Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .270W 130 Hornady sp comparisons

I'm a long time "270W shooter", but have never shot more than one animal with it. That was a Spanish goat with 140 Failsafe ( great elk bullet they tell me!) So, as I'm playing with this new to me Mod 700 Classic, in the 130gr I started out with the Hornady. Now, back in the mid 80s I loaded this for a friends rifle and he shot a little Texas WT doe in a drizzling rain, late one evening. She made it 30yds to some really thick stuff and he had no blood trail. This guy could shoot, he hit her behind the shoulder , could see the water spray. It "appeared" the bullet was
hard, slow to open". I don't mind a hard bullet, but how does the Hornady compare to, say, the Ballistic Tip, Speer BT and Sierra sbt? Which one would open "quicker" on coyote, antelope, mule deer? I'd like you guys opinions? Thanks.

Since Nosler has stiffened the Ballistic Tip line over the years I'd say the Speer BT is the softest of the bunch.

I loaded 130 grain Interlocks for a friend's 270 in the late 2000's and he was quite satisfied with how they dropped deer/pigs pretty quick. Lately he's been using Federal ammo loaded with 130 grain Game Kings and it has put deer down no problems.

The 130 gr. .277 Hornady SP is a great bullet for deer sized game. I know this because my family and I have used it to take hundreds of animals without much drama. Put one through the heart/lung area and you'll have a very dead animal. Pronto. One brother has even taken two grizzlies with the bullet, a practice I don't necessarily recommend.

Jim - I experienced the same using 130, 140 and 150 Hornady's which were the first things I loaded for my 270. I have migrated to Sierra's for nearly everything, usually a little heavier grain, and slower speeds and I get very fast kills, pass throughs, and great blood trails- though have VERY seldom needed to trail anything. Accurate too.

Life is ugly for anything shot thru the chest cavity with a 270 pushing a 130 Nosler Partition.

For several years I have been using the Hornady 6.8 caliber 120 gr pointed soft point bullet just under 2800 fps using Hodgen 4831sc in My 270s. Results on 9 of our smaller Tennessee deer have been great. Most of the deer drop where they are when hit in chest area. A few have run no more than 40 yards, Blood trails are minimal even though all bullets exited. Internal damage is extensive to lungs and ribs but not that much meat damaged. Bullet seating has not been a problem. Accuracy in Remington 700 has been 1" to 1 1/5"groups at 100 yards. My older Winchester model 670 groups this bullet/powder combination at 3/4 inch at 100 yds.

We load this bullet for 4 different .270's among family members in front of 58 to 59 grains of H4831. Been using this bullet for 25 plus years on W.T. deer, feral hogs, and various exotics. We have killed literally several hundred animals with the 130 Hornady Spire point.

Knock on wood but we have had great performance from it. The Horn is my favorite and I have tried Sierra and Noslers and found no reason to switch.

I normally use Sierra Pro-Hunters (flat-based) bullets on deer, never had an issue with them.

I have had the 130 Gamekings and 140gr. Hornady Boattails grenade on deer, though, and that has soured me on boattails for deer.

I have NO experience with the 130 Spire Points, but my cousin has killed a schittload of deer with it, and I've never heard a complaint out of him. I'd not worry too much about it. Deer are easy to kill. Even those deer which I hit with the "bad bullets" died quickly, but it was REALLY messy. Hornady has fooled with that 140 several times, moving the cannelure around like they were shuffling cards or something. I do NOT trust that bullet for anything bigger than coyotes.

Thanks guys. I have some 130PTs to try next. I am also going to try out the 110 TTSX just to see if the rifle likes them. I like the idea of the 110s going fast, and so far, this rifle has shot the Sierra 110 PH very well. I would also like to try the 110 Vmax for coyotes. My rifle pure dee loves the 150/160 Partitions too.

I’ve used 130 and 140gr Interlocks in my 270, 150gr Interlocks in my 308 and 150gr round nose Interlocks in my 30-30 and all have preformed fine. Most have come apart but penetrated more than enough, with amounts of damage ranging from “adequate” to “catastrophic”. Shot one deer with Nosler Ballistic Tips in my 270, it seemed similar to the Interlocks (and other soft points) as far as terminal damage. Setttled on the 130gr Federal TBT.

Hornady keeps changing the Interlocks so much it's hard to keep up. I've got two boxes of 30 cal, 165 grain flat base that have .020 difference when measured with the Stoney Point bullet comparator.

this is not unusual. You should measure the OAL with ogive gauge on every lot#.

On some brands, .040 is not unusual.

when I ran out of my last box of 500 of Berger VLD H, opened the next box, different lot, there was .020 difference in ogive lengths between the two lots.

Both lot# shot bug hole groups, just had to adjust my seater.

The 130s and 140s SPBT have worked well. You seem to be picking harder bullets but wanting more expansion. The SST open fast too fast for me. The ELD-x is proving to be a good choice and opens quickly. The Nosler BT 130 has been excellent, the 140 Accubond and Interbonds have been stellar in the Winchester and the WSM. The Nosler Partition always works but is not really needed for deer. Have used the 130 grain X with good results and may try the TTSX 110s. I will also be loading some 150 ABLR as these have worked well in other calibers, they perform like a slightly softer Accubond which is what I wanted. The ABLR fly well and with R26 I am getting about as much velocity as I got with my slower 130 - & 140 loads. It makes the 270 Win. give the WSM a good run.

The Bergers can have dramitic results but have not used them in .270 caliber.

Of these the BT could be used for coyotes and the SST and ELD-x too, Bergers will open up on a coyote also.

The 270 caliber bullets are almost uniformly good. Except for the 6.8 SPC bullets everything was designed with the Winchester in mind. Some were made a little tougher for the WSM and Weatherby but even with these the velocity range is not huge.

Back to the original scenario. A 30 yard drop is not bad. I bet the deer would have leaked if it had gone further. Sometimes there is so much blood it all stays in the lower chest cavity and doesn't make it up to the entrance or exit would, this combined with no heartbeat and you can have little or no blood trail. I have seen deer that had hardly any blood trail or even much re-action to the shot drop within 20-50 yards and when opened up there was not much in the way of recognizable organs in the chest cavity just one big blood clot.

Did you ever use the 150 Ballistic Tip on deer/hogs Tejano? I got these Hornadys just for grins. I like to plink a lot out in the desert. I am sure the 110PH or TTSX, for sure, will work on any coyote, deer, hog I'm going to shoot, ha. The wind is a boogerman for me out in the short grass prairies, I just can't judge it, so usually look for a very sleek design for antelope, etc.

Never had a problem with 130 gr Horn SP's on deer, while back I got a hell of a deal on 130 & 150 gr Grand Slams and 130 Rem Bronze Points as well as 300 150 Nosler Solid Bases. None of these bullets are ultra high BC like whats available now. I don't give a f**k ,I got less than 10 cents apiece in them and know damn well they will all do the job if I do mine. MB

I have used the 130 Hornady SP a bit, last time was on an antelope. He was 200 or so yards out and I shot him from a sitting position. The bullet hit a bit low in the front of the chest blowing a big hole and removing a 6 inch circle of sternum. The 14 inch buck ran over a small hill out of sight. I walked over to the impact site and was impressed with the blood, bone and chunks of meat. Topped the hill and there he lay, his heart looked like something had taken a bite out of it and was hanging outside his chest. Around that time I switched to 150 grain bullets as I also hunted elk with the same rifle. I didn't get the impression that particular bullet was all that tough.

I feel the Hornadys have "softened" some since the late 70's. I used the Hornady Light Magnum 180sp in 30-06 back in the mid 90's. I shot my first cow elk, running, around 135 steps. First round broke her spine right behind her shoulder and was found wadded up in it. The second was a high lung finishing shot. I found it had expanded very fast and had fragmented against the far rib cage, not bad. I just expected the opposite results! I guess the bone held it together and the softer tissue allowed it to tear itself apart. I shot a doe mule deer with that load. I had wounded the poor thing the night before, and I jumped her up around 75yds the next morning. I gave her a hard raking shot right in front of the left hip. She dropped and was still alive so gave her a head shot at 35. The first fragmented, the second penetrated like a Partition. Go figure. Back in the 70's I also loaded the Hornady 150sp for friends in their 30-06 and .308s. They also reported small wound channels. 25-30 yrs later I read a lot of huge exits/some fragmenting with them. I'm sure they are a swell deer/antelope bullet (the 130sp in my .270) I just have better choices for big hogs/elk. I am far more likely to shoot deer/hogs than elk with a .270, but it goes as a spare. So the rifle loves 150/160PTs as it is.

Back in the 60's Hornady used to advertize bullets not exiting for maximum destruction, 100% energy use and shock factor. I notice they are going back to that with some of their bullets like the SST.

I launch all of my 130 gr bullets from my many 280’s & 308’s.

No 270’s for me.

I'm sure that one or the Sierra GK.

The Hornady's core is harder than Sierra. I've used a lot of the Sierra Pro Hunters and Interlocks with good results on deer, the Interlocks are definitely tougher.