RE: Gettin my first deer rifle.
frizzellr,
No problems with that. The 7mm/08 is a great round that is for sure. The .270 probably adds 75 to 100 more yards range but that comes at a range 99% of all hunters shouldn' t be shooting at anyway. So you are certainly correct that practical differences aren' t very much – dead is dead!
When you start hot rodding the .270 with nearly 60g of powder and 150g bullets, the recoil will be more pronounced than the 7mm/08 if that is a concern. I do recall you saying you' ve torn your rotator cuff, so I would imagine you can certainly tell a difference in the two.
Heck, ballistics aren' t usually why I like cartridges anyway. My favorite cartridge is the 7.92x57 JS, or as it is more commonly referred to - the 8mm Mauser. Using European loading data I get about 2650 fps from 180g BT. That is nothing special but for some reason it' s my favorite. Even loading the 185g Remington Core-Loct to a modest velocity of 2400 fps just flat out hammers deer.