Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting .270 Win Mono Preference?

I have some fail safe bullets if your interested in them these are 140 grain and highly touted by Ross Seyfried and others. PM and let me know what you have for a trade. I think they are a great bullet for larger game but I already have multiple good loads for the 270's worked up.

Thanks Tejano- I have a bit of both R23 & R26 on hand. At the time, I was using R26/160PT as its accuracy/speed just blew me away...and from a 22" bbl besides! ha. Thanks for the heads up on the Failsafes, but I'm good for now....I have bullets backed up on the runway to try out, ha. Its been 18yrs since my last cow elk, so I'm not in a bind for good elk bullets, ha. I do have a last yrs postponed cow elk hunt back on track, but in late September. I normally prefer to hunt them in late winter, but this was easiest for the ranch, and besides, its a beautiful time of year! So I don't expect anything below 30 deg that time of year, but who knows? It could also be 75 deg! So I figure on working with loads from now until late summer, just checking on speed/accuracy with the temp changes and make any adjustments as I go. Its fun anyhow! ha Thanks again for the heads up Pard! ( Born & raised in Liberty county Texas!)

I've been reading this thread with interest because I'm on the central Texas Gulf Coast. Even in South Texas which is about 200 miles South of me they don't have deer with the body size they do in the Mid West and the North Country. They've got some monstrous racks but not so much big bodies. So we don't need a super bullet to take our deer. Some people around here do use the bullets you stated but most use cup and core bullets and something in the Remington Core Lokt class or Nosler Ballistic Tip, Sierra Game King, Hornady SST class. However, I've thought of looking into the Barnes line and trying a couple loads just in case I ever have the opportunity to go on an elk hunt. I also would like to try the Nosler Partition, what I consider the king of the cup and cores because I've tried them on paper and they're very accurate out of my .270 Winchester. Anyway, I'll keep reading and learning here.

Hey there Fil- what caliber are you shooting? I like to use the lighter weight, fast monos on Texas game if I'm after Exotics. I did usethe 150 partition in a 7mm Rem Mag to keep from tearing up game when I lived there, I left in '87.. Surprising to me was a 300WM I used with Sierra 150 Pro Hunters on Hill Country deer...they acted like Partitions! In 30-06 and a .280 I found the Hornadys to be hard enough to be fine on deer.. The faster the bullet, the harder I want the bullet to be because 95% of the game I killed were under 100yds. Corlokts worked swell but I first used them in the 7mm Mag with 175gr (1973) to keep from tearing up meat too bad. I also found, in the 30-06/308 that 150 corlokts and Sierras were fine on deer. All hogs got shot at head/neck junction. My dad was pure OCD in saving meat! ha I guess that's why I hate running shots til this day! I had about a 50-50 record of hitting them too far back, deer or hogs, and even the 150 corlokts in my 30-30 would do some damage! He had a way of chewing your azz out and making you like it, ha.

I grew up poor. My father had passed & it was just me & my mother. Hunting put meat on the table. I have been hunting all my life starting with rabbits. It was mandatory rabbits were approached close enough to make head shots only. If I shot a rabbit thru the body I would catch it from my mother. That's how I grew up. So putting wild meat on the table is still important to us. We consider the meat a gift from God & therefore to be treated with care & keep waste to a minimum. There are those who hunt mainly for the horns so they care little if copious amounts of meat are destroyed . That is why Colorado mandates that the meat be harvested . If the meat is not brought out it is a felony . I always use the stoutest bullets like the mono's because they have absolutely proven to me over the years to be the least destructive to valuable meat. As the saying goes you can eat right up to the hole where a mono passes thru. The elk I took this past season was hit thru both front shoulders with a 6.5 & the 121 gr Hammer mono. This was the only shot I had thru a window in thick brush. As it turned out almost no meat lost or blood shot . Very positive. When it comes to elk the mono's are the only bullet I use.

I only really like a few wild game critters for eating...elk is #1, ha. Followed by Mule Deer that have been eating right. Axis is tops, but a long way from me now, ha. Blackbuck and Fallow eat good. Pronghorn Antelope...its beautiful meat, I know how to take care of it in the field, but OMG, smelly goat. Some really like it, I just have them cut/wrapped and I give it away. But I cherish the meat! "Any elk on the ground" is the "best"!

Great thread, got me thinking, "What if"? If it came down to a decision of only being able to have one Mono bullet I would choose Nosler E-Tip 130 gr. I think a solid copper bullet would be tougher than most 140-grain lead cores. The E-Tip's list their bullets at 95% weight retention. I believe 1800 fps minimum for good expansion which I could shoot to 800 yards. The Hornady GMX to follow.

Hey Jim Knight, I use a .270 Winchester with a 130 grain Sierra Game King and have for almost 40 years. It's killed a truck load of white tails and about 10 hogs. I like my .06 for hogs. The .270 kills them fine, but I have a lazer light on my Model 700 SPS .30-06 for hogs at night. I do head-neck shots on both deer and hogs when possible. I like the way a Game King takes out a large area of the neck severing thet spine and putting the deer down grave yard dead right in its tracks.

I admit I'm inexperienced on anything other than Texas Game which includes Bear, Elk, and Antilope. I come on here to learn even though I'm opinionated on what I feel I know, just don't know crap about much else than White Tail or Hogs. I have never hunted elk, though I'd kill for the opportunity. I have shot coyotes, there's a few thousand down here and bob cats, and I have shot a lot of small game, rabbits and squirrels. I've been Nilgai hunting but never got a shot. I took my .300 Weatherby with a 200 grain Sierra Game King for that. I also took along my 9.3x62 with a 270 grain Speer hot core which I've taken deer with.

Also, the Sierra Game King on Deer AND Hogs penetrates into the body cavity and makes a quagmire of blood and they usually don't go far. But I still prefer a neck or head shot if its at close range, like under 100 yards. But if its much over 100 yards I find that if I can slip it in between the ribs it expands in the lungs and makes fast work of it. I love reading your posts Jim.

Thanks Fil, I'm only 5yrs younger than you! I left Texas in '87 for the Ministry and still have family there. My BIL still uses his Mod 742/308/150 Sierra GameKings on everything down there! Over in Liberty Co. I liked the old Red Box Federals 30-06 ( remember those) back in '79 that were loaded with the Sierra 165 GKs. It made my dad's old Mod 742 jammomatic go from 6" to 4" at 100! But, I never killed anything with it past 60yds ( they don't call it The Big Thicket for nothing ha) It held together fine at close range, didn't ruin as much meat as the 150 Corlokt even. There was only one .270 win in our group, and he never killed anything with it around me, so I could never compare it to anything. As a kid & teen, all the "old folks" said a .270 was "too da--ed fast for the woods! It would blow up on a twig! No scopes either..."you can't use a scope in the woods son". ha It was tough trying to be a gun looney around that mentality, I tell you! I've never seen a Nilgai in the wild, even on the Exotic ranches I hunted from Uvalde to Del Rio to Sanderson back to leakey. I never moved any oilfield equipment south, or West of Freer or past Port Lavaca further down on the coast. They tell me they are a worthy animal to hunt! Maybe you will run into a "free range" escapee from the King Ranch some day!

I haven’t played with the E-Tip’s at all, usually when I buy Noslers it’s Partitions or AccuBonds. But I have shot my fair share of TSX & TTSX in a variety of calibers. I also been loading quite a few GMX in a variety of calibers. Not much different on game performance that I have noticed, the GMX may be a tad easier to find a load for, seating depth is not quite as finicky as Barnes.(slightly) The only other difference is barrel fouling maybe more noticeable with the Barnes , barrel dependant and not a big deal in hunting situations. I went on a five year run where all I used were mono-metal bullets, and now I’m back to shooting a mix of C&C, Bonded, & Monos. Currently on the hunt for 90 gr GMX in 6mm hoping they shoot close to current 90 gr load for some testing.

Which 6mm you shooting there Abe? I like the 6mms myself, with the right bullet of course. My "favorite" 6mm is the 240Wby. I loaded the older 90X in my first one, back in the 90s. I killed a coyote and busted rocks with, then gave it to my pastor ( Mont Belvieu, Tx) we went out to Leakey and he shot a couple of Axis deer with it. Wicked killer!

I have a pre 64 featherweight 270 that I tried 130 etips in and couldn't get better than 3" groups. I tried deeper seating depths, too. I have never tried 130 TTSX for comparison, but can't imagine them shooting any worse. I went to 140 accubonds and it shoots those into 0.5". 150 partitions are about 1.5". So, I guess my gun just doesn't like the etips. I have heard mention that in general, people seem to have better luck getting the TTSX to shoot without as much work.

Currently I have 2 -6MM Rems in 788’s. One topped with a vortex and one with sightron.
And 2- 243 wins one 7600 rem open sights, one vanguard topped with 3x9 Redfield. It’s my go to coyote rifle/ truck gun. The 80 gr GMX and RL-15 is a excellent coyote round and surprisingly easy on pelts

I ordered some R16 to try, never had any before. I think I'm going to give this R19 to my SIL to play around with and just stick to "known" temp stable powders, ha I guess I'm getting too OCD, but It can go from freezing to 80-90 degs in the Fall over here, if not in one day, in one week I've seen it. I finally got my little Kimber 84L Classic home. I had the smith send it off to "300 Below" for cryo treatment, trying to hedge my bet on stabilizing this skinny barrel, ha.set the trigger at 2 1/4 , it sure is sweet!

My choice as well.

I loaded up some WW cases, BR2, 61gr N165 and the 110 Sierra for a sight in round, hopefully this Saturday. I had picked up this N165 to try in a 338WM for something, anyhow, we will see. Supposed to be 3200 ( is that coincidence or what?

The 110’s should be zippin along , I would think 3200 would be right in the ball park. Hope the shoot well , Sierra usually do. The 110 is actually a decent WT bullet.