Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .270 Win. Ackley Improved (AI)

As I understand it, the only way to improve on a .270 in a meaningful way on a 30-06 case is to go with the Gibbs. If I remember correctly it was one of Rocky's favorites, and the one he said benefited most from the "treatment". Trouble is, it's a giant PITA to form brass. Start with 30-06, form a false shoulder, neck to .270, blow it out, FL size...PITA

You'd be almost as well served by just necking down a 7x66 Vom Hofe, at which point you might as well have bought a .270 Weatherby. And if you're gonna do that, you've already missed the point about everything that's great about a .270.

I've always liked the idea but in practical terms, the 270 Winchester does it very well all by itself.

I have owned 2 270's, both with 22 inch tubes. Still have one of them. I may have had slow barrels but both of them were pretty much all done at a little under 3000 fps with 130's and 2800 fps with 150's. From reading other postings I am sure that my results were not typical, but that was my experience. Twice.

I like the 277 bore and had lots of Nosler Partitions, 150's and 160's, that I obtained for $10 a box at a sale, so I had a 270 Roy put together. With a 24 inch barrel I have no trouble adding 250-300 fps to anything I was able to squeak out of the 270 Win, and at lower pressures to boot.

Really like the 284 bore also, but where the rubber meets the road there is really very little difference other than what's in your mind. I seriously doubt that a 7 RM or 7 Roy will do anything on game out to 500 yards, which is my self imposed limit, that I cannot do with the 270 Roy.

Opinions vary, mine is that either the 270 or 280 AI versions largest advantage lies in the mind of the owner.

GH your velocity deficit was due to the 22" barrels.
In my experience a 24" barrel is required to get full velocity from the .270WCF.

chamber yourself a .277 in roy fashion in the action you like; hang 26" of bbl on it and run 130's (think accubond,interbond,etc BC .435 plus) at 3500. Its not a feat to do so safely. 7828 is your huckleberry. No 270win AI, 280 rem AI and maybe not a 7RM gonna touch that. Dont forget your freebore. You might be surprised how well it'll shoot.

There is a lot of truth in the above post;but maybe some misconceptions, too.There are too many 22" barreled 270's out there that routinely break 3100 fps with a 130,and it has been done by too many people in too many rifles over too many years(very safely)to seriously question whether the cartridge can safely achieve those velocities,especially with todays powders.Yes a 24" barrel may (or may not) give more velocity than a 22" but this assumes both barrels are "equal",and they almost never are.

I have owned more than one 22" 270 barrels that would safely give 3200 with a 130.

I do agree though that going AI is pretty much a waste of time over the standard cases when there are perfectly good belted cartridges with significantly greater capacity.

With bullets up to 150 gr in weight(where 270 cal generally tops out) I could never see the advantage to a magnum capacity 270 over a 7mm...there are so many good full spitzer 7mm bullets out there of 160-175 gr weight,that I feel a mag capacity 270 has little to offer,and this is where the 7mm magnums really trump.There is nothing a 270 Weatherby does with 130 gr bullets that cannot be accomplished with a 7 mag and the same weight bullet.There are no full spitzer bullets weighing more than 150 gr commonly available in 270 that I know of...

BTDT with all these things except the AI's which,to me, are trends that have been hanging around for years,and pretty pointless.I let friends do the experiments with the 280AI and report back....won't waste my time.

On a standard case, give me a 270 or 280 with a 22" barrel and a nice light rifle....if you wanna beat those two, and intend to use a 24" tube,get a magnum capacity 7mm.The rest is fluff.

Stick must have one unsatisfying home life to spend so much time in front of a keyboard.

Like I said...

It's amazing that not one person has AI'd the 270 but PWC.

I'd sure like to see some loading data posted on actual results, enough bickering...

In the late 70's a friend put a 29" Hart barrel on a Rem 7oo chambered in std 270 Win. It was unreal fast and accurate...can't remember any hard stats. Memory is fuzzy, but I think that he was shooting the 90g Sierra's at 3900 or close to it ...don't take that number to the bank. This long barrel'd 270 put wings on full grown chucks.

He kept talking about making an AI out of his to eliminate case trimming.

Interesting, I was at the range yesterday and someone had a 270 Win AI!

The 270 AI version with his handloads of 150 gr. Partitions produced between 2974 FPS and 3017 FPS over the Chrony. 24" barrel Model 70. Accuracy looked to be about 1" at the 100 yard backstop.

Same here. For me it's 24". Was just re-reading as my buddy is going to settle on the plan non-AI 270 Win. and use the slightly longer barrel.

Hey Bluedreaux! It's baaacckk!

Great old thread with a bunch of guys I admire.

It begs a question though; has our rifle geekery changed from velocity to gear?

Since this thread started I explored a few ideas in velocity, but always come back to running custom turrets on my most accurate .270 and favorite load.

It sure has been satisfying to kill farther and more repeatedly than I ever thought possible with a .270 It just sort of happened over the years while I was studying lower pressure and higher BC, but using the one rifle I rely on.

.277 bullet fired from a 22" barrel will not kill deer. but a 6.5 Creedmore kills like lighting a a mile away. or so it is said

fixed it for you ;-)

Seriously though: 22" .270 AI

-> Why ?

= Hate Tedious Case Trimming Task
= 280 AI Envy

do you not agree that the difference between the 270 Win and the 270 AI would be about 2" of barrel?

I'd rather have a 24" 270 Win. than a 22" 270 AI.

Either will handle 100% of N.A. big game and about 90% of the rest of world. The other 10% can be done with a 300 Win mag and a 416 Rem Mag.

Eight years and running. I wonder how it came out?

I would go 6.5 saum now instead.

Nobody makes a 26" 270 WSM -->> Hmmmm

I would go 6.5 SAUM too

I know this is an old thread and, although it is a good read, I can see no real reason for a .270 Win AI. Looked into building a .270 Gibbs a few years ago and the numbers just didn't work. The gains in velocity just didn't justify the need to form brass for full power loads or the lack of factory ammo in a pinch(sometimes [bleep] just happens right?). I could see the 280 AI being a better solution for this reason alone, if you must. I'll just stick with the 270 WCF and be happy.

With RL26 and a 24" barrel, and 150 gr bullets, you might get 3100+ fps out of a 270 AI.

Anyone with experience here?