I was at a gun drawing which I have never had luck at one before. Well I got lucky this time and won a 270 Ruger American. I like the rifle but I don't really know if I will use it. I have a Marlin XL7 in 30-06 that my wife gave me for our anniversary 3 years ago and I really love the rifle. I know its not a top of the line rifle but it shoots great and is very reliable hasn't let me down. I only use it for deer and coyotes. Does the 270 shoot that much flatter then a 30-06? I don't hunt in open country probably my longest shot is 100 yards at most. Plus I have deer hunted with a shot gun most my life and our area just went rifle 3 years ago so just about any rifle I use seems like a laser gun compared to my slug gun. I thought about trading both the ruger and marlin in on a tikka but I don't think I could give up the marlin cause of the sentimental value plus the wife would kill me. So that's outta the question. So my choices are to keep the ruger as a back up, or sell it or trade it in on a 50 cal muzzle loader cause I don't have one of those and it would expand my deer season. I just don't think I will get a lot for the ruger cause brand new there about 350.00 so im leaning towards just keeping it and switching off between the marlin and ruger.