Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 270wsm barrel length?

How short can you go on a hunting rig 270wsm. I seen production rifles {browning} go with 23",but most others are all 24".

Do you think 23" would be enough barrel length on a wsm cartridge? Trying to decide on my next cut length for a 270wsm!

I'd do 23" in a heartbeat!

Dober

In my opinion the 270 WSM is one of the few short magnums made that wasn't a compromise. It performs well and deserves a 26" barrel. If you don't want to go that way just get a regular 270.

If you're opting for a 23" barrel, might as well get the grandaddy 270 WCF. 24" for 270 wsm is the minimum.

23 is just fine for a 270wsm. Especially the the invention of RL17.

..........Shorter barrel lengths only affect velocity to the tune of around 16 to 20 fps per inch in the 300 WSMs, as my experiments have carefully shown, testing two 24" 300WSMs vs my own 16.5" barreled 300 WSM Ruger Frontier compact carbine. Over several months, I used a wide variety if identical reloads with different powders and charge levels. A 23" barrel is fine for the 270 WSM.

For the 270 WSMs, my guess would have to be somewhat the same, around 16 to 20 fps loss for every inch of shorter barrel length.

A 270 WSM from a 23" barrel or from a 26" er in all reality, or roughly 48 to 60 fps total, wouldn`t make any difference in the field. Miniscule at best! I can easily throw a baseball faster than any 1" to 3" barrel length difference as it relates to bullet velocity.

Whether a 270 WSM barrel is 23", 24" or a 26", don`t worry about trying to justify either length as best for the 270 WSM. The 270 WSM will take care of itself. The velocity difference between them, is an extremely mute point.

You go for the rifle and tube length that will suite you the best and for your hunting situations.

Btw!.............If one were made and using identical reloads, I`d put money on a 16.5" tubed 270 WSM to achieve better velocity #s than a 24" barreled 270 Win.

A 24" or 26" tubed 270 Win, will in no way match the velocities from a 23" 270 WSM.

With certain cartridges, the shorter and fatter cartridges with greater powder capacities, will not only match, but exceed the performances of their standard longer barreled counterparts.

The second to last tube I did in .270 I went with 25". And with book loads it would run the 130 and 135 @ 3300.

The 140 @ 3100 and the 150 @ 3000.

All with book loads...

Dober

uuhh....Squeeze, I'm afraid you're wrong on this....there is only 10 grains difference in powder capacity between the cartridges.

I have a Browning Abolt 270wsm. had it on order when they first came out and it's been a great gun for me. Mine is a bit picky when it comes to handloads but once I found the right combination, it shoots great.

..........Are you sure??? .....If the 270 WSM is anything like my 300 WSM (a shorter 7.5" barrel vs the 24s), there should be a loss of only 4.5% in total velocity. Granted, I have no personal chrony experience with 270 WSMs. But if I were a betting man and based on what my 300 has done and from experience, I`ll wager on a shorty 16.5" tubed 270 WSM to exceed the performance of a 24" 270 Win and give some odds in the process too.

If you were to deduct 4.5% from the average 24" barreled 270 WSM velocity #s for any given bullet weight, those #s should still average above 24" tubed 270 Wins.

A 24" 270 Win vs a 16.5" 270 WSM, is almost the same comparison as a 24" 30-06 vs a 16.5" 300 WSM. But guess what; I have gotton 26" tubed 30-06 AI specs from my 300 WSM shorty, which is certainly better than any 24" 30-06.

Sure! It depends on the individual rifle characteristics, slower bores, faster bores, etc & etc. But for an across the board average, I`ll take the 270 WSM with a barrel 7.5" shorter, to out-perform the 270 Win with the longer 24" barrel. Unfortunately, there are no shorty 270 WSMs floating around out there to find out for sure. Though that would be an interesting match-up.

That extra 10 grains of powder capacity that the 270 WSMs have over the 270 Win, like the 300 WSMs have over the 30-06, can more than compensate for losing 7.5" of shorter barrel length, especially using todays more modern hi-tech granulated powders.

4.5% of say 3000 fps is 135 fps; 135 divided by 7.5" = 18 fps (per inch). My personal chrony findings with my 300 WSM vs two 300 WSM 24" barreled ones, averaged right in-between 16.3 fps and 19.4 fps per inch for all identical loadings tested which included some lower charges, some medium and maximum charges. The loadings also included various bullet brands and bullet weights. The days of losing 40-50 fps (per inch of barrel length) for "most" cartridges,,,are over and done with.

Although I cannot prove it to be sure, my gutt feeling based on experience is; that if ever tested, a shorty 270 WSM wouldn`t be too far off the mark and/or, very capable of doing exactly the same, as what my own 300 WSM has done.

But! You know what they say about feelings. Feelings are merely feelings, until they can be proven as fact.

squeeze: I'm not gonna put together a 16.5" 270 WSM to find out so it's all open to speculation.

Whether that extra 10 grains will overcome the short barrel length would be interesting to see.

But I have seen some 24-25" 270's perk(see Dober's post above),and velocities over 3200 with 130's are not unusual.But in the end the WSM has more capacity,so when barrels are equal,should go faster.This is a "given".I think the biggest advantage to the WSM is that it will push the heavier bullets to higher velocity than the standard case,likely 150-200 fps.I used this rationale to justify a 7 magnum for years

Bobin!...........Ya mean, you`re not gonna go out and find a 270 WSM and cut it down???...Damn!..LOL!

Looks like Dober has a fast bore with his 270 Win and getting some good #s. Not surprised! There are some faster bores lingering around out there. I gots me two of `em!

69 gr RL17 w/155 gr Berger VLD got me 3234 fps out of my shorty tubed "mighty mouse."

As Bugs would say! Aaaaaaay,,,not bad doc!

Considering a 270 WSM bore size and case capacity ie. expansion ration I'd want 23" not shorter, and for handling prefer it to a 24 or longer. Going shorter will be louder and speed will suffer some.

My present day Lilja #1 in .270 cut to 23" does 3200 with a book load of H4350 and the 130's...
I backed it off a couple of grains and it's still a bit over 3100.
Dober