I think just about everything that can be done with the 08 cases has been done. One thing, however, that I've never heard of is a wild cat of the .308 necked down to .277. Someone has to have tried this haven't they? Anyone know about it?

I'm sure several people have built a gun chambered for a 308 cartridge, necked down to 27 caliber. They soon discovered it is about 100fps slower, across the board, than a 270 Winchester and lost interest. In fact, from the time the 270Win was introduced until about 8 years ago, there was exactly ONE other commercial cartridge in that caliber; the 270 Weatherby. That speaks volumes about the efficacy of the 270, if you ask me.

Take a rifle chambered in 270 Winchester and load it with middling powder charges...PRESTO! A 270-308. The only possible advantage is having a short-action rifle, but if that's what you're looking for, the 7mm-08 shoots bullets that are exactly .007" larger in diameter, from the 308 parent case. Any way ya look at it, there just isn't much to be gained, here.

At best, such a wildcat would be so close to the 7-08 as to be completely redundant, offering absolutely no advantage I can think of.

I use to own a rifle chambered for the .25 SOUPER which is the .308 necked down to .257" which can also be done by necking up the .243 Win. Good cartridge but not much better than a .257 Roberts.

The 270-08 has been done. I think if you look through P.O.Ackley's books Handbook For Shooters and Reloaders, you'll find the 270-08 listed as a wildcat. If I remember right, those books were published in the early 60's.
As has been stated, there's not a lot to be gained from a 270-08 that can't be had from a commercial cartridge.
A more general comment: when a parent case like the 308 and the 30-06 before it, comes out, you can bet it will be necked up and down to most every bullet diameter, very quickly.

The only advantage that I could see is if you had a lot of brass to neck down or up. That would maybe make it feasible.

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Look up 270 Redding. It's basically the 270-08. Blown out a bit I suppose.

And yes, I want one as well.

Better bullet selection both above and below it, too (7mm and 6.5mm), I'd imagine.

7mm/308 is now called the: 7mm-08
6.5/308 is now called the: .260 Remington

Both cartridges are nothing new having been wildcat loads way back in the '50's & '60's.

It has been done and is certainly inferior to the 7-08 due to the 7mm version having a much better selection of bullets.

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Would that mean you're calling the 270 winchester, one of the best cartridges ever devised, inferior as well?

I never perceived the 270 bullet selection as being inferior to any other.

As compared to 30 caliber, there is a relatively limited number of 27 caliber bullets. Thing is, they all pretty much do what you'd expect from them, so who cares how many dozens of extra options there are? The thing about 27 caliber rifles is, excluding the 270 Ren, there are none that benefit from a round nose or lower velocity, since both the Win and the Weatherby have been built on nothing but strong actions with high velocity the goal. If there is less of a variety of bullets for the 270Win/Wea/WSM, it's because there just isn't a need for such.

I'm not looking to build one. ( I have a .270, three .270 WSM's, and a 7mm-08 already.) Just curious as I'd never heard of one. Surprised it wasn't done before the 7mm-08 or 260 Rem though. Don't necessarily buy the argument about why would you do it when the .270Win is available and faster. Certainly the same could be said for the .308, 7mm-08, etc.

Actually...not so. Keep in mind the circumstances of the release of the 308 and 7mm-08. The former is popular due to its designation as a US and NATO military round. Well, that, and it's a very efficient and effective little bugger! The 7mm-08 was standardized in 1980, when the luster of the 7x57 had worn down a lot and some shooters had grown weary of the 7RM. There weren't many (newer) cartridges for it to compete against and even so, it didn't exactly burst unto the scene. Why, you ask? (OK, maybe you don't, but nonetheless...) It's because the 270 Winchester was still stifling competition in the sub-30 caliber rifle market. If you stop and think about it, for 50 years or more, the 270, and its proud papa, dominated rifle sales. Lots of guys bought other calibers and cartridges along the way, but here we are, 85 years after its introduction and it's still among the best-selling rifle chamberings around...and deservedly so!

The 308 has global military backing, so it succeeded. The 7mm-08 has gradually become pretty successful, but heck it took more than 25 years for it to be standardized, so it's never been a barn-burner. The reason nobody bothered to neck down a 308 (or other cartridges, save for the 300 Savage) is that if you wanted a 27 caliber, the absolute best option conceivable was already out there. Even if you wanted something faster than the 270 Winchester, Roy Weatherby was smart enough to make his very first magnum in this caliber...and even it made virtually no inroads on the success of the 270 Win! Riflemen the world over owe Jack a debt of gratitude for singing its praises from mountaintops (and the pages of many magazines), helping make the 270 Winchester the most popular and effective, non-military, big-game cartridge this country will ever know.

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Put in simple words the 270Win is so good as is it is hard to find something most people want to shoot. Too many of the mags are overkill and hard on the shooter. A 300 Win mag or 7mm Rerm are powerful flinch makers for most shooters. The 270 is a nice shove and will kill just about anything you can find to shoot at.

It's been done, as was the 270x300 Savage. Efficient little rounds, but not much to be gained. HD1

In addition to the 270 Savage (300, necked down) Elgin Gates created an entire line of IHMSA cartridges on the 300 Savage case, with the shoulder pushed back a bit to give a longer neck. The most notable of these was the 270 IHMSA and while it doesn't give as much velocity as 270-308 would, it's close enough that the difference would be negligible.

So, if the 270-08 is pointless because of the 7mm-08, then why is not the .270 winchester pointless due to the .280 remington (or is it?), its no reason for a .270-08 to exist when the .270 winchester and the .280 remington both exist, and for some reason the .270 is far more popular...

It's a matter of chronology, BarkBuster. The 280Rem is not overly popular because it was released well after the 270Win. (Plus, it went through the same silly name-changing game as the 244/6mm Remington.) If Jack had championed an '06 case necked down to 28 caliber, instead of 27, because the 280 Remington had been standardized first, we might not have a 270 Winchester, just like we don't have a 270-08. Where cartridges are concerned, being first to market frequently means taking a dominant position in a given caliber.

If the 270-308 had been standardized first, maybe the 7mm-08 wouldn't have been made, or might be less popular. Having rifles that shoot .277" and .284" bullets, from the same case, at the same pressure, is predictably redundant. I mean, how much difference can their possibly be, when the bullets are but .007" apart? Notice how the 270WSM and 7mmWSM are both available, but neither is selling like hotcakes. That's like GM making lots of different cars that compete with one another, resulting in poor sales for each one.

Point being, the market is saturated with lots of different cartridges and only a few of them have strong sales, on an annual basis. The 270 Winchester is so good that anything similar to it tends to get ignored, for the most part.

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I would not be surprised to see the .270-08 standardized in the near future.