Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .270 Weatherby with 24" Barrel

Found a good deal on a .270 Weatherby Sporter (blue/wood) with 24" barrel. I've been thinking about a .270 Weatherby for a while, but most I have seen have been 26" barrel. Convential wisdom in the gun mags is Weatherby need 26" barrel to live up to it's potential. What are your opinions? Anybody run a .270 WBY with 24" barrel and what kind of velocities are you getting?

Thanks,

Lou

There's been a lot of comparisons of the various Weatherby Magnums velocities in the Vanguard (24") and Mark V (26"). In the Weatherby calibers that are offered in the Vanguard it appears as there is not much (if any in some instances) velocity loss compared to the Mark V. The one article I recall reading dealt with the 257 Roy.

That being said, the 270 Weatherby isn't offerd in the Vanguard.
The worst case scenario is you will get 270 WSM velocity out of the 24 incher.

Dan

Lou,

My old 270 Wby is a custom rifle on a 98 Mauser. It was built with a 24" Douglas Supreme, Air Gauged barrel in the late 60s. It gets over 3500 fps with 130 gr Hornady, Nosler Partitions and Sierra bullets, and does so with loads that still maintain tight primer pockets after six reloads.

Accuracy is fine for hunting, with everything shooting well under inch and a half groups, day after day. Many groups are under an inch.

Lately, I have been loading 150 gr Swift A-Frames at 3200 fps with the same results. This, as you can imagine, is an absolutely devastating big game load!

I use this rifle only for hunting, and have never felt handicapped at all with the 24" barrel.

It now has about 700 or so rounds down the tube and still shoots as accurately as it did when I first got it, although the throat is about a hundred thou longer than when new. Not bad for a forty year old rifle.

Ted

Used to have a Winchester Model 70 XTR in 270 Wby, with a 24" barrel on it. Was very accurate with Weatherby's 100 gr Spirepoints and 130 gr Spirepoint and Partition loads. Even shot my first elk with it at 100 yards.
Never did chronograph the loads out of that barrel. But the performance on game (elk, deer and coyotes) was great, and I couldn't complain about the accuracy. So, velocity really didn't matter too much to me at that time.

My new to me 270 Wby is in a rechambered Browning High Wall, with a 28" barrel. Shooting 110 gr TSX and TTSX's out of it, across the chrony are getting 3750 fps, which is approx. 90 fps faster than Wby's 100 gr Spirepoint load out of a 26" barrel.

All that said, depending on the barrel, you should expect to see anywhere between 50 and 100 feet per second less velocity out of the shorter barrel.

Most animals shot inside 400 yards are not going to be able to tell the difference with a bullet moving 100 fps less.

The 270 WBY has a lot going for it with excellent factory loads with a combination of bullet speed, accuracy, and reasonable recoil matched by few cartridges.

Yes you will get more velocity out of a 24" barrel vs a 26" But it will none the less to an excellent job and drop big game as though lighting has struck them. My 1st 270 WBY was a used 24" with a wood stock.

Eventually I bought a Sako in 270 WBY with a 24 3/8 barrel. It had a rather large chamber on it and was hard on cases for handloading. So I sent it off to Pac Nor to get a 25 1/2" #4 super match barrel.

I choreographed some FL 130 grain Partitions just before I sent it in for a new barrel and got 3317 FPS with the Sako 24 3/8" barrel. When I got it back with the 25 1/2" Pac Nor barrel I choreographed from the same box of 130 grain FL and got 3396 FPS. So it does like longer barrels.

If the rifle is a reasonable deal I would say go for it.

Forgetting the velocity loss..how about the muzzle blast from the 24" tube??

Muzzle blast from a 24" is very similar to a 7mm Rem Mag in a 24" tube from what I can tell.

I have owned only 26" tubed 270Roys, but I would not let that stop me from a 24" of same if the price was right.

Obviously, Weatherby doesn't think it makes a huge difference, or else they would put a 26" tube on the Vanguard 257Roy-from what I hear, folks aren't even losing 100fps on that one.

You said "Most animals shot inside 400 yards are not going to be able to tell the difference with a bullet moving 100 fps less."

Personally, I'd re-phrase that to "NO ANIMAL ON EARTH WILL EVER NOTICE A 100 FPS DIFFERENCE."

Think about it - a man can throw a bullet that fast...

Buy it. My Vanguard in 300 Roy is capable of getting over 3230 with 180's out of my 24" barrel with book loads. The extra barrel makes less difference than some might have you believe, IMO. My current hunting load is a 180 TSX over H4350 for roughly 3160fps. That is until I go to the post office and pick up the Midway box holding a box of 200gr. Accubonds and a box of 200gr. Woodleighs. This gun's going to Natal South Africa next summer for Kudu and Nyala. Good luck with the new Roy.

David

2" of barrel is not worth talking about if the rifle package is what you want. I LOVE the 270Roy. A 24" tube wouldn't slow me down.

Dave

I've had a 270 Wby with a 24" pipe for nigh on 13 years. While never having the same rifle with the two extra inches of barrel to compare and contrast, I could get 3250 fps with the Barnes 140-gr TSX, 3175 fps with the 150-gr Nos Part, close to 3400 fps with the 130-gr TSX and the Norma factory ammo with the 130-gr Nos Part gave 3385 fps.

If this was 75-100 fps second slower because of the shorter barrel, so what? It still shot very flat and I can gurantee you would never see that difference in the field, while the shorter barrel is definitely a little handier IMHO.

Gdv

Lou

You didn't mention where that 270 Wby was made but if it came from Germany in the late 50's or early 60's it probably has a 1 in 12 twist. If it does, then it will probably be sensitive to what bullets it will stabilize. For instance, I couldn't stabilize a Barnes 130gr TSX but I could a 140 gr Nosler Accubond.