Rick,
I know this Barsness guy! He says you're obsessing over muzzle velocity and flat trajectory again. As he pointed out earlier, a few inches in trajectory is almost irrelevant these days--though he has to mention it in articles because of the obsessions of so many readers.
It's much like having to mention W.D.M. Bell killed lots of elephants with the 7x57 in every 7x57 article: Readers expect it, and if an author fails to mention elephants, they'll write to the editor, pointing the elephants out. Flat trajectory is similar to elephants: If it's not mentioned, editors are deluged with e-mails and even a few snail-mails. In fact, you might be surprised by the number of gun-magazine readers who still use snail-mail, especially those who obsess about muzzle velocity, flat trajectory, and elephants shot with 7x57's.
But Barsness understands those obsessions, partly because he often got phone calls from your old friend Stu. He also obsessed about getting 3000 fps--though not with 150-grain bullets in the .270, but 165's in the .30-06. They had several hour-long conversations about what Stu called, "All those zeroes!" At one point Barsness suggested just installing a 26-inch barrel, but of course Stu felt that wasn't acceptable. Barsness even got the feeling Stu believed it would be cheating. Congratulations for carrying on his tradition.
Barsness also wants you to know that 2850 fps works extremely well with 150-grain bullets in the .270, despite not shooting quite as flat as "all those zeroes." He's seen a bunch of big game killed with 150's at 2850, including the bull moose his wife killed with a single Partition. Lung-shot moose often stand around as if thinking it over, but that one took a single step and folded up dead. He's also seen a number of elk and similar-sized African plains game shot with the 150 Partition at around 2850, and the farthest any has gone before falling was about 50 yards--a gemsbok bull, considered by many hunters as tough as they come.
He also said it's good thing you have the sense to quit hunting when the wind blows, as .270 bullets drift like dandelion seeds in the mildest breeze. It was good a thing the bull moose his wife killed was only 125 yards away, and early in the morning when there wasn't much breeze. Otherwise the bullet might have missed completely.
