the bloody arena on the killing fields, the 5.56 was at the very OUTER edge of what I want to use when I "close with and engage the enemy" is number 1, number other considerations: is a versatile hunting round, light in weight to carry, wide varity of factory ammo avail, low cost and meets the Wal Mart test...does Wal Mart stock the round?
Another thing I like is its ballastics are better than a 308, not much, but they follow the same curve and at 500 yds the drop is about 8" less for the same weight and type of cart (Win Power Point 130 gr) ballisticscalculator.winchester.com
While I have never owned a .270, I wish I could the AR 10 chambered in that cart...maybe someday
Have you looked at a .260 Rem. upper? There are claims it will duplicate the 300 Win mag trajectory so it has to be a pretty flat shooting round. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.260_Remington
It will most likely fail the wal-mart test but I can't even get .22's there now so there's no difference.
Jack O'Conner the legendary Outdoor Life shooting writer, absolutely swore by the .270. The only cartridge I think he liked more was the Remington .280 when it came out much much later. I believe before World War II the US Army came close to adopting the .276 Pedersen when they adopted the M1 Garand, but they already had so much in the way of logistics invested in the 30-06 that they ordered the Garand in .30 caliber. To this day there is a good argument that the 6.8-7.5mm caliber has advantages as a standard military round.
I like the .260 and one of my favs is the 6.5x55 Swede, neither is a stockage item at Wally World...When I owned my off road shop and was building rigs to challenge Moab and the rest of the SW I applied what I called my Action Auto parts test. Did they stock the parts, such as a outer wheel bearing for the front axle etc etc.
There is a ton of stuff for the offroad crowd, some of it made from magic metals like UnObtainium, uses one of a kind square wheel bearings only available from some shop in Florida which is only open 6 mo out of the year and you never know what 6 mo (not kidding on that).
My tag line for my company: 'built to get you there, engineered to get you back'. I gave a guarantee that if my work or design failed I would come get you or pay to have you extracted off the trail from anyplace in the SW and I would either repair to your satisfaction or pay another shop to do so. In 5 years I never had a single call or had to pay anyone to fix my work.
So while I love innovation, and the exotic and fully appreciate it for what it is and as an engineer who spent most of his career in R&D I push the edge to the very bleeding edge. But when you field a product it has to be available.
I forgot the exact requirement for ammo, but in choice of calibers, the industrial complex has to be able to produce millions of rounds weekly in order for us to move to a war time footing.
That said I agree with you, but availability is one of my criteria.
Since the title of this topic is "The Perfect Round"
I think there's a bunch of perfect rounds.
perfect for practice: 22LR
perfect for low recoil pistol: 9mm
perfect for heavy hitting pistol: 45ACP
perfect for close quarter combat: .223
perfect for battle rifle: 308Win
perfect for vehicle targets: 50BMG
Perfect for tanks: 30×173mm NATO
Nice selection and I would agree, but I would through in the .38 Super for the 9mm
and for somewhere in between the .50 and 30mm we still have to have that .338 Lapua or a .416 Taylor that is one of my favorites and we all know the 20mm round rocks!
Looking at the 5.56-270-308-3006-338 family, the winner is...3006 doing the closest comparo I can. That said at 500 yards the spread in drop is +/- 5.5 yds
Energy runs from: 5.56 @ 340 ft lbs ; 30 06 @ 1630 ft lbs
Now looking at it from a combat view: 100 yd ft lbs.
Cowboy, would the length of the 270 case prevent it from having an AR10 chambered for it? Unless some major magazine and magazine well modifications were done? Just a thought. How about a .270 Winchester Garand?
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