The .270 Weatherby Mag can shoot a 150 grain bullet at 3000 FPS without even straining its abilities at all. I have to ask, besides ammo cost, why in the world do you rarely hear of this round? It shoots flat, fast, and with a well placed shot it will easily knock down an elk at a long way away. If you don't push it's abilities I've read the barrel can last about 1500 or more rounds, so where is its downfall? There must be something I just can't find about this because as of now this seems like a no brainer. It even has a pretty good variety of bullets, starting from 110 and I would guess it stops at 180.(Don't really know the highest grain off the top of my head.) Please leave something below if you know what I'm missing.

It's not that far in the back of the closet. And it is a good round.

The cost of Wby brass can be an issue, but that's not a deal killer, IMHO.

DF

The thing is, the first time I ever even heard of somebody hunting with this round was on the T.V. On paper, the round looks incredibly well rounded, I would think I'de see it more unless it had some kind of major downfall.

No downfall, major or minor, IMHO.

DF

its and excellent cart..weatherbys have never been as popular as the competition and its because of cost and availability..Even tho you can get weatherby carts in remington's and winchester's its a rare day that you will walk into a gun store and find one.

Same goes for the 280 Remington, non AI.

As a youngster, I simply could not afford their rifles. Now I have 4 and I have the 270 listed as next in line.

Since I roll my own rounds, ammo has never been an issue.

Roy done created the perfect in between with the 270. Popularity goes to the 257 and 300. The 270 is...well, in between. Almost does what with the 257 or 300 can, but not as much on either end. Yes the 270 can go 110-180...but the 300 can also go (Barnes) 110-250gr, and, faster AND flatter. To me its a perfectly good cartridge left out in the cold because other Roy's can do a particular job "better" so to speak.

.270 Weatherby is an excellent North American big game cartridge.

The draw backs are minor, but here they are.

It doesn't do anything a .270 WSM can't do, in a shorter action, at a lower cost.

A handloader can get very close to 150 gr/3000 fps with a regular old, plain Jane .270 Win, at a much lower cost (with a modern, quality bolt action rifle).

I'm a big believer in the idea that the name of a cartridge is meaningless, the only thing that matters is a given bullet, impacting an animal at a given velocity. Beyond that is cost of ammo, and short action vs long action as it affects rifle weight.

I have a ss MkV that is a great shooter. I haven't hunted with it in quite a few years, not sure why.

The 270 Roy will do 3450 with 130s, 3250 with 140's and 3100 easily with 150's. That is pretty impressive.

Its a great shooting round and accurate it shoots about 150 fps faster that the winchester version. Its not a fussy round to reload I have used 130, 140, 150 and 160 grain nosler partitions, sierras, hornady all shoot tight. In a pinch I have resized 7mm rem mag brass and yes they do work but short on the neck.

great rifle - expensive production ammo

I bought a 270 WSM in a weatherby vanguard - I plan on reloading

otherwise Roy dev those rounds way before the WSM's came out - much faster and flatter then the other standards - 270 win vs 270 Weatherby etc...

ammunition has come a long way in the last 20 years ....

even 270 WSM ammo can be expensive -- and you may not walk into a wal mart or shop in Craig Colorado and find it -- but you will probably find 270 Win ammo....

That seems to be the answer. Maybe 150 fps just isn't that important to most people.

the 270 weatherby is certainly a decent boomer, for years i hunted with my regular sako along side the fancy grade weatherby & found the sako 270 sako worked just as well as the louden boomer 270 mag.most shots were less than 2oo yds so i really did'nt see a big advantage over the standard 270. however one desiring to hunt often with the weath. is well advised to be a handloader. all things being equal; a well tuned 7mm mag will equal any advantage at long, long range mulies or elk.--cranky72

While I like the standard 270 Win, the samples I have owned failed to produce the standard numbers many here tout without exhibiting pressure signs.

I have had 0 issues in getting 200-250 fps higher velocities out of the Weatherby version with no signs of high pressure, so I think it is pretty great. Mine is a custom on a 700 action. It has become one of my favorite rifles.

Does it really do anything better than a 7 Mag, probably not, but it does have a pretty high "cool" factor IMHO!

The 270 Weatherby is a fine cartridge. I can't think of a single genuine negative about the cartridge. When using a small bore I prefer a 30 caliber but the 270 Weatherby is an excellent cartridge for those that prefer that bore size for big game and has been performing well for about 60 years.

The .270 Roy has become my favorite cartridge when ranges might be long. It is 300-350 ft/sec faster than top .270 Win loads. Long brass life. My loads are from Nosler #6 and one from John B from a article in rifle a few years ago. I have taken elk, mule and whitetail deer,black bear, caribou, mt. goat, sheep,moose, and a bunch of other stuff. All with 130 gr. bullets. My rifle is a custom built M700 with a 26" LW barrel.

Lefty C

I've had all 3 270 models in my safe at one time or another and the Wby is by far my fav. Check out the ballistics on a 130 gr bullet at 3450 fps sometime. If you're not impressed, I sure's the heck am. The 257 Wby gets all the accolades for it's lazer like abilities, but the 270 Wby will nip it's heels, and in some cases surpass it. To put it in perspective, my 270 Wby shoots flatter than my 220 Swift!

As for the 270 WCF and WSM...both are great cartridges, but in my experience, the harder you push them the more the groups open up. The opposite is true with the Weatherby it seems. Sure, many folks have good luck running the WSM and WCF full throttle, but I haven't. My sons WSM hits the wall with 130's at about 3200 fps and the WCF at 3000 ish.

From a cost perspective, this is the only advantage the WCF has. If you don't reload, yes, the Wby is expensive, but so is the WSM. Anyone priced WSM ammo lately? Yowzza! Fwiw, Weatherby now offers an economy minded factory 130 Spitzer load for around $36.00 per box. Hard to find WSM ammo for that price!

If Weatherby ever offered the 270 Roy in the Vanguard, it would be a home-run imo.

Can do the same for .257 Wby, also with slightly shorter neck, but fully functional, at around a third of the price.

DF

I agree with what wbyfan1 had to say as it is one flat shooting sob. The first rifle my dad bought me was a 270 wby mag and it was my only hunting rifle I had for many years. I have killed everything from Pronghorn to Buffalo with that rifle. Not many ills left uncured by the 270 wby pill. I have other rifles now, but it is a case of more dollars than sense.

I had a semi-custom 270 B for about ten years; it was on a 700 action with the long Wby throat because I presumed at some time I'd shoot the Norma factory loads. At that time and perhaps still, this factory stuff was loaded to the fire wall. Anyway, in the 24" tube I could spit out a 150grain Nos handloads at 3200 fps with no sweat and could easily hit 3050-3100 fps with the 160 grainer. I distinctly remember early on, and having been used to the 270 W, the 308, and other standards, shooting over a whitetail at a little over 300 yards. It is a very flat shooting cartridge and an excellent one as noted by Bob Hagel in Guns, Loads, and Hunting tips. He was also fond of the 340 and was one reason I built one of those too--it is another very good, flat shooting cartridge. But then he also liked the 378 B which was where I drew the line.

Wby's 270 was propietary for a long time which means it was only available in B rifles which were more expensive and style-wise not suited to everyone's taste. It's the marriage of cartridge and rifle that goes a good way to determing it acceptance and popularity or not. Perhaps had it been offered in Sakos and 700s at the get go it would have had much wider acceptance. And it's true too that the 700--7mm RM marriage was a home run, but in the field were one handed a rifle without knowing it's chambering, you'd never know between the two which was what. And it's also true that factory ammo (initially Norma and later the much more anemic Federal) was a little spendy.

Bottom line is it's a very good cartridge that got a slow start and still goes against very rough competition--the 270 W, the 7 mm RM, the 7 mm W Mag, the 257 W Mag, etc. Had I to do it again I would have had a shorter throat cut but in a 26" tube. With the 130 grain bullet it's a laser and this is a cartridge for which I think the newer mono- bullets are really ideally suited.

I've had a .270 WBY for years and love it. As George noted above the factory ammo is loaded hot, too hot for my taste. In my factory Mk V the factory ammo has badly cratered firing pin indentations and bright ejector marks on the brass, too much pressure for my comfort so I only use handloads but can get 3,200 fps with a 150 gr bullet easily.

George also mentioned the .340 Wby. I have its big brother the .375 Wby which is also a fine cartridge, a 300 gr bullet at 2,800 fps is a breeze with no pressure signs and modest recoil. I love it.

FWIW the 270 was a available in the Vanguard for a time but has long since been dropped from the line.

Well there is not a whole lot of difference field performance wise between the 270 Weatherby, 7mm Weatherby and the 7mm Remington Mag. If you was just handed a rifle not marked and already loaded and was just told to go shoot something with it, you would not be able to tell the difference. The 7mm RM is very very popular for a reason, its on the shelf every were and a box of cartridges is about half of what you would pay for a Weatherby. Now, if you want to shoot one by all means do so. Its a fine cartridge and a MK-V is a fine rifle. Its nothing special, just a 300 H+H case shortened and blown out launching bullets behind around 70 gr of powder. Oh its recoil is at a manageable level. In other words most can shoot it well enough to hit something at the usual distances.

My favorite is a Kleinguenter K-15 270 wby. It has a 26 Sheilen ss select with no free bore. Shoots 140 Fail Safes at 3335. Only problem is I'm low on FS boolits. Hasbeen

I've got a 257 Mk.V , but my favorite do-it-all rifle is my Ruger No.1 in 270 Roy.It shoots everything pretty good,but 130 XXX are all I shoot in it anymore.

..................Several reasons imo;

When it comes to the initial costs to get a 270 cal rifle, either new or used, the 270 Win will always win hands down. 2nd place will probably go to the 270 WSM.

Reloading and factory ammo costs will be less for the 270 Win and WSM. Higher costs for 270 Wby factory ammo and brass.

Many aren`t necessarily Wby rifle and cartridge fans.

The 270 WSM has probably taken alot of big wind out of the sails of the 270 Wby. Depending on what manual you`re looking at, the 270 WSM basically retains roughly 97%-98% the performance of the 270 Wby Mag. In the field, the 270 WSM can do anything the 270 Wby can do.

270 Wby chambering available in the MK5 only? I could be wrong, but I don`t think you`ll find a 270 Wby chambered in a cheaper Vanguard, Back Country, or in another lesser expensive Wby model rifle. I would assume that Wby would like to keep it that way too. Wby cartridges exclusive to and made available in the Mk5s only.

For their use, many 270 Win and WSM owners don`t feel the need to own a 270 Wby. Cannot justify the additional expense.

For a broader bullet selection choice, many prefer the 7mm over the 270.

Imo, those are the primary reasons.

Maybe Wby will throw a 270 Wby into a Back Country or Vanguard down the road.

They list a 300 Wby available in the Back Country and Vanguard. I didn`t know that.

I used to own a 270 wby, and it performed very well, but I can,t think of anything it did much if any better than a 7mm Remington mag or my 300 mag rifles.
luckily the rifle had amazing wood so I sold it to a friend for just a bit less what Id paid for it, and purchased a 300 wby and never regretted the change

I've always thought 270's performed well. The bullets designed for them all run close to the same velisosity. Not much difference in the different calibers .A 150 thirty cal. can be used in a 300 savage or 300 wby. Big difference in speed. Hasbeen

I love mine.

...and the 240 Wby and the 257 Wby, in Vanguard

Remington has made some 257's, and Winchester made a 270 Wby as a special run several years ago....both have possibly made special run 300's as well. Most companies these days just have their own magnums of various flavors to promote instead of carrying the Weatherby lines. This always makes me chuckle a bit, on here, and every single other gun forum you always see the stupidest comment about calibers ever "well XXX has been doing it since XXXX so why is it even here? Answer to an unasked question!!".

I always like to chime in, that nearly every single Weatherby, was doing it before any single Win Mag, Rem Mag, Ruger mag, Short Mag, Ultra Mag, blah blah blah, was ever even a thought in someones head lol. Remember, most of them besides the 240 and the 378-based cases, came out in the 40's. Only the original H&H's beat them to the punch.

Man you guys are the worst enablers ever, this thread has really got me thinking about changing up my current build that is at the smith right now. I haven't ordered my barrel yet. It WAS going to be a 375 Ruger on a pre-64 but now I'm seriously giving deep thought to the 270 Wby, which had crossed my mind before. I already have a M70 in 300 Wby, and am having another M70 turned into a 240 Wby. I've got a thing with Winchester rifles and Weatherby chambers....darn you all.

Of course this still leaves me with the need for a 375, guess my other spare M70 SS Classic might have to take that 375 barrel instead of the pre-64!

It certainly should be more popular than it is. A fantastic cartridge.

I think that the .270 Weatherby originally suffered from the supposition that it was "too much for deer and too little for elk". There was probably a grain of truth in that back when deer were rarely shot at more than a couple hundred yards and elk were mostly shot with cup and core bullets. I know a small cadre of rifle loonies that have used the .270 Weatherby for just about all their hunting for many years--mostly in rebarreled or rechambered pre-64 Model 70s.

I believe the .270 Wby Mag might be the most useful of all Wby mags. However, there are practical considerations that must be considered. The most obvious is ammo cost, which is moot if you reload. While I have abiding respect of .277 caliber projectiles, .284 caliber are superior. And it's difficult to find rifles chambered for that cartridge outside of a Mark V.

If you reload, you ought not find difficulty achieving 3200 FPS with 150 7MM Rem Mag Partitions & 310 FPS with 160 grain Partitions.

But if you like the .270 Wby Mag, it will work on all North American game.

I love my 270 Weatherby from the WBY Custom Shop.
130 gr.@ 3450 fps will work on just about any thing.

Maybe true of a very few and specialized high BC 7mm bullets but that is changing.

Among more or less standard stuff, it really isn't so...not enough to matter one way or the other.

BobinNH,

You're right, especially when considering the practical ranges at which big game is shot.

I have difficulty justifying paying twice as much for a box of Wby cartridges when standard mag cartridges will do the same thing. Hell, an '06 will kill big game just as dead.

It seems to be an issue of personal preference.

and the .30 cal. is, of course, superior to the .284.

Not in terms of sectional density.

I shot my first elk with a Wby Mk V in 270wby. 250 yards, first shot it didn't move, hit it with another, stumbled 20 yards and died. 2.5" inches apart, nice rest on a low apple tree branch.

Very unappreciated round.

Plus I'm one of thousands of guys who grew up lusting after their Dad's Weatherby. His was a Vanguard Deluxe in 7 Rem Mag with a great piece of wood. When I was finally old enough to shoot it, I was used to the 6 pound trigger on my 760 6mm Rem and wasn't ready for the 2 pound trigger on his Weatherby. It gave me my only eyebrow cut ever, and of course it was the day before Christmas. Even though - I'm still a sucker for a nice shiny Weatherby.

Looked for a long while for a Mark v SS in 270 why. Finally found one in the classifieds here and it was too much to pass up. I have found factory ammo if purchased right to not be anymore then most premium ammo out there plus you are getting Norma brass. In any event this one will be a one load rifle when I start handloading it. The stainless Marks are not made anymore which makes this one even more valuable.

The .270 ROY will easily do 3200+ with 150's and 3450 with most any 130. Do so w/o much recoil compared to the big 30's. I have used mine on everything except brown/grizzly to include elk, moose, black bear, deer, sheep, goat, and other stuff I can't remember.

good round actually my favorite when there is a chance for a long shot.

Lefty C

To answer the OP's question - I think it is because the .270 Wby is just a higher cost, harder to find and slightly less flexible version of the 7mm RM.

The only reason to own one, imo, is "just because". Which is good enough in my books!

Never understood why WBY stopped making the Mark V in stainless?
I found a stock Stainless Mark V in 270 WBY several years ago and my great wife spent about 2 grand having it re done by the WBY Custom Shop/Kampfeld/eddie fousnaugh.Great all around caliber and rifle,
AMRA

Are you guys talking about actual SS Mark V's or the brushed nickel coated version? As I understand there were very few real SS rifles made.

I was growing up just as WBY rifles were becoming popular. I do and did not like the high gloss finish nor the hype surrounding the name. I believe the 270 B is not popular because, like the standard 270 there are lots of cartridges that will preform as well or better with less hype. Besides the WBY was known for 40 years as having one of the worst triggers on the market. I bought my push feed Model 70 in 1970 for $165. Nearly equal to the 300 and 1/3 the cost. You will find few B's that will shoot nearly as well. If you like them that's fine, have at it.

They made them not sure of the quantities.

This is my fourth SS Mark V 300 wby 7mm why 270 wby and a boring 30-06

Elkmen,

Always good to hear from people who either haven't used Weatherby rifles much, or haven't used them at all in the past decade or so.

I have, and the triggers are pretty damn good (especially on the Mark V's) and the accuracy is outstanding.

As for the .270 Weatherby itself, I've owned and hunted with two and it works just as well as the 7mm Remington Magnum--except the .270 caliber offers a BUNCH or really good 130-grain bullets, which easily get 3400+ in the .270 Weatherby.

That's the outstanding bullet weight in the chambering for me. It shoots very flat and knocks the snot out of anything from pronghorn to elk, whether you use the old-fashioned Nosler Partition or one of the newer bullets.

We both have great rifles ..congrats.

Thanks,The Wife treats me better than I deserve,The only problem
now is the Son-in-law has been after me to let him have it since
we got it back from EddieF Cerakoting it.And Skane trading me
the Zeiss Conquest 2.5-8x32 for it.I told him he will have to wait till I croak!!.
Would like to see a pic of your WBY Mark V stainless 30-06.
I looked for one for years.
AMRA

That Vanguard Classic in 270 Wby was a beauty. I have only seen a couple in person. The last one I saw was at a gun show - walked away to think about it/let the dealer deal with some other customers and when I returned he'd sold it for $100 less than I was going to offer him.

Don't have it anymore unfortunately I'll have to learn to get by with the 270 WBY

MD,

thanks to your advise I built one years ago and killed a boatload of stuff. Used only 130 Noslers or 130 Barnes for everything. Vaporized varmits with 130 BT's.

The barrel has never been polluted by 150's.

Lefty