I'm a long time "270W shooter", but have never shot more than one animal with it. That was a Spanish goat with 140 Failsafe ( great elk bullet they tell me!) So, as I'm playing with this new to me Mod 700 Classic, in the 130gr I started out with the Hornady. Now, back in the mid 80s I loaded this for a friends rifle and he shot a little Texas WT doe in a drizzling rain, late one evening. She made it 30yds to some really thick stuff and he had no blood trail. This guy could shoot, he hit her behind the shoulder , could see the water spray. It "appeared" the bullet was
hard, slow to open". I don't mind a hard bullet, but how does the Hornady compare to, say, the Ballistic Tip, Speer BT and Sierra sbt? Which one would open "quicker" on coyote, antelope, mule deer? I'd like you guys opinions? Thanks.

Since Nosler has stiffened the Ballistic Tip line over the years I'd say the Speer BT is the softest of the bunch.

I loaded 130 grain Interlocks for a friend's 270 in the late 2000's and he was quite satisfied with how they dropped deer/pigs pretty quick. Lately he's been using Federal ammo loaded with 130 grain Game Kings and it has put deer down no problems.

The 130 gr. .277 Hornady SP is a great bullet for deer sized game. I know this because my family and I have used it to take hundreds of animals without much drama. Put one through the heart/lung area and you'll have a very dead animal. Pronto. One brother has even taken two grizzlies with the bullet, a practice I don't necessarily recommend.

Jim - I experienced the same using 130, 140 and 150 Hornady's which were the first things I loaded for my 270. I have migrated to Sierra's for nearly everything, usually a little heavier grain, and slower speeds and I get very fast kills, pass throughs, and great blood trails- though have VERY seldom needed to trail anything. Accurate too.

Life is ugly for anything shot thru the chest cavity with a 270 pushing a 130 Nosler Partition.

For several years I have been using the Hornady 6.8 caliber 120 gr pointed soft point bullet just under 2800 fps using Hodgen 4831sc in My 270s. Results on 9 of our smaller Tennessee deer have been great. Most of the deer drop where they are when hit in chest area. A few have run no more than 40 yards, Blood trails are minimal even though all bullets exited. Internal damage is extensive to lungs and ribs but not that much meat damaged. Bullet seating has not been a problem. Accuracy in Remington 700 has been 1" to 1 1/5"groups at 100 yards. My older Winchester model 670 groups this bullet/powder combination at 3/4 inch at 100 yds.

We load this bullet for 4 different .270's among family members in front of 58 to 59 grains of H4831. Been using this bullet for 25 plus years on W.T. deer, feral hogs, and various exotics. We have killed literally several hundred animals with the 130 Hornady Spire point.

Knock on wood but we have had great performance from it. The Horn is my favorite and I have tried Sierra and Noslers and found no reason to switch.

I normally use Sierra Pro-Hunters (flat-based) bullets on deer, never had an issue with them.

I have had the 130 Gamekings and 140gr. Hornady Boattails grenade on deer, though, and that has soured me on boattails for deer.

I have NO experience with the 130 Spire Points, but my cousin has killed a schittload of deer with it, and I've never heard a complaint out of him. I'd not worry too much about it. Deer are easy to kill. Even those deer which I hit with the "bad bullets" died quickly, but it was REALLY messy. Hornady has fooled with that 140 several times, moving the cannelure around like they were shuffling cards or something. I do NOT trust that bullet for anything bigger than coyotes.

Thanks guys. I have some 130PTs to try next. I am also going to try out the 110 TTSX just to see if the rifle likes them. I like the idea of the 110s going fast, and so far, this rifle has shot the Sierra 110 PH very well. I would also like to try the 110 Vmax for coyotes. My rifle pure dee loves the 150/160 Partitions too.

I’ve used 130 and 140gr Interlocks in my 270, 150gr Interlocks in my 308 and 150gr round nose Interlocks in my 30-30 and all have preformed fine. Most have come apart but penetrated more than enough, with amounts of damage ranging from “adequate” to “catastrophic”. Shot one deer with Nosler Ballistic Tips in my 270, it seemed similar to the Interlocks (and other soft points) as far as terminal damage. Setttled on the 130gr Federal TBT.

Hornady keeps changing the Interlocks so much it's hard to keep up. I've got two boxes of 30 cal, 165 grain flat base that have .020 difference when measured with the Stoney Point bullet comparator.

this is not unusual. You should measure the OAL with ogive gauge on every lot#.

On some brands, .040 is not unusual.

when I ran out of my last box of 500 of Berger VLD H, opened the next box, different lot, there was .020 difference in ogive lengths between the two lots.

Both lot# shot bug hole groups, just had to adjust my seater.

The 130s and 140s SPBT have worked well. You seem to be picking harder bullets but wanting more expansion. The SST open fast too fast for me. The ELD-x is proving to be a good choice and opens quickly. The Nosler BT 130 has been excellent, the 140 Accubond and Interbonds have been stellar in the Winchester and the WSM. The Nosler Partition always works but is not really needed for deer. Have used the 130 grain X with good results and may try the TTSX 110s. I will also be loading some 150 ABLR as these have worked well in other calibers, they perform like a slightly softer Accubond which is what I wanted. The ABLR fly well and with R26 I am getting about as much velocity as I got with my slower 130 - & 140 loads. It makes the 270 Win. give the WSM a good run.

The Bergers can have dramitic results but have not used them in .270 caliber.

Of these the BT could be used for coyotes and the SST and ELD-x too, Bergers will open up on a coyote also.

The 270 caliber bullets are almost uniformly good. Except for the 6.8 SPC bullets everything was designed with the Winchester in mind. Some were made a little tougher for the WSM and Weatherby but even with these the velocity range is not huge.

Back to the original scenario. A 30 yard drop is not bad. I bet the deer would have leaked if it had gone further. Sometimes there is so much blood it all stays in the lower chest cavity and doesn't make it up to the entrance or exit would, this combined with no heartbeat and you can have little or no blood trail. I have seen deer that had hardly any blood trail or even much re-action to the shot drop within 20-50 yards and when opened up there was not much in the way of recognizable organs in the chest cavity just one big blood clot.

Did you ever use the 150 Ballistic Tip on deer/hogs Tejano? I got these Hornadys just for grins. I like to plink a lot out in the desert. I am sure the 110PH or TTSX, for sure, will work on any coyote, deer, hog I'm going to shoot, ha. The wind is a boogerman for me out in the short grass prairies, I just can't judge it, so usually look for a very sleek design for antelope, etc.

Never had a problem with 130 gr Horn SP's on deer, while back I got a hell of a deal on 130 & 150 gr Grand Slams and 130 Rem Bronze Points as well as 300 150 Nosler Solid Bases. None of these bullets are ultra high BC like whats available now. I don't give a f**k ,I got less than 10 cents apiece in them and know damn well they will all do the job if I do mine. MB

I have used the 130 Hornady SP a bit, last time was on an antelope. He was 200 or so yards out and I shot him from a sitting position. The bullet hit a bit low in the front of the chest blowing a big hole and removing a 6 inch circle of sternum. The 14 inch buck ran over a small hill out of sight. I walked over to the impact site and was impressed with the blood, bone and chunks of meat. Topped the hill and there he lay, his heart looked like something had taken a bite out of it and was hanging outside his chest. Around that time I switched to 150 grain bullets as I also hunted elk with the same rifle. I didn't get the impression that particular bullet was all that tough.

I feel the Hornadys have "softened" some since the late 70's. I used the Hornady Light Magnum 180sp in 30-06 back in the mid 90's. I shot my first cow elk, running, around 135 steps. First round broke her spine right behind her shoulder and was found wadded up in it. The second was a high lung finishing shot. I found it had expanded very fast and had fragmented against the far rib cage, not bad. I just expected the opposite results! I guess the bone held it together and the softer tissue allowed it to tear itself apart. I shot a doe mule deer with that load. I had wounded the poor thing the night before, and I jumped her up around 75yds the next morning. I gave her a hard raking shot right in front of the left hip. She dropped and was still alive so gave her a head shot at 35. The first fragmented, the second penetrated like a Partition. Go figure. Back in the 70's I also loaded the Hornady 150sp for friends in their 30-06 and .308s. They also reported small wound channels. 25-30 yrs later I read a lot of huge exits/some fragmenting with them. I'm sure they are a swell deer/antelope bullet (the 130sp in my .270) I just have better choices for big hogs/elk. I am far more likely to shoot deer/hogs than elk with a .270, but it goes as a spare. So the rifle loves 150/160PTs as it is.

Back in the 60's Hornady used to advertize bullets not exiting for maximum destruction, 100% energy use and shock factor. I notice they are going back to that with some of their bullets like the SST.

I launch all of my 130 gr bullets from my many 280’s & 308’s.

No 270’s for me.

I'm sure that one or the Sierra GK.

The Hornady's core is harder than Sierra. I've used a lot of the Sierra Pro Hunters and Interlocks with good results on deer, the Interlocks are definitely tougher.

Jim, sorry I'm late to the party.

Roughly 80% or of the deer I've killed with a 270 W have been with the 130 H S P and IF I ever had a bullet failure it wasn't evident to me.

I shot a couple of bucks with the 140 HBTSP and they were too tough for my liking. They didn't expand as quick on 150-180 lb. WT.

I shot ONE buck with a 130 Speer boat tail. It killed the deer like lightning BUT it didn't penetrate the off side rib cage.! !
The deer fell over and the COLD air from its lungs spewed up like a fountain. Never saw that before nor since.

I have BULK packed Rem P S P C L from the late 80s and have been using them. They are HARDER / TOUGHER than the Hornady's.

All in All my experience demonstrates WHY the Hornady Ils are called the "Poor Man's Partition".

Good Luck


Jerry

Well.... why did you offer opinions per 270, 130s ? Certainly not pertinent.


Jerry

Jim Knight: I have been using the sensational (sensationally accurate and sensationally lethal!) Nosler 130 grain Ballistic Tips in my Remington 700 Sendero (26" heavy barrel model with Leupold 6.5x20 variable) for many years now.
Have killed many Antelope, Mule Deer, Whitetailed Deer and one 6x6 Bull Elk with this bullet - I don't recall every having to fire a second shot into one of these game animals.
I am sure your bullet would do well but for great performance and probably great accuracy please try these.
Best of luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Thanks again guys! I used to shoot a lot of those Federal Premium factory loads with the 130 BT, but never killed anything with them. I did give a nice Mod 700 Mountain Rifle and five boxes of those to my Pastor's grandson ( he was 14 then) and he has piled up a lot of Texas deer/hogs with them.

CORRECTION ! CORRECTION



WELL ! My fingers didn’t type what my mind was thinking.

My sons .270win just flat out hammer's deer, bear and cow elk with a 130gr Interlok with such authority that 6 years later I still have 4 boxes of 140 gr Partitions unopened sitting on the shelf patiently waiting for a chance.

Jim, a 130 would usually go thru, too bad the deer was not recovered to see. Other quick opening deer bullets that will usually go thru are Speer hot cores and Federal fusion.

It was a problem with those little deer as a doe "might" be 7-9" wide. Not much time for a bullet to do a lot of damage. I had loaded him the Speer 130BT too and told him that "they" were the ones to use in Texas. I told him the Hornady would be better on mule deer, etc. Well, he took the speer because his rifle "shot them better" he told me. Well goof, I did the workup in his rifle...three shot groups, the Speer could be covered with a dime....the Hornady could be covered with a nickel! And he is shooting at less than 100yds, ha. At least they both shot to POA in his Browning.

You may want to ask the neighbors if they had seen any deer walking around with a half dollar size exit hole.

I have only used the 140 & 130 BT and they worked well. The 150 may have a thicker jacket but should expand as much as the 130 & 140. The ABLR is showing promise but I have not shot any game with it yet. I suspect it will be a good all around bullet. In 6.5mm the ABLR worked well both the 129 & 142 version.

The 145 ELD-X has a good BC and I have not shot them enough to say if they are slightly less frangible than the SST but I am thinking they are. There are a number of sleek newer bullets in 270 cal. now in the 145-170 grain range that will help with wind drift. Too many to keep up with.

Just as a point of interest we take our deer each season with the Sierra120 gr in our various 6.5's. No problem with mature muley bucks.. Perhaps a Sierra 130gr 270 bullet might work for you also? Also have seen some amazing results with the 270 & the Barnes 110gr TTSX. Just a thought. I see far more game taken at under 200yds than over. All the deer we have taken over the last 12 seasons has been well under 200yds, elk also.

That is the only bullet my Dad has used out of his 270 for 50 plus years. We have shot truckloads of deer and antelope with that bullet. Have never had an instance where we thought the bullet was too hard. We process all of our own animals and get to see firsthand exactly what a bullet does.

Well that's good to know. While my .270, so far, can handle 62gr H4831, the 55gr IMR 4350 is a nice cloverleaf. I'm thinking of trying them both but at 200yds, see if they hold accuracy or start to spread out. Thanks again guys!

my 270 win. loves 140SST in front of 55grains of Hunter. 3050 FPS excellent accuracy and they are cheap.

Pard uses 130 Hornady sp exclusively in his 270 Roy
will fargo near me

625 1 and done, watched the vapor trail through the st 80...


22” outside, 180”

Looks Like " Proof of the Pudding" to me.


Jerry

There’s waaaay more Jerry... grin

We’ve hunted together over 20 years, he owns 1 rifle, a mark V ulw, 270 Roy, 6.5-20 leupold factory 130 Hornady, the scope, rifle, bullets have never let him down

Jud

I don’t doubt that at all.

I have 3 identical scopes I bought on clearance around 1990. I’ve used them all over the years
and had NO problem at all. They stay zeroed, and track reliably.

What can you say negatively about Wby MkV and Hornady Ils ?
oops! I don’t want that spread around. LOL

Jerry

🤣🤣🤣👍

Rats.

No argument here. I am surprised at your experience with the 140 HBT.

I ONLY had 1 lot of them and they must have been tough.

As you said Hornady & others have altered their bullets from time to time.
The 140 HBTSP I had would have made great Elk bullets in the 270 W.

Jerry

The 55gr IMR 4350 load is one I grew up with and shot for a very long time with the 130gr Hornady on top. I just picked up 8# of IMR 4451 and plan is to load it in my boys 243's and try it with some 130gr bullets out of our 270's too. Thinking of it as a modern 4350 load.

My rifle has a 22" barrel, I was not chrono graphing when I worked up to the 55gr 4350 load. How fast do you think its going or have you clocked yours?

I never clocked them. I had moved on to looneyism, with multiple powders and bullets before I ever owned a chronograph.

I have shot H4831 exclusively for the last 20-25 years. That is until recently when I have played with some Ramshot Magnum and Rel 26 with 150's.

My go to 130gr load is 60gr H4831sc with a WLRM and various monometals and the BT. It invariably clocks from 2950 to 3100 with most falling in the 3000 range depending on the 270 rifle I am shooting it in.

I have all the various 130gr bullets listed above loaded and ready to go. Most rifles will shoot one of loads MOA and most will shoot two of them. Because of that we have shot multiple deer/antelope with the T/TSX, GMX and BT. I am adding the Nosler E-tip into the mix this summer. Because of that I hope to add it to list of successful bullets used in our 270's.

Our list of successful bullets used.
85gr TSX
100gr AB
110gr AB
110 TSX
110 TTSX
110gr Sierra
130gr Hornady SP
130gr GMX
130gr BT
130gr T/TSX
140gr X
140gr Hornady BTSP
150gr Hornady SP
150gr NP
150gr Grand Slam

On paper I can add
145gr ELD-X
150gr LRAB
150gr Berger
150gr BT
160gr NP
180gr Woodleigh Marginal stability and poor groups in a 1:10.

My next rebarrel will be at least a 1:9 if not 1:8 because I would like to play with 170 Bergers and the 180 Woodleighs some more. Just need to get busy shooting the next 270 barrel out.

Thanks pard. I am most likely about 3050fps or so close it doesn't matter, ha. I don't like to shoot way out there, so don't/never have dialed in with anything, I'm a point and shoot kind of guy.

Shoot this load out of 2 270 rifles I own, 22 inch barrels. Both were in the 2950-2975 zone over the screens if memory serves. No matter, they killed very cleanly everything they were pointed at.

That's fast enough for me! I like to push Mono bullets fast, but cup n core just seem to behave better around 3K or less. I know that, looking at the data for my "most accurate loads so far", my .270 really likes the 2950fps range. I think it may be its sweet spot!

Most factory 130 loads were doing around 2,850 - 2,950 about ten years back, which may have been the last time I shot any factory 270s. The light magnum loads were closer to advertised velocity.

I would look no further than the classic 130 Hndy. and 60 grains of H4831 if you want to gain some velocity. This Jack OConner load has worked in every 270 I have tried it in.

A few finicky ones might do better in velocity or accuracy with R22 but not enough of a difference to have multiple loads.

I always start out right there Tex- since this rifle has a longer throat, I have better accuracy with 62gr with 4 going into .85", rounded group. I'm always pleased to get the bug-hole, 1/2" groups...but I know its rare. If I get even close to a consistent 1"- 1 1/4", I know I have an accurate rifle. Heck, I can remember reading when the "goal" of a good varmint rifle was 1", ha. But its fun looking for it, ain't it?

When I was shooting a 22" Ruger M77R, I used that load a lot at first, as I was using IMR 4350 in my .243 (and H-4350 wasn't invented yet), and DID chrono it in that rifle. 2913fps.

IIRC, almost exactly the same as the 100gr. bullet I was using in the .243. BCs were almost the same, so the drop "out yonder" was about the same, too. The .243 as also a Ruger M77R, but I doubt that has the slightest thing to do with it.
All in all, the two rifles/loads were all I needed at the time. I think it would have been smarter if I'd have kept them both and stopped buying rifles then and there. My rifle looney-ism has always been fairly muted, excepting rimfires. I still have that virus......

Jerry, I was referencing the Hornady 140gr. BTSP, as I have thumped a few deer with it. It shot well in factory ammo, but when I tried loading it for myself, things went "messy" real quick. The first deer I shot with it dropped like a rock, (lung shot), but afterwards, the next few deer looked like someone had hit them at contact distance with a Claymore mine. There was offal spread everywhere, over my head, in a circle about 20ft. around, and the deer was still alive, requiring a finishing shot. I literally painted the brush next to the deer. I think I switched to flat-based bullets pretty quick after that, going to an R-P Bronze Point, then to the Sierra ProHunters, which I still use.
I've also shot deer with 130 and 140 NBTs, but for the current rifle, it favors the Sierra PHs.

Someone "gifted" me a bunch of 140gr. Gamekings, and some of those 140gr. HPBT Sierras, but I haven't loaded any of them yet. I've still got a bunch of the 130 PHs loaded.

Rats

It took me a couple of minutes to understand the MIS understanding.

I was talking the Hornady also BUT should have typed HBTSP.......... instead of HBT.

That ONE lot of Hornady BTSPs I had were too stout on the bucks I shot with them. They opened but NOT enuff for my liking.
This was prior to 1986 so obviously I would think Hornady changed the jacket design.

No Harm, No Foul


Jerry

I've got a couple of old boxes of factory Hornady 130 gr SP ammo that someone gave me years ago. It's not the most accurate round in my Browning A-bolt Stainless Stalker, but the bullet gets the job done. I use that .270 primarily in the off season for shooting hogs and sheep. I used to shoot the 130 gr. Speer Grand Slam in that rifle and will probably go back to that bullet once I run out of my handloads with the 140 gr. Hornady BTSP. Both the Grand Slam and the 140 Hornady shoot sub MOA in my rifle, but I want to get a little more velocity out of that 22 in barrel so I'm moving back to the Grand Slam.

I have only shot 140 grain Hornady Interlocks for the last 12 years on deer, hogs with my 270 (average distance 200 yards). I have never seen a deer go more than 30 yards, usually DRT. Love the interlock. Looks like a bomb goes off in the boiler room.

I seated my 130 Hornadys from -050 to -030 off the lands, loaded another 3 with 62gr and they wadded up like crazy! Sweet spot found! I loaded some 150 NBT .030 off the lands too and shot some R23. Very impressive accuracy. Looks like R23 and the heavier .270 bullets is a good, stable load, if not the fastest. Still, 58gr give right at 2950fps.

I use 140 Accubonds in my 270 WCF, 270 WSM and 270 Weatherby. They hammer deer and pigs.

I used the 140 NAB in a semi-custom .270 I gave my Marine SIL. It was after his return from his first Iraq deployment. It was a simple, nicely blued Mod 700 BDL .270 but fitted/bedded into a beautiful marble cake English Walnut stock. I forget the charge/powder but it shot the 140 NAB into a small cluster! He killed one doe with it up on his grand dads old place, up in PA. Made a good memory for him.

Sounds like a beautiful rifle.

Nice thing about R23 is the velocity won't vary much over any temperature you would hunt in. A velocity of 2950 fps is pretty respectable, I think I was really stomping on it to get that with H4831.

I have used mostly 140 grain Hornadays Inter Lock and Interbonds and the Nosler Accubond in both the 270 & 270 WSM plus some 140 Barnes and they were all close enough so I didn't need to change the scope settings.. I think Jack OConner wrote that the 140s were for people who couldn't make up their minds between 130s & 150s. Guess that fits my choice of them.

Ha That's a pretty good quote. I have always been one to start out loading on each end of the weight spectrum. Just for grins actually and the fact I love to handload. Not quantity, but reliable, accurate hunting loads. Love to kill something with my handloads as much as a crazed Fly Fisherman loves to use his own hand tied flies, ha. Very seldom have I ever just used "one load" once I started using a Rockchucker press and had access to dies. I would tell guys I worked with to buy the dies, at least a box of fired brass, and a pound of powder, what bullet style/weight and let me work up a load for them. I would then agree to load another couple boxes for them, with their scope zeroed and I'd keep the dies/leftover components as pay for my time/gas to the range, etc. I loaded for 30-30, 30-06, 308, 7mm Mags, 243s, one 7x57 and one .270. I had a ball, and learned a lot. I'd usually end up with a load just under book Max so they could use their brass a lot. since they all killed deer under 300yds ( usually under 100!) the one load concept kept them happy.

This happened to me using the Sierra Pro-Hunters, back 15-20 years or so. Dad wanted me to load him some ammo for his 270 Win. and I chose the 130 gr Pro Hunter. Worked up a load and it shot good. In a 2 week period, he shot 3 deer on a pipeline, but lost them in the really thick brush. No blood trail. He bought some Rem core-loc's and never had another problem, killed several more deer that year. I figured it was a fluke, but I never hunted with the bullets.

A year or so later, I was planning a trip to hunt red stag in Argentina (I never did get to go). Talking to an outfitter and asked about using a .270 Win with reloads. He said the rifle was fine, but not to use Sierra Pro-Hunter bullets. They had some bad experiences with that bullet in prior years and would not take a hunter that was using that bullet.

I figure there was a problem with a batch of bullets that QC missed and I just happened to get some of them, along with the hunters in Argentina. I've heard too many good things about the bullet from other hunters to think they are all bad. But, it has soured me on using them again.

I have always had pass threws and good blood trails on the very few that have ran... most drop.. using the federal fusions out of my 270 win