Thread: .270 is the best caliber ever made.

Its always been the same old story from the 270 fans ...
If you use 3 shots with a .270 it was "because the animal was tough".
If you use 3 shots with a smaller caliber it was because "you needed something bigger".

There is no winning.

Taken to extreme.the 220 swift showed up problems with soft projectiles...they never made it to target,they ripped apart,vaporised in mid air!!! Lots of varmits type projectiles will do weird things if touch as little as a twig...that's not failure,it's what designed to do,break up fast inside groundhog,rabbit. Fmj or solids complete opposite,designed to plough through anything Intact. For deer sized game......oh hang on there are Samberg n wapity Vs Roe n fallow hinds. So it's all a balancing act. You try to match your load to size of game you intend to shoot plus pick shot to best utilise whatever you have on hand to use. I believe one of the few moose ever shot in NZ was with Weebly revolver??? Guarantee that wasn't aimed into shoulder bones. Lungs or behind ear would be my pick. Yes our man is correct to ANCHOR on the spot you simply cannot beat shear horsepower to smash bone. That's why I like to break one or both shoulders with .270 ,if however I had loaded a 100-110 grn varmits projectile,past experience has shown me folly of shoulder aim,it would be behind ear,upper neck.or good broadside slip in behind foreleg or not at all.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Ta

Thanks for the concise real world explanation

Honest statement here. I cant ever recall needing 3 shots when my placement has been good. I have fired the odd second shot for insurance though.

Right,AGAIN. The hard and soft...stout and fragibles... At fast velocity/up close a projectile is under one hell of a lot of pressure. Eg with rounded figures for ease of maths. 1:12" twist at 3000fps = 3000 revaluations per second x60 seconds in a minute = 180,000rpm so the projectile it trying to rip itself apart.think swinging by ket of water etc. when projectiles touches something it will start to deform...IF balance of speed,twist rate and hardness are good.you get lovely picture book mushroom formed as projectiles opens up,expanding frontal area to make even more mess,but stays together enough to plough through bone etc. BUT there are variables to consider. Some folks use soft expandy,explody projectiles to great effect.USUALLY they get poked into softer,more vulnerable bits,head/neck or slipped into lungs BEHIND shoulder bones. In theory up close these super soft projectiles can fail to penetrate if hit big bones.in theory. Sometimes they do,sometimes they don't. Shooting out long or at slow speed you NEED soft n expandy to get any worthwhile expansion as the previously mentioned forces trying to rip pill apart are less. Projectiles manufacturers are stuck between a rock nhard place. Too soft and will explode at high velocity,too hard and acts like a fmj and pencils through unless hits big solid resistance/bone. Back when most folks used 303brit n fmj ammo smacking animal through shoulder bones was far n away the best shot to put animal down fast,broken one means going nowhere and bits of ragged stuff into lungs as well as projectiles whistling through.

Me also, apart from the odd couple of air swings and perhaps a finisher on occasion.


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You .270 guys are amazing.

Same reply as when shooting my 6.5s, 7s and .30s. No bias here.


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I'm pretty sure the animal biology of deer hasn't changed much from the invention of the 303, 308, 270, so on and so on, that have taken many deer and continue to do so. Use whatever works for you. I'll leave it at that.

Rumour has all 270s sold and ammo running out the door.
Come on guys the best comment I saw year ago was would you go to the top of the hill bend over and tell them to let strip.
It will do the job like a myriad of of other calibres will do.

I'm hunting muzzle loader season in the states right now. A few days back I put a 50 cal projectile through the chest of a white tail buck at 9 meters. It broke the inside shoulder. Ripped through the center of the lungs and ended up under the skin on the far side. It took us an hour to track that deer and find it. It had gone 120 meters.
It would not have done so, from my experience, with a modern center fire. Mt host said the performance was the norm.
There are two factors you need. Bullet weight suitable to the animal you are hunting and velocity. At one extreme the muzzle loader has weight. But not velocity.
There is a pretty good bracket of calibers that offer the right combination of VxW. The bigger the animal and it's just wise to move up the W while retaining the V.
In open country you might be able to afford less W if you can see where the animal will fall.
The 270 offers good velocity at the upper end. And reasonable weights. If I were hunting elk or sambar all the time though I would use a 7mag or 300 mag. It just makes sense. Yes the 243 might and has killed Elk. But it will run further and you have more chance of not finding it.
I'm very careful. 2 days ago I passed up a very big buck at 50 yards because he only offered risky shot options. That's because I recognize the limitations of whatever weapon I use. And work within them.
I wish there was more recognition of that, rather than pushing of boundaries.

My T3 just back from DPT, will be interesting to see if I will lose much velocity with the 21 inch barrel and if I get an improvement in accuracy, although it was fine before the chop. 145 gr ELDX over 57 grs Superformance, previous velocity 3050 fps max load so approach with caution.
Will try it out tomorrow hopefully.

I don't expect you'll lose much. I was getting 2920 fps with 145gr ELDX and 57grs of Superformance from my 19 inch T3.

Originally Posted by rimubay

I don't expect you'll lose much. I was getting 2920 fps with 145gr ELDX and 57grs of Superformance from my 19 inch T3.

You are getting good speed for that length barrel, my mates son down your way only got about 2860 fps from memory with that same load. Currently he is using same weight of powder but RL 19 for 2872 fps. Some barrels are slower than others.