Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .270 woes

For no tracking the only sure thing I know of is a solid hit to CNS or take out the running gear. I tend to aim for a high shoulder shot most of the time two thirds up the deer in line with front leg.

Last season I shot a spike quartering towards me. Took out the heat and he dropped in his tracks. 270 130gr game kings, knowing the shot angle I took I expected a bit of a run and it didn't happen. I'll be hunting with a 270 again most of this season probably with 130gr ballistic tips but may try a few other bullets. The Sierra GameKings have been my favorite cup and core bullet in the 270 and 30 caliber rifles I've owned. Don't run them too fast and they'll work like a charm.

I want to try out the partition soon in the 270 as it's never a poor choice in my experience.

It isn't that every caliber is always a bang flop, though that has been my experience with the 30-06 mostly, it is just odd that with the .270 I've never had a bang flop in fifteen deer.

The most dramatic killer as in the most deer that haven't even so much as twitched after getting shot? The 7x57 and 7mm-08 in my experience.

I load for my buddies 270 Winchester and we use the 130gr. sierra game king. It puts them down in a hurry. Pretty much bang flop DRT kills... I've also loaded 150gr. speer grandlams (old style) for his elk hunting, but he hasn't got to use them yet.... As for deer kills, from what I've seen from the 270, it produces very good "bang flop" kills... So much, in fact, that my buddy says I should switch to 270 myself and sell the 30-06. I tell him, he's gay and so is his rifle, but he doesn't care...

I've killed dozens with a 270 and only a couple have ever ran out of sight.It's all about where you hit them,and sometimes how excited the deer already is. I've hit deer that were running from dogs and they never checked up until they dropped.

Shoot them in the shoulders. They will be dead before they hit the ground. Very little meat on the front shoulders anyway. I don't like looking for deer in the cactus. Plenty rattlesnakes on this lease too.

Shoot them in the shoulders. They will be dead before they hit the ground. Very little meat on the front shoulders anyway. I don't like looking for deer in the cactus. Plenty rattlesnakes on this lease too.

A 270 pushing a 130 NP is as ugly as life can get for deer. Turns lungs to strawberry jam and put gaping hole in hearts. I personally like for deer to run about 50 yards. It gets some of the blood pumped out of their system.

I had an "abnormal" result with my 270 short mag yesterday. Had a 6-pointer come across the logging trail I sit on and shot it uphill at about 15 yards. This was the first deer that didn't DRT with the short mag, it actually ran for about 20 yards before failing over. The lack of DRT was offset by a bright red trail a blind man could follow. Until I saw it drop, I actually thought I had missed somehow since it didn't drop on the spot. Post mortem-I hit him in the right place. Every deer is different; every hit is different. If they don't drop on the spot but died quickly and were recovered, it was a good shot.

You haven't had good results with the 270, don't use a 270.
Though, intellectually you know that there is little any better than a 270, empirically, it hasn't worked well for you.
There are a lot of rounds that will do as well, and your odds of success won't suffer because of it.

If you haven't already, I'd suggest you try either the Federal 130 game king load or the Federal 130 ballistic tip load.

And if you want them down fast, shoulder shoot them. The laws of physics and biology work on deer like any other animal, and wrecked bones seriously impede departure aspirations.

The above is my advice & exactly what I do.

I've killed lot of animals with a 270, from antelope to moose, & lots in between, but usually at substantially longer ranges than you are shooting..........I really don't see the 270 as very ideal as you are using it.

But lighter & faster expanding bullets will be a step in the right direction; a 130 NBT would be a good choice, maybe even loaded down just a little from max velocity; the Nosler Partition is a good compromise though at short(er) & longer range as is works well at both.......I've also witnessed your exact experience with the 150's on deer, & even had it happen to me with a 338 & a 250 grain bullet; the bullet is just too tough for the animal unless you hit some major bone. Dead animal, just not DRT/bang flop.

I did kill a deer last year at about 80 yards with a 120 gr. Nolser BT from a 280 & the deer took maybe 2-3 steps & was down to stay.......but the bullet broke the shoulder & went through the upper lung.

For closer shooting, say less than 150 yards, absolutely nothing anchors a deer like a heavy bullet from a 45-70 or a 444 Marlin or something similar. A 400-405 gr bullet from a 45-70 at 1800 FPS or so, is absolutely devastating & you really have to see it to appreciate it.

I have killed a lot of deer with both calibers above & I don't recall any taking more than a step, just DRT.

MM

That's kind of my point. Intellectually I know it is nothing. But fifteen deer and never one to drop on the spot.

Recommend that you try these two factory loads:

130 grain Hornady American Whitetail
130 grain Winchester/Olin Power Max

Neck shots = bang flops. You don't have to throw away both shoulders either.

A 400-405 gr bullet from a .45-70 at 1800 f.p.s. is stepping pretty spry, and it prolly thumps on both ends more than a tad. I chrono’ed a Remington 405 from a handload one time at 1920 fps out of my Guide Gun….definitely a T-Rex load.

I've never seen a lick of difference between any of these three cartridges when it comes to killing deer.If anything I guess I had more bang/flops with the 270, owing to the higher velocity of the 130 gr bullets I mostly use.

I have no explanation for the 15 deer that did not bounce after being shot with the 270...but lets be rational.

The cartridge never touches the deer...the bullets do. So I can't wrap my head around the notion that a 120-140 gr 6.5 bullet, or a 140-150 gr 7mm bullet, holds some mystical quality when it comes to killing animals that a 130-150 gr bullet fired from a 270 at roughly the same velocity,does not.

It's irrational.

When I got on here I saw other threads like this and was stunned...I had spent a lot of years rolling bucks with the 270 (among others) and using 130 gr Nosler Partitions. I could not believe that people had such a hard time killing deer with a 270 since I know people who have filled trophy rooms with deer of all varieties and sizes,sheep, grizzlies, moose caribou, elk, etc etc killed with a 270.

I could only conclude they used lousy bullets or can't shoot because i have had no such problems using a 270 with Nosler Partitions(I could say the same about the 7x57,7/08,280 Remington, 257 Roberts, 25/06, 30/06, 7 Rem mag etc etc)..

It ain't the cartridge(hint)..


Here's bang/flop 270 victim from a few years ago..I watched him collapse through the scope as the rifle recoiled. It gets boring after awhile...

1920 out of a short barreled Guide Gun is stiff.......the 1800 I mentioned above is from a 22" barrel using 53 gr. of 3031.

Very shootable & I've used that load through several guns & for a very long time. I still have one pre-safety, mid-70's Marlin 1895; sold another one & I wish I still had it too.

MM

I've never alleged it was rational, I'm just telling you what is.

Actually, at some point, you can start to exceed the design criteria of that 405 Remington. It was designed for the 1200 f.p.s. or so that Remington loads the factory loads to. There is such a thing as too fast, and I think I might have been approaching it. For that reason, I picked up 2 boxes of Kodiak 405 gr flat points, and 2 boxes of Kodiak 350 gr flat point heavy jackets in case I need them in the future should I decide to carry it elk hunting.

What to do here is your choice, since you need to have confidence in your rifle.

I would respectfully suggest that you give it a try for one more season, trying one of the loads that we have suggested, and also perhaps trying for a shoulder shot as opposed to a lung shot, and if after the season is over and you’ve shot a deer or two with it and you’re still not satisfied, then put the rifle away or sell it and use whatever you have confidence in. This seems like a reasonable and fair way to deal with the situation.