Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 180 gr Barnes bullets in .270 Win ?

Just had some of these old bullets come my way, and wondered if anyone here has had any experience with them, either game performance, or on targets,and loads used ?

I have been shooting a 270 Win most of my life............never heard of a 180gr bullet for one ?????
most factory rifles use a 1-10" twist barrel that will shoot bullet's from 90gr to 160gr, Berger makes a 170gr bullet but it requires a 1-9"twist barrel. a 180gr bullet would probably need a 1-8"

They are a very blunt round nose and shot fine in a couple of my 270s. Not one hole groups or anything but plenty for hunting.

They are also very soft and open wide and quickly.

Boat Anchor, thanks for your reply.
I was thinking the same about the twist rate, and thus was curious about others experience, as well as potential loads. I too have been shooting .270 Win for many (60) years now, and of course really like it. Have also tried many different bullets in my few .270's, all 1 in 10 twists.
In that regard, I just measured some other longer bullets .277" bullets that I have on hand, and they average as follows:
Barnes 180 gr RNSP, 0.032 " jacket, L = 1.327"
Older Nosler 150 gr Bal Tip, L = 1.338"
Barnes 129 LRX BT, L = 1.335"
Barnes 130 TSX, L = 1.297"
Hornady 140 BTSP Interlock, L = 1.225"
Sierra 140 SPT Game Kings, L = 1.178"
My experience so far has been that the shorter 130 gr bullets do shoot more accurately than the 140 & 150's that I have tried.
At one time, CIL and IVI here in Canada commonly produced the 160 gr KKSP bullet that had a great reputation for larger game, ie. moose, elk and bears, and it was a round nose bullet that shot well in my Rem 700 when it was available in the 1960-1970's.
Another friend and very experienced gunsmith and big game hunter, Dave Jennings, liked the old Speer .277", 170 gr RN for moose hunting in close cover, and found them to be very effective. If I remember correctly, he preferred that to his .375 H&H for moose, except when in big bear country.
Recently I was helping out an older friend clean out his loading gear in preparation for moving in to a seniors home, and he gave me these Barnes 180's. However he had not used them on game, thus my enquiry.
I will start off load development with some 4831 powders that I have on hand, when I get around to it.
Cheers

The Kid, thanks for your reply.
Your info on your experience with these bullets was good to hear, thanks.
Did you take any game with them, and if so how did they perform ?
Also, I see that the box for ones I have shows that the jacket thickness is 0.032". Do you recall if your were the same ?
I ask that, as I know that some other older bullets came in varying jacket thickness, with the intent I surmise, to match the bullet performance to either smaller or larger game.
Do you recall the load data you used, and if so any idea of the velocity achieved ?
Cheers

I have a couple boxes of these along with several boxes of speer 170 rn. I have shot them in few different 270s and they shot very well. Last year I decided to hunt pigs with the 180 barnes as had been meaning to forever shot 3 pigs. As expected they hammered them and penetrated through and through. One of the pigs was huge for my area. I have weighed several and very easy to overestimate them but I would put money it was over 300lbs. I used a relaively mid load of rl22 and was going 2550 fps. The barnes manual had load data up to 2700 fps for them

Lou

I loaded both the 170 Speer and 180 Barnes in the .270 years ago. Both grouped very well--and were both designed to stabilize from the standard 1-10", with VERY blunt round noses. If I recall correctly, they were both about the same length, probably because the Barnes was made with a pure lead core and pure copper jacket, both of which are a little heavier than the harder lead-alloy core and "gilding metal" jacket of the Speer bullet.

The original Barnes company made a entire line of heavy-for-caliber lead/copper round-noses. Another was a 115-grain 6mm, which was very accurate in both a Browning single-shot 6mm Remington and a Remington 700 .243.

I can't speak about the 180 Barnes or 170 Speer but I've shot 180 Woodleighs through an old Remington 700. Accuracy was good and seemed to stabilize fine at 7000 ft + in elevation.

Have an old garage sale box of the 170 grain Speer round nose, there on display in my reloading room. I'll probably never use them.


41

Lou270, Mule Deer, ttpoz, & 41rem....thanks for your helpful info and sharing your experience.
Mule Deer, what you mentioned about the construction of the bullet, pure lead and pure copper, is interesting and good to know...thanks.
Are you aware if these bullets are known for deep penetration, or are they too soft with that construction ?
If deep penetrating, then I was thinking of using them in a lightweight Huskvarna 1740 in .270, with open sights as a handy carry gun when out roaming in the woods.

Research, Barnes Originals.

I’ve used the ones I mentioned above as well as 130 .277 spitzers and .358 250 spitzers. All of them were .032” jackets and all were pretty soft and wide expanding. I never had any issues with enough penetration for medium sized game but they didn’t seem to give any deeper penetration than any run of the mill cup and core bullet, maybe even a little less due to the wide expansion.

The Kid, .... no deeper penetration than other cup and cores...that is what I was really wanting to know about.
Cheers

At the velocity I ran them they exited on the boar pigs I shot. A typical cup and core does not. For ex, among manuy others shot boars Iast several year with 162 hornady btsp 7mag, 150 hornady 300 win mag, 180 hornady IL 300 wby mag and none exited. Just a sampling of cup and cores off top head but the 162 and 180 surprise me. I expect if pushed them faster they may expand/not penetrate but I was thinking of a 7mm mauser / 175 or 30/06 220 type load when I loaded the 180/270 so did not push it and penetrated great

Lou

Gentlemen,
Those old 170 Speer bullets are a long time favorite of mine. I really like them. They work well in a 1-10.
Rick

Thanks Gentlemen, for your replys and helpful info.
Garry

No experience with the Sierra's or Barnes.

I have messed with some 180gr Woodleigh out of a 1:10 twist many years ago. They shot ok, not horrible or fantastic. No keyholing at 100 yards and 3500 feet elevation.

I did get a 1:8 twist 270 WCF back from the gunsmith a few months ago and have had really good results with Barnes 155gr LRX and Badlands 150gr. Not quite as good with the 170gr NBT's. Have not tried the Woodleigh's out of this rifle yet.