Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters MuleDeer->270 win excessive wind drift?

Hi John

Do .270 Win bullets really drift like dandelion seeds in the wind? Who made this observation on this forum? I've used the .270 Win for 56 years(I'm now age 66) and never noticed this. What are your observations with longer range shots with the .270? I've never used any factory ammo in my different .270 rifles.

roanmtn

I'm not John, but please define "longer range shots".

Hi StudDuck

To me longer shots are 400 yds and up. Here in Tennnesse where I live I've never had a shot in East Tennessee over 300 yds. In other states my longest shot with a .270 was around 450 long paces and this worked nicely with a range finder that is now fifteen years old.

I do not know if the .270 bullets will drift much different than other bullets. Maybe at EXTENDED Range(1000 yds and up). My Sierra ballistics
program shows the .270 does well up to 1000 yds.

Do you hqve experience with the .270 and longer ranges?

Glenn

All I have to look at is Federal's ballistic comparison table and based upon a quick check comparing a 270/130gr/NPT, 7mm Mag/160gr/NPT and 300WM/180gr/NPT, if a 270 Win drifts like dandelion seeds in the wind, they all do or at least looking at distances out to 500 yards.

Perhaps someone with some long range (>500 yards) shooting experience will educate the both of us.

Roanmtn: M.D. Has a great article in this month’s Rifleman magazine that speaks to your questions.

I have been using 270s (mostly with 150 grain bullets) since 1968.

I have never seen any problems----- and in fact, they seem to drift a lot less than many other rifles I have used.

I am on my 3rd 270 barrel in one of my rifles, so I think I can say without reservation, I have learned a bit about how 270 bullet fly in the last 50 years.

Who ever said that those bullet drift "excessively" has an ax to grind and/or an agenda to promote.

ALL bullets drift in a wind. So what is "excessive"?

From 22 cal round balls to guided missiles fired from F22 fighters, all drift that is enough to cause a miss has to be adjusted for.

If you have to dial a scope, or hold into the wind to hit your target, it's just as easy to hold 18" into a wind as it is to hold 14" into a wind,..... or 9" .......or 6". You still have to hold!

If you can't hold a reasonably sized wobble pattern, you should not fire ----- no matter how many inches into the wind you would have to hold it.

It's just as easy to click a scope 8 clicks as it is to click it 5 clicks.
Or 10.
Or 2
Or 30

If you have the skill to make a hit at X range, you have the skill.

If you don't you don't, and you should not shoot. That's easy. It's true. And it's universal. But it doesn't sell new rifles and scopes very well.

Unvarnished truth is the enemy of most marketing.

Half truths sell things quite well. The whole truth usually has the opposite effect. That same human phenomenon is what is being sold in schools all over the nation and the world. It's what causes students to embrace socialism and "new math" and "sight reading" and all manor of "new" learning. Theories are promoted over truth all the time. And if truth will lead to a different conclusion, it's attacked and censored if at all possible, by every means possible.

You see, if solid truth is established, and if it's simple, you need not pay high salaries to "teachers" to teach you the "new knowledge". But that would be very bad for the collage system. So they give the students "new truth". In many (if not most) cases, NEW TRUTH really means lies in the collages today.

Unfortunately, it's done in the gun magazines too. In our industry it's not to a point of being outright lies, but partial truths are rampant.

When theories and facts disagree, it's easy to guess which one is wrong. But only if you have the honesty within yourself to agree that actions should follow truth and that truth will not follow actions.

If humans would do that, the Dem/Coms and LibTards would all disappear in about 1 week.

But that is a different subject, >>>>>>> just based on the same psychological trend.

If you check the BC between .277 and .284 150 grains and less, the 270 come out on top. I know this is going to be hard for some to handle.

It's all good, take care.

I'd say the above quote pretty much addresses the question.

But what do I know, I've only been shooting the .270 Winchester for 40 years and grew up in Wyoming.

Hi antelope_sniper. Thanks for the reply! My experience with the .270 Win has always been excellent with a great number of one shot kills, flat trajectory, and great accuracy at the ranges that I have taken shots at targets and game. I've shot the .270 for 56 years.

I just kept seeing the quote at the bottom of each reply and wondered what in the heck was going on.

ripshinmtn

I'll second this recommendation.

My take is that although bullets with high BC's have technical advantages at all distances, these differences don't have much practical effect in hunting until shots start getting past 400-500 yards. There don't seem to be as many high BC .277 bullets available as there are in 6.5mm and 7mm. This is probably related to the fact that commonly available twist rates for barrels in 6.5mm and 7mm tend to be faster, thus enabling them to stabilize long bullets with high BC's.

bowmanh

I agree with you 100%. One of the great disappointments of my life is no 1:8 twist for the .270 Winchester. This would allow my beloved .270 to shoot higher ballistic coefficient bullets and heavier bullets. However, the Berger Hunting Bullets have very good ballistics and I think I will use them for more of my hunting.

ripshin

antelope_sniper

Growing up in Wyoming and hunting there for 40 years is a great resume for any hunter. Most of us will not ever hunt for elk in Wyoming, ever.
Using the .270 there is a great 40 years of experience.

I've only been on one expensive trip(Africa) that I saved for during my entire life. The .270 killed every thing with one shot each from tiny Dik Dik
to Kudu to Giant Eland. The only screw up was when I placed my first shot a wee bit too far back on a Waterbuk. Let's not talk about these embarrassing moments, especially when the tracking job was a long and very hot one.

I hope that I will be able to hunt Wyoming elk before I die.

ripshin

Hard to handle, because it's false.

Haven't seen a widely available .277" 150gr or less bullet that tops the 7mm 150gr ELD-X at 0.574 G1.

Hammerdown

I totally agree. I've studied the ballistics of .270 vs .284 bullets and have noticed that the .270 always equals(for all practical purposes) 7mm
bullets of 10 grains heavier weight and sectional density of the 10 grain lighter bullet is almost the same to within a very few grains. For example,
the 150 gr .270 bullet is .279 sectional density vs 160 gr 7mm bullet is .283 sectional density.

Also, as John(MuleDeer) has pointed out, the .277 bullet is a 7mm bullet of 7.04 mm vs the .284(7mm) bullet is 7.21 mm. Not enough difference to make any difference.

I suppose that the .270 is the American home grown 7mm.

Most hunters will never know the difference between .277" bullets and others. But the stronger the wind blows and the more perpendicular to the flight path, and the farther one shoots (especially beyond 500 yards), the more one notices the difference between the higher BC bullets and the rest. I've seen noticeable flight differences between .277" and .284" bullets at under 300 yards when the wind was really honking.

What 150gr .277" bullet has a BC equal to the 7mm 162gr ELD-M?

The 145 ELD-X pushed by R26 in a .270 levels the field considerably (and its what I mostly shoot)....but on the whole Jordan is correct.

When the wind starts blowing, pass me the 7mag and the 168s/180s please.

Jordan Smith

You're right concerning the new 7mm bullets. I should have said traditional bullets such as Hornady and Sierra bullets of cup and core design. AS has been pointed out the twist rate of .270 rifles is not fast enough to stabilize longer and flatter shooting 7mm bullets with the 1:8 twist barrels.

ripshin

The family .270 resume predates me by 2 generations. Granddad bought his model 54 Winchester back in the 1930's. With his Lyman peep sight it gave him a big advantage feeding the family during the depression years. I've never broke an inch with it, but I've shot many 1 1/8" groups with it. For iron sights on a 90 year old gun, I'll take it.

In high school the 4x on my Winchester model 70a was sighted in for 300 yards for big game hunting. During the summers I shot prairie dogs every day, about half the time with it and 90gr Sierra hollow points. Nothing launches a prairie dogs like those Sierra's.

On one hunt, probably my junior or senior year, I took a big bodies mule deer at 300 yards. It was the closest we'd been to a deer all day. We saw some real monsters, but this was not their first season, and we couldn't get closer than 600-800 yards. That's the day I decided I was going to learn how to shoot real distance.

Since then I've taken a good number of mostly antelope between 400 and 700 yards, with one kill at 1000 yards.

The Wyoming plains are a great place to learn the ways of the rifle.

Yes Jordan. Sorry about that one. I was thinking, Nosler for Nosler B/T and Partitions.
Take care