Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Rifle preferring NON Boattail Bullets?

I hear you there but the difference between the bullets you mention probably doesn’t amount to even a couple of clicks really. All good and honestly the 150 Partition is a beast in a 270. That’s a great combo, probably packs excellent as well.

What happened to the Tikka 6.5 you were crushing stuff with?

Are the Accubond and the ELD-X the only 2 boattails you have tried?

Never experienced the FB vs BT phenomenon. However, this dog ^^^^^^ will hunt...

I also wonder what happened to the tikka 6.5. Hairing, it doesnt sound like this new rifle shoots half as good as that tikka. Whats up?

I've had several rifles in different calibers, through the years, that preferred flat based bullets. No big deal. Go for it with what it likes.

I have experienced the flat base bullets being better in one of my rifles.

The only conclusion I could come to was the twist. The longer boattail bullet of the same wt as the flat base didn't fly as well.

right or wrong that was my basic conclusion.

140TSX's are an exceptional "all-around" bullet for the 270. Mule-Deer, Whitetail, elk (bull and cow), caribou, coyotes, and pronghorn off the top of my head.

The 6.5 tikka sets in the safe....I know at anytime I can take it out and put 139 scenars into little clusters - its actually kind of so consistent its boring...lol (It does wear a 6x SS now)

The 270 came about in a round about way...My 11 year old son was going through the photo album and was looking at the last Elk I killed (5 point back in 2008 in Idahos Selway Country) I had killed it with a 270 I grew up hunting with since I was 12 (was 23 in 2008) anyways it is the last Elk I killed. (Im on a long dryspell that has forced me to kill big mule deer) He ask what I shot it with and I told him a 270. He then asks what I hunt with now and I said lately a 6.5 creedmoor. Looks at me like a kid does and says, well if you want to kill another elk, probably should use a 270???? Make sense right??? So that lead me on the search - I had "retired" the Win 70 270 I had all those years, and really wanted a nice, ltwt, carbon rifle....Long story short - here we are.

I see said the blind man. Sounds like you need to un-retire your lucky 270 and sell the expensive one... Scotty and I both know what those model 70's are capable of... Especially when you have a good one..

Thats been my experience..some rifles just don't "like" them as much as others, and like one brand over another. The difference in BC and trajectory over normal hunting distances( under 300 yards) is literally not noticeable in field conditions...

Can't argue with that logic!! I was on a few-year elk drought until I took a 270 into the woods last year. Was it a factor? Who can say?

But there's no handicap in shooting Partitions that well at the distances you were shooting them. I've certainly got stockpiles of bullets that I wanted to get to shoot in certain guns, but could never make them work. Take your Magical 270 into the woods and prove your son right.

Find me a 600/1K Benchrest shooter running flat base bullets.......

Longer range shooters generally shoot the boattails because of wind drift. Difference in drop means nothing but a couple more clicks of elevation. Short range shooters use flat base because they are more accurate and the wind at short range does not affect them to much. That being said I have a couple rifles that prefer flat base. A friend of mine that shot national competition for years said he believes that it’s because of more bearing surface on most of the flat base bullets. Ed k

I’ve never had a rifle that likes boat tails better than plain base bullets.

I'm wonder if bullet length has anything to do with it. A BT will be longer than the same weight FB. The same theory might apply to RN bullets as well and they have a reputation of good accuracy.

Old wife's tale?? ...... Yes/No/Maybe??

If you are referring to Sierra, the 150 grain has always been a boattail.

Or a round nose.

That's what stuck out to me in the OP too - with only trying 2 different boat tail bullets and one flat base (Partitions), it's a pretty loose connection to say the rifle doesn't like boat tail bullets. It may not like the particular bullets you tried, but don't assume all boat tails will shoot poorly in it. If you want to find good accuracy with a more streamlined bullet, it would be worth trying a few others, but keep in mind bullet length vs twist rate, as SuperCub pointed out.

Nothing wrong with Partitions at normal hunting ranges for sure, my objection is just to the general conclusion drawn from very limited information. Remember, correlation does not mean causation.

This...

Sierra 150 Pro Hunters are flat base, same with all PH bullets. My old 1917 Enfield (with a Traister trigger/speedlock) would just wad the 150s/180 PHs into bug holes with IMR 4350! It did shoot the sierra 200 SBT (boat tail) just fine. I must have shot a "gazillion" boat tail bullets out of 105mm, 155mm, 8" Howtizers, M60s and M16s! I like them a lot, but I myself just don't need them out to 300-400yds, ha. If I shot a lot at 700-1200yds, well yeah.