Well if we are getting into high velocity chamberings, he might as well buy a 7mm Remington Mag. They also shoot 160s at 3000fps and reloading supplies and rifles are easily found for it. The .270 Sherman is nice if he's building from the ground up but to just buy a back up rifle he might as well get one in a popular caliber.
caliber and rifle for elk backup, practice and targets
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Well if we are getting into high velocity chamberings, he might as well buy a 7mm Remington Mag. They also shoot 160s at 3000fps and reloading supplies and rifles are easily found for it. The .270 Sherman is nice if he's building from the ground up but to just buy a back up rifle he might as well get one in a popular caliber.
Panchik
Well-Known Member
If a barrel life was a key factor I would not go with magnums.
A 308, 3006 or 270 win would be a good choice.
A 308, 3006 or 270 win would be a good choice.
If you have a 270 you can just ream the chamber to 270 Sherman. He has a 270.
3000 rounds on a barrel pretty much puts it in a 308 case cartridge. 260, 7-08, 308, all of which would be a good choice for a practice rifle capable of killing elk.
Ya true you could rechamber it but he most likely has a 22" or 24" barrel on his .270 and wouldn't be getting the full power of the .270 Sherman out of it. Besides 7mm Rem. Mags are everywhere and so is components for them. But your not going to get 3000 rounds out of either of these cartridges. The .308 family, like you said, will easily reach that number of rounds but so will a good old '06 like I originally suggested, I would almost guarantee that a properly cleaned and taken care of .270 could get to 3000 rounds also.
Keep it simple! It's a back up rifle, load it with 140/150 Berger VLD, 165/175 Matrix VLD, etc... keep the range at point of impact with plenty of energy to humanely harvest the game and call it good. 
I have a .270 AI and I've settled (at least for now) with 175 Matrix VLD at 2993 FPS for my accuracy load.
I have a .270 AI and I've settled (at least for now) with 175 Matrix VLD at 2993 FPS for my accuracy load.
Michael Courtney
Silver Member
I'd go with a 260 Rem shooting the 140 AMAX. The 30-06 has too much recoil, sub-optimal accuracy, and too much wind drift for 600 yard targets, especially in F Class work. The .270 and 7mm Mag are much less likely than the 260 Remington to make it to 3000-4000 rounds of barrel life with target accuracy.
The 140 grain AMAX at the modest velocities will do fine on elk due to its excellent sectional density, and its great BC and accuracy will serve you well at the 600 yard target line.
The 140 grain AMAX at the modest velocities will do fine on elk due to its excellent sectional density, and its great BC and accuracy will serve you well at the 600 yard target line.
DOUGLAS12
Well-Known Member
+1 on a 30-06 for sure. Very proven cartridge, plenty of ammo and components, and definately has the edge ballistically on the 308
Heck, if you gonna go that route, I'd stick with Jud96's original recommendation in #2 for the venerable .30-06 ... it'll also match your screen name.lightbulb
BTW, my back up to my .300 Win Mag is another .300 Win Mag.
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Michael Courtney
Silver Member
.308s have fantastic barrel life. I find the 6.5s easier to load for, but I'm more in my element with slow burning powders than Varget and H4198. The best weight .308 bullets are too light and have too low BCs for optimum use in the .300 Win Mag.
The best (200+ gr) 300 Win Mag bullets are both too heavy and too long in the .308.
You can get some good velocities (2700+ fps) from the 280 Rem with high BC 160-168 grain bullets, but short magazines, short barrels, and short OAL prevent this level of performance from the 7mm-08.
When I think 600 yard F class, I think 2700 fps and a BC of 0.6ish. Reading the wind is much, much harder with the compromises inherent in most 7mm-08 and .308 implementations. Of course if you load 'em long and shoot 'em out of a 26-30" barrel, you can approach this from the .308 and 7mm-08. Or maybe you're just great at reading the wind.
Instead of buying a whole new rifle, why don't you just have your .270 rebarreled if you don't want to use it. And if I were rebarreling it I wouldn't spend all of that money for a 7mm-08 or .280, that's for sure. I'm still leaning towards the '06 for barrel life, availability, and its all around versatility. If you go this route, make it worth your while and put a 26" or 27" barrel on that '06 and watch the velocity it makes! The longer barrel will be capable of handling big .30 slugs like 190s-210s so you could shoot the same bullet as your .300 Winchester. Should be able to push those heavy 190s around 2800 fps, maybe even faster. This would really extend your range, probably out to 700yds.
bigngreen
Well-Known Member
If your 270 has a 1-10 twist load some 165 Matrix and see what it will do, if it does like all the ones I've seen rebarreling to a 280 will be a step backwards. I've seen a good number of elk get crushed by a 270 shooting a 165 Matrix in the 2850 fps range, it will make a 308 based anything look stupid when you smack an elk with it!!
Michael Courtney
Silver Member
With the longer barrel, a 30-06 makes a lot of sense and the extra length lets the powder capacity really make a difference over the .308 Winchester.
Do impress upon your gunsmith that you want an accurate shooter for long range hunting and target work. The 30-06 is seldom chosen for these roles, and you don't want your smith thinking you don't care about accuracy. A custom 26-27" barrel in 30-06 (or 30-06 AI) can fill the bill and also have a very long barrel life, especially if you shoot heavy bullets with slower powders.
I'm curious to know what length barrel you achieved 2850fps with using the 165gr Matrix bullets?
