Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 270 Winchester

Wild Bill,

Always interesting to hear about bad .270 results. Dunno what bullets you were shooting, but my experience has been very different, on game from pronghorns to moose, with a wide variety of bullets, both in weight and construction.

First time I used a 270 was 1961 reloaded by Joyce Hornady with one of his 130 gr Sp over 60gr of surplus 4831. I now use the same bullet but now Interlock and 59gr of H4831. I've also used Hornady 140 and 150. Well over 100 animals in USA, Europe, Asia and RSA and never a failure or a lost animal. I'm leaving on 31 Dec for a 5 day hunt and am taking a 270 Win with the 130 gr load.

Yes SamO...you can philander with all these other, better, more exotic cartridges and venture far afield....but the 270 is a safe haven when you want something simple,effective,and uncomplicated.

Dogger, I run two 270's; the first since 1978 (Ruger 77) - handload the 140 Hornady Interlock and H4831sc in that one. My other is a custom barreled pre-64 M70FW - I shoot a handload using the 130 grain Hornady Interlock and H4831sc in that one. Either will get the job done - just buy yourself one and enjoy hunting with it - mild recoil, flat shooting, and I never saw anyplace I go out of factory ammo during the past year (while I was trying to find some 308 WIN ammo). Odessa

Philander? Say it ain't so!!

smokepole: No pun intended

Bob, I can't believe you said better......grin.

Philander I will, if it keeps me from getting stagnet, and bored.

I thrive on the anticipation of getting to "ring out" something new, and different, then taking it out in the field to see it performs real world. After all, how can a hunter/shooter/reloader ever form an opinion on something without firsthand experience?

I've got no harsh words for the .270. I've probably seem more game taken with that round than most of the members in here, and it flat works for most everything. My .270's don't get much use anymore.....I'm always tinkering with other projects. I did kill my first antelope, black bear and elk with that round, for what it's worth.

For sure

I don't rightly know, but it sure doesn't seem to stop some folks around here.......

LOL, Bob, what I meant was, if it gets to the point where shooting other rifles is philandering, that could mean you're a redneck. Either that, or..... "you're overthinking your elk rifle......."

John, While in Maine of course I used Winchester Silvertips 130grainers. When I purchased the 270 in a Pre-64 M70 I also received 4 boxes of this ammo and never reloaded for it. Here in Washington 130gr NPT not at blistering speeds because of recoil issues with the wife. The 270 just never preformed for me and I know a couple folks here that keep trying to use the cartridge even though they have struggles with it also.

Pat: After 88 years, I would hope there are some better cartridges than the 270. Otherwise we've been standing still for a long time . Folks seem to think just because I use it alot that I think it's the "best" and that other cartridges don't interest me...this is not true at all.

But it seems to me that to get the improvements,we either have to burn more powder in larger cases, or use some highly specialized bullets in somewhat more "efficient" cases,and maybe some that are not as efficient in that we have to burn a LOT more powder,use longer barrels, and get kicked more in the process to see the gains..

In modern terms,the cartridge seems to be a victim of its pedigree and age...slower twist,lower BC bullets, etc. These problems can be fixed,and it's easy to order barrels with faster twist, and the bullets are getting better.

But it possesses still, to this day, the kind of things that characterize the modern cartridge concepts we all seem to desire in a modern cartridge....high velocity, low to moderate recoil,bullets of good BC(yes some designs in other calibers are better in this regard),flat trajectory,capable of being chambered in rifles easy to tote and easy to shoot accurately...some cartridges trump it in some of these areas,and some only fractionally if at all.

I have done my share of philandering myself,enjoying the variety of cartridges and new rifles...I like to tinker but not as much as in the past.

For me the 270 is a cartridge that has always been in the safe and used frequently, despite having owned many others. For me it has been a very "lucky" hunting cartridge, which is the reason I reach for it so much.

I am on my way to the range today to see how those 130 gr SS II's shoot...

Bob, they shoot much better in a 6.5........

smokepole you may be right...anyone got a 6.5 they want to ship this way?

How did those shoot Bob? I had mixed results with them in my .260.....one box shot lights out, the next box shot like azz.

My reloading is frikkin' Caveman style compared to you LR guys...grin


I could see where less trimming and longer barrel life would be great though.


Wonder if the H1000 trick would work with a 270WSM?

Wild Bill,

I am struggling to get a grasp on your experiences. Between my family and friends, I would venture to guess that we have killed over a couple hundred animals with the 270. Antelope, blackbuck, Axis, black bears, TX rams, hogs, too many deer to mention and a handful of elk.

We have used bullets from 85-150gr, velocities from 1900 to 3250fps.

I have also personally killed deer with 22-375 caliber and most everything in between. In my humble opinion, there is not much better for deer hunting than a 270 with a 130gr bullet.

You have to shoot what you are confident in, so I respect your opinion and experience. But it simply does not mirror mine at all.

It might be due to bullets. in my experience Winchester Silvertips could either work fine or truly suck, depending on the batch. In the beginning Ballistic Tips didn't penetrate very well, but that was fixed within a relatively short period.

In 130-grain bullets, Eileen and I have used Hornady Interlock Spire Points, Nosler Partitions, Remington Core-Lokts, Sierra GameKings and Winchester Power Points on several pickup loads of big game. The only "problem" was a 130 GameKings that left its jacket at the entrance hole on a mule deer--but the core went al the way through the chest cavity and killed the buck instantly anyway.

That's aside from the antelope, deer and elk killed with 140, 150, and 170-grain .270 bullets.

Perhaps the best line Layne Simpson ever wrote went something like this: "If you can shoot, the .270 Winchester is an elk cartridge. If you can't, it isn't." That's been my experience as well--and it's hard to prevent a good elk cartridge from being a good deer cartridge. Unless, of course, the elk cartridge kicks too much for somebody to shoot well.

Pat they did better than I can.

I just sat and shot a 10 shot group with them at 100 yards. Rifle is my old 270 with the 9 twist Brux, Brown stock, with 4X Leupold.

Shots 1 and 10 are out left and the other 8 will fit in a one inch square.Total for 10 shots was 2 inches,including the flyers and I am convinced it's me and not the bullets, but will shoot more to find out.

If I cherry picked the group, I could easily have shown 3 shots in a 1/2 inch...

At 63 I am coming to grips with the reality that I can no longer see very well with that scope for paper target work and you can see me drifting somewhat vertically and horizontally through the shooting.I simply cannot tell if I am holding tightly enough anymore with those optics.

I think I have an operator problem and not a bullet problem.

I am going to load up some more and see what happens. I have a couple hundred to mess with.

+1

I have tried to like the 270 win but it consistently under performs for me. I have trouble getting DRT kills that I believe would have happened with a .30 caliber gun. I also get little to no blood trails. I shot a buck this that ran 90-100 yards and did not leave a single drop of blood that I could find.

I have shot 20x as much game with .30 caliber and only caught one Sierra bullet. The last couple of years I have caught Accubonds, partition, TTSX and BT from the 270 win.

I guess it's just my luck.

Dink