Sounds like missing that deer due to a broken safety was more of a gun problem than the fact that the gun was a .270! I used two .270's for three years in Alaska, with 1`50-grain Nosler Partition bullets, and it peformed well on everything except I never tried to shoot a grizzly or brownie with one. When I returned to the lower 48 (Ft. Carson, CO) I switched to the 130-grain Nosler Partition, and shot some big mulies with that bullet. The .270 was a good performer with bullet weights.

I once had a Marlin lever action in .35 Rem. It was one of those sold by Sears, and stamped "J.C. Higgins". I believe it was called a Model 45, but it was actually a Model 336 Marlin. Inever shot anything with it, but my son killed several deer in TX with it. My load was 43 grains of IMR 3031 with the Speer 180-grain flatnose. MV was 2400 FPS-this load did a good job on the small Texas whitetailshe shot with it.