Good to know. Thank you for the feedback Mr. Taylor.

As long as you are relying on the Caldwell as a starting point only, it works fine. Under the best-case scenario, they are 50fps off one way or another and often a lot more, from my experience with them. They give a fine starting point but you’re going to definitely require a good bit of truing. (assuming you are shooting on a bright day)

270 as well covered very thoroughly by uncommon sense below. I typically do not find as many reloading components for that in any vaguely similar variety as for the 06 but it is a great everything but larger critter round….. including for dealing with steel plates at 100 or so yards

Awesome, thanks Uncommon! Initially I was thinking a “quiver of one” caliber but I could see a strong case for ending up with a rifle in each of -06 and .270 — fortunately we seem to have plenty of great rifles on the market to choose from these days.

Thanks SAFE! -06 has remained popular this long for a reason 🙂

JustMe,

I had the same question several years ago and a knowledgeable friend recommended either .30-06 Springfield or .270 Winchester.

My friend (and subsequent research) did say that .270 Winchester is too light for ethical moose and grizzly bear hunting. So, if you believe that you will never hunt moose and grizzly, then .270 Winchester could be a good choice with a bit less recoil than .30-06 Springfield. Note that .270 Winchester shoots flatter than .30-06 Springfield at very long ranges (if I remember correctly) such as you may encounter hunting in the wide-open spaces of the Western United States.

For reference the .270 Winchester cartridge is essentially a .30-06 Springfield cartridge necked down to .27 caliber. So you are getting almost the same case volume of propellant pushing a bullet with a smaller frontal surface area. That typically results in markedly higher bullet velocities both at the muzzle as well as far down range.

As neat as so many of the newer calibers are the combination of ubiquity, versatility, and high end of adequate power for most demands are damn near unbeatable with the only realistic area for improvement to be a more compact package (308 but lose the heavy loadings) with the same capabilities (maybe something based of the new 6.8 case construction for silly levels of pressure).

Much appreciated!