Winchester built the .270 in 1925 by taking the .30-03 Springfield case and necking it down to a .277in bullet. The first rifle chambered for it was the Model 54, the bolt gun that became the Model 70. Most loads use 130 or 150-grain bullets, and the factory range runs from 100 to 160.

For the first decade it went nowhere in particular. Jack O'Connor then spent forty years championing it in Outdoor Life, and by the end of that run the .270 was one of the most widely used big-game cartridges in the world. None of the other three cartridges in this series owes as much of its standing to one writer.

A hundred years on, it is the most conservative cartridge on the shelf

The .270 tag pages here carry 559 records from 30 makers, the fewest of the four big American hunting cartridges. The record count sits within five of the .30-06, so that is not a shortage of guns. It means the established names build them and almost nobody else bothers.

The barrel data makes the point more sharply. Of the 526 records that state a length, exactly one is under 20 inches.

Barrel	Records