Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 270 Weatherby- Your experiences

A new .270Wby will be added to my arsenal in the upcoming days. I would like hear from you about your experiences, powder selection, and loads. I own a .240, and several .257s. The .270Wby has been on my radar for quite sometime, and I look forward to killing some critters with the rifle in the coming years.

Mine dotes on 7828, ssc or regular don't seem to matter. I shoot 130 partitions out of it. Can't remember the load but know that it is Hodgdon's listed max for that powder and bullet weight, I worked up but that's where they shot the best so I called it good.



Loaned it to my dad with a handful of shells this fall, he put one through the pump house on this fella at 330 yards for the win. Soup in the middle, bull went all stiff and collapsed where he stood.

Beautiful Caribu. Thanks for sharing. I really like 7828, need to find more stock.

IMR 7828 and 150gr. NBT and NPT worked very well out of my MKV "Synthetic".
I kick myself for turning it loose.

SC

My experiences and those of some friends indicate 7828 is great from 240's up through 300 Weatherby's. I'd guess the 270 might fall in there too.

I gifted my son with a 270 Wtby left-handed Sauer-made Mark V De Luxe when he was twelve.

It is one beautiful rifle I must say.

My son is now 28 years old, and I've watched a fairly large number of kills on red deer, wild boar, roe-deer and occasional varmints with this rifle.

One beauty of the 270 Wtby is it's very mild recoil. I remember Junior shooting the rifle on the bench at age 13.

As all Mark-V's made in Germany, this one came with a 1~12" twist and won't handle heavy bullets very well.

The 24" barrel is a bit short. I believe modern Weatherby rifles with a 1~10" twist rate and 26" barrels are more versatile and more efficient than early productions.

Factory 130 grain PSP and Nosler-Partition ammo are quite accurate, but a bit on the light side for rutting stags.

For some time Federal produced a 140 grain load using Accubond bullets. This loading proved very accurate in my son's rifle but has been abandonned by Federal in the meanwhile.

Federal's TBBC load was responsible for several arduous searches for wounded game. My feeling is that this bullet does not expand sufficiently on medium sized game. It will punch small entry and exit holes that produce little blood.

In present days Weatherby rifles the 160 grain Nosler-Partition bullet could probably be used with good results on heavier big game. It would stretch somewhat the usefulness of the caliber which in my opinion is designed primarely for light, medium game.

All in all, the 270 Wtby. round very much behaves like a standard 270 Win.

There's nothing negative with that. After all, the 270 Win. is a fabulous round, isn't it?

I picked up a used Mk V 270 Wby 3 years ago and have mostly shot the 130 TSX with RL19, 22 & 25, 7828 and Magpro. Best accuracy has been with RL22 and Magpro but accuracy hasn't been very repeatable with any powder/bullet combo, so I suspect I may have a bedding issue.

That said, the first time hunting with it, I shot this guy in the morning and a 3x4 mulie later the same day so really have no complaints. The elk was walking straight away and had to wait for him to turn slightly for a steep quartering shot. The bullet entered behind the ribcage and landed in front of the off shoulder under the hide.

As far as I know, Weatherby factory ammo of yesteryears mainly used Norma MRP powder to very high pressure levels.

In the meanwhile Weatherby calibers have been standardized and pressure levels are now much lower.

You may indeed be facing a bedding problem, especially if the rifle's barrel has been free-floated. According to the Weatherby folks it seems the pressure point at the front of the forearm ought to be maintained for the sake of accuracy.

Another issue might be barrel fouling, though I am convinced that you have already looked into this.

Finally, there is no question that the Weatherby cartridges are indeed barrel burners.

Regarding terminal on-game performance of the 270 Wtby. I have witnessed none of the lightning death of large game animals outdoor writers so unanimously report.

Red deer and larger wild boar usually fled anywhere from 25 to 50 yards after being hit in the vitals.

Thanks for the comments. You are correct regarding fouling - I gave it a thorough cleaning with foaming bore cleaner before starting load work and have given it several thorough cleanings along the way. This rifle is of recent USA manufacture and is free floated - I've assumed from the factory but haven't examined the barrel channel to verify this. I'll definitely consider adding a pressure point if action bedding doesn't bring it around.

140 Barnes-X (swapped for TSX) duplicated factory load yielded waterbuck and gemsbok in 2007. Hill Country Rifles rebarreled like-for-like and accurized guaranteed MOA with Weatherby factory load. Rifle absolutely loves RL-22 and 150-grain TSX bullet. 160-grain Partition works well also, but no zebra yet.