Favorite 270 Winchester rifle, ammo?

[someguy2800]

I don't own a 270 anymore and honestly I am not really a fan of the cartridge, but one that I wouldn't mind getting a chance to own is my brother in law's Ruger M77. I glass bedded it for him and did a trigger job on it and it is a fine shooter after doing that.



Him and his dad have both shot this factory federal 150 gr round nose load for many years and asked me if I could duplicate it. Federal does not sell the component bullets but I was incredibly lucky to find them as demilled bullets with minor pull marks from American Reloading so I bought 1000 of them, which should keep them well supplied for their lifetimes of shooting deer. I load it for them with IMR 4350 to 2800 fps and it is a very soft shooting load with very little muzzle blast.

 

[mshootnit]

It's about max. I use 62.4 of H4831SC using a 10" drop tube with Nosler 130ABs and it's barely compressed. I actually had my 24" M48 at just over 3200 without pressure signs. but backed it down to 3170 due to it being slightly more accurate.

The saddest aspect of the .270 win is how badly the factory loads have neutered it. A 130 starting at 3150+ is a pretty flat shooting round.

How

I don't own a 270 anymore and honestly I am not really a fan of the cartridge, but one that I wouldn't mind getting a chance to own is my brother in law's Ruger M77. I glass bedded it for him and did a trigger job on it and it is a fine shooter after doing that.

View attachment 1122107

Him and his dad have both shot this factory federal 150 gr round nose load for many years and asked me if I could duplicate it. Federal does not sell the component bullets but I was incredibly lucky to find them as demilled bullets with minor pull marks from American Reloading so I bought 1000 of them, which should keep them well supplied for their lifetimes of shooting deer. I load it for them with IMR 4350 to 2800 fps and it is a very soft shooting load with very little muzzle blast.

View attachment 1122108

That would really work!

 

[J-Bar]

I have only owned one .270 Winchester, my Ruger #1, topped with a Leupold 1-4 Variax II, photos of which have been posted before, but what the hey…



Several years ago I scored 3 boxes of Remington Core-Lokt 130 grain cartridges on sale at a gun store. 60 rounds. Most years I shoot one round to confirm sight setting (never changes; 2” high at 100 yards) and one round at a deer. They fall over, I clean the rifle and wait a year to shoot it again. I don’t play with this rifle. It gives me one deer annually. Additional deer are taken with a muzzleloader. I have enough ammo to hunt deer for the rest of my hunting career. I play with other guns, not this one.

 

[.45Coltguy]

My Ruger No.1B in 30-06 doesn't get it's loads played with either.. Absolutely no need.

 

[sage5907]

She ain’t purty, but she’s a killer!

130gr Speer HotCore over 64.0gr of MagPro. Chrono’s 3,100fps.

In my early years of hunting I took many deer with a Speer 130 grain HotCor loaded with 56 grains of IMR 4831. It's a great hunting bullet and never failed in any respect. Today I have replaced it with the 130 grain Nosler Partition. The Partition costs twice as much, is far less accurate, and I have always wondered if it penetrates any better than the Speer. So much for progress. Attached are pictures of two deer taken with the 130 grain Speer HotCor in 2000 and 2001.

 

[mshootnit]

Wondering if anyone else here has had good experience with the Federal Fusion 130 gr. ?
My gun seems to like it.

 

[mshootnit]

I have only owned one .270 Winchester, my Ruger #1, topped with a Leupold 1-4 Variax II, photos of which have been posted before, but what the hey…

View attachment 1122209

Several years ago I scored 3 boxes of Remington Core-Lokt 130 grain cartridges on sale at a gun store. 60 rounds. Most years I shoot one round to confirm sight setting (never changes; 2” high at 100 yards) and one round at a deer. They fall over, I clean the rifle and wait a year to shoot it again. I don’t play with this rifle. It gives me one deer annually. Additional deer are taken with a muzzleloader. I have enough ammo to hunt deer for the rest of my hunting career. I play with other guns, not this one.

Thats a sweet rifle!

 

[mshootnit]

I've had a few but the two I've had the longest are both Winchester M70's. One is a pre 64 that was gifted to me when I was a kid about 14. I hunted with it a lot but never really killed anything with it, as i was not a good hunter then. It shoots great with Cup and core 130gr bullets and 58-60 grs of H4831. The other is one of my main go to rifles. It's a semi custom built on an M70 Classic, with a fluted Rock Creek barrel (I bought it that way in the early 2000's). It also likes about any 130gr bullet over H4831. I have also loaded 110gr TTSX (have yet to kill anything with that combo) and for awhile I loaded 140gr Hornady BTSP.

I made my longest shot on a game animal with that combo - somewhat over 500 yards ( I don't remember exactly, I have it written down somewhere), prone over my backpack, on a nice Mule deer buck here in Idaho. The bullet hit behind the front shoulder (animal was quartering towards me) and went through the heart and liver. It killed it pretty much right there (he rolled down the hill into some sage brush) but the bullet had come apart more then I like, so I don't use it anymore. If I can find a photo, I will post it up.

Rock creek still in business?

 

[tominboise]

Rock creek still in business?

They still have an active website, so I believe so. https://www.rockcreekbarrels.com/

It says they aren't taking any orders now due to current workload, so they must be doing OK.

 

[Captcurt]

I have owned 3 rifles chambered for 270 Win, but my favorite was a Ruger 77. The load that was used the most was 130gr Speer over IMR-4350. It accounted for 22 whitetails, 2 mulies, 2 pronghorns, a bobcat and a turkey. I don't own a 270 now but it could suffice for 95% of my hunting.

 

[KsSkaEnthusiast]

Ive got my sauer 100 in 270 and those fusion 130s really do the job

 

[mshootnit]

What features about the Saur 100 270 do you like?

 

[Rubone]

My Remington 700 Classic .270 with period Pentax MC 2-7.

 

[JDeere]

130 gr Nosler Hunting BTs. Velocity I never worried about. It's those cloverleafs on paper that make me happy. This then translated to excellent, well placed shots in the field. Of course now days she only makes it to the range on occasion. The 7-08 is all I need for whitetail these days.

 

[Offfhand]

The .270 Win. is something of a paradox in that it is almost always described as an "accurate" cartridge but also seems to have escaped (or avoided) any meaningfull examination or actual accuracy comarisons with other calibers. I myself was a longtime .270 fan with which took my first elk. (post # 8 ) but have also been a rather serious target shooter and wondered how .270 chambered target rifles never appeared in copetition and seldom discussed in traget shooting circles. Despite the fact that Winchester once offered their M-70 target rifle in .270 caliber ans Sierra even offered superb .270 MatchKing bullets. Plus the also mysterious fact that its .277" diameter neatly fit between 6.5 (.264") and 7mm (.284") rifles for both of which were widely successful on target ranges. And would not, given its velocity, be a long range competitor to reckon with?
So I set out to do some .270 accuracy testing, seeing as how I already had an original M-70 target rifle as a test vehicle. I began by accumulating all the .270 factory ammo I could find and also a wide selection of .270 bullets for reloading. Plus 500 new Winchester cases, so that all handloads would be fired in new, factory dimension brass, with loads selected from known and proven componets. Group testing at 100 yds was four 5-shot groups each for all factory ammo and every handload combination. Initial testing resulted in surprisingly poor accuracy, which I quickly traced to the M-70 target rifle itself. Clearly, a better rifle was needed if my amateur test program was to reveil any unknown secrets, so I had a heavy Douglas fitted to a M-700 Remington action, fitted with a SH target stock with full length alumnium spine. A combination that has produced consistent Sub-MOA accuracy in other calibers. Of course there was a lot of shooting and barrel cleaning involved in the test, with took place over a number of days. The attached pics show shooting the M-70 target rifle, which proved unfit for accuracy testing, a sample of the ammo, bullets and loaded brass before testing, and the Sierra 135gr MatchKing bullets that delivered beautiful groups.

 

[Picher]

I've "improved" my Rem 700s by free-floating barrels and mostly, pillar-bedding actions. They shoot mostly one-hole groups, especially when not loading especially hot, like for hunting rounds, especially the one used to kill a nice bull
moose, at over 260 yards. Why do we insist on better-than 1 MOA groups for hunting when our quarry's kill zone is over 12" diameter? Because we can, and load them to.

 

[I6turbo]

The .270 Win. is something of a paradox in that it is almost always described as an "accurate" cartridge but also seems to have escaped (or avoided) any meaningfull examination or actual accuracy comarisons with other calibers. I myself was a longtime .270 fan with which took my first elk. (pic # ) but have also been a rather serious target shooter and wondered how .270 chambered target rifles never appeared in copetition and seldom discussed in traget shooting circles. Despite the fact that Winchester once offered their M-70 target rifle in .270 caliber ans Sierra even offered superb .270 MatchKing bullets. Plus the also mysterious fact that its .277" diameter neatly fit between 6.5 (.264") and 7mm (.284") rifles for both of which were wudely successful on target ranges. And would not, given its velocity, be a long range competitor to reckon with?
So I set out to do some .270 accuracy testing, seeing as how I already had an original M-70 target rifle as a test vehicle. I began by accumulating all the .270 factory ammo I could find and also a wide selection of .270 bullets for reloading. Plus 500 new Winchester cases, so that all handloads would be fired in new, factory dimension brass, with loads selected from known and proven componets. Group testing at 100 yds to be four 5-shot groups for factory ammo and handloads. Initial testing resulted in surprisingly poor accuracy, which I quickly traced to the M-70 target rifle itself. Clearly, a better rifle was needed if my amateur test program was to reveil any unknown secrets, so I had a heavy Douglas fitted to a M-700 Remington action, fitted with a SH target stock with full length alumnium spine. A combination that has produced consistent Sub-MOA accuracy in other calibers. Of course there was a lot of shooting and barrel cleaning involved in the test, with took place over a nu mber of days. The attached pics show shooting the M-70 target rifle, which proved unfit for accuracy testing, a sample of the ammo, bullets and loaded brass before testing, and the Sierra .270 MatchKing bullets that produced beautiful groups.

This is interesting. I'm hoping you plan to follow this initial post with some more details on your testing and findings. The .270 seems to me to be a very good cartridge, and I have a hard time accepting the currently-popular claims and opinions of how much vastly superior this or that new-comer cartridge is. I'd like to hear more about what you were able to achieve, especially given that you have some fine rifles and a lot of experience to allow you to make comparisons and reach real-world conclusions.

 

[GooseGestapo]

The .270 Win. is something of a paradox in that it is almost always described as an "accurate" cartridge but also seems to have escaped (or avoided) any meaningfull examination or actual accuracy comarisons with other calibers. I myself was a longtime .270 fan with which took my first elk. (pic # ) but have also been a rather serious target shooter and wondered how .270 chambered target rifles never appeared in copetition and seldom discussed in traget shooting circles. Despite the fact that Winchester once offered their M-70 target rifle in .270 caliber ans Sierra even offered superb .270 MatchKing bullets. Plus the also mysterious fact that its .277" diameter neatly fit between 6.5 (.264") and 7mm (.284") rifles for both of which were wudely successful on target ranges. And would not, given its velocity, be a long range competitor to reckon with?
So I set out to do some .270 accuracy testing, seeing as how I already had an original M-70 target rifle as a test vehicle. I began by accumulating all the .270 factory ammo I could find and also a wide selection of .270 bullets for reloading. Plus 500 new Winchester cases, so that all handloads would be fired in new, factory dimension brass, with loads selected from known and proven componets. Group testing at 100 yds to be four 5-shot groups for factory ammo and handloads. Initial testing resulted in surprisingly poor accuracy, which I quickly traced to the M-70 target rifle itself. Clearly, a better rifle was needed if my amateur test program was to reveil any unknown secrets, so I had a heavy Douglas fitted to a M-700 Remington action, fitted with a SH target stock with full length alumnium spine. A combination that has produced consistent Sub-MOA accuracy in other calibers. Of course there was a lot of shooting and barrel cleaning involved in the test, with took place over a nu mber of days. The attached pics show shooting the M-70 target rifle, which proved unfit for accuracy testing, a sample of the ammo, bullets and loaded brass before testing, and the Sierra .270 MatchKing bullets that produced beautiful groups.View attachment 1124359 View attachment 1124360 View attachment 1124361

What loads and bullets?
In 1976, a buddy of mine was looking to but a Ruger M77 in .270. They were hen’s teeth! I spotted one in a LGS in Opelika, Al . I told him about it and he came down, spent the night and we were at the shop when it opened. He negotiated a fair price ($275 iirc) and off to the range we headed! He had loaded some 130gr Hornady Spt’s (before the Inter Lock) over IMR4350 I Winchester cases. We shot all but three rounds.
After first two shots, we adjusted the rear irons (no scope yet!) and he fired 3-shots. Two touching, one 1/2” away! We were incredulous! I shot three... two touching, third almost, less than 1/4” away. He shot three more, still less than 1” spread!
Last Contact I had, he still had rifle and had killed numerous deer with it. He never changed the load!
IIrc, It was Layne Simpson (but could have been Rick Jameson) that was curious why the .270win hand never been a popular target cartridge. He built a 40lb Bench rest rifle with a 1-1/4” bull barrel. Iirc. He tested numerous combinations and concluded that many of the .277” bullets were not “match” accurate in the first place. Secondly, the 1/10” barrel twist wasn’t suitable for heavier than 150gr Pointed boat tail bullets.

Supposedly, the new 6.8x51 milspec uses a 1/7” twist, so, we shall see if that gets carried over to the .270win...

 

[Picher]

This is interesting. I'm hoping you plan to follow this initial post with some more details on your testing and findings. The .270 seems to me to be a very good cartridge, and I have a hard time accepting the currently-popular claims and opinions of how much vastly superior this or that new-comer cartridge is. I'd like to hear more about what you were able to achieve, especially given that you have some fine rifles and a lot of experience to allow you to make comparisons and reach real-world conclusions.

The .270 diameter cartridge is a good hunting round, but the capacity and case length don't lend themselves to the most uniform burning configuration. The .308 is better designed for accuracy and can show it's value in competitive events, even Benchrest events.

Still, I can't complain about the accuracy of my two .270 Win Stainless Rem 700s as evidenced in the attached sighting-in target. (I don't shoot my Stainless at targets very often, just to check/adjust zero with new handloads or to sight in at different ranges or with new loads.

 

[I6turbo]

The .270 diameter cartridge is a good hunting round, but the capacity and case length don't lend themselves to the most uniform burning configuration. The .308 is better designed for accuracy and can show it's value in competitive events, even Benchrest events.

I've seen that and other "explanations" in support of the ".270 is a good hunting round but not a target round" claim. I just haven't been convinced, and suspect that most of the "problem" is with mediocre factory ammo. I further suspect that with the wide selection of modern, high-quality .277 bullets, it's probably just not true. There are a lot more .277s available these days than just the old soft-nose hunting rounds.

 

[Poper]

My dad's Parker-Hale in .270 Win. now resides with my brother. It has accounted for many, many deer over the years. The old Winchester 130 gr. Silvertips were excellent back in the day. I recently ran across 2 new-old stock 20-round boxes of them and passed them on to my brother.

My .270 is a Tikka T3 Lite with the trigger set to 2 lbs. and is equipped with a 6.5-20x50 Vortex scope in Millet rings. It will shoot less than 1" at 200m and is my dedicated High Power Rifle Silhouette rifle. Shot my deer using it this year, though I usually use my Tikka T3 Hunter in .30-06 during hunting season.

 

[Picher]

View attachment 1124558

The .270 diameter cartridge is a good hunting round, but the capacity and case length don't lend themselves to the most uniform burning configuration. The .308 is better designed for accuracy and can show it's value in competitive events, even Benchrest events.

Still, I can't complain about the accuracy of my two .270 Win Stainless Rem 700s as evidenced in the attached sighting-in target. (I don't shoot my Stainless at targets very often, just to check/adjust zero with new handloads or to sight in at different ranges or with new loads.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't intend to do more testing or reporting. It's winter in Maine and I don't like to shoot outdoors when it's cold. Most days, it's below freezing and my rifles and I prefer to sit here in my little computer/gun room and play on the computer or watch sports on TV.

 

[DustyGmt]

Whats your favorite 270 Winchester rifle/ scope and ammo? Feel free to share pics or hunting stories. I've got two right now. One is a Ruger Hawkeye, the other is a Tikka stainless laminate, with a custom pad and LOP. I added the High Desert Rifle works bottom metal. Finally settled on the Leupold PRW system for scope mounting and it is sweet! About the only improvement now would be bedding.

For ammo, the best load I have found is the Federal Fusion 130 gr. ammo in the orange box. It groups really well and hits pretty hard.

I've been looking for those .270 130gr Fusions. The Fusions group well in my 7-08. So far the best groups I get from factory ammo in my .270 is Hornady 130gr Interlock. Sub moa all day.

My favorite .270 win is my only .270 win. It's a Browning A-Bolt II from the 90's. It was my dad's, then my uncles and now mine. It's a shooter for sure and a good balanced rifle. Smooth action, smooth trigger, accurate. Put a Luepold 3-9×50 VX-Frdm on it and am happy with it.

 

[Offfhand]

I've seen that and other "explanations" in support of the ".270 is a good hunting round but not a target round" claim. I just haven't been convinced, and suspect that most of the "problem" is with mediocre factory ammo. I further suspect that with the wide selection of modern, high-quality .277 bullets, it's probably just not true. There are a lot more .277s available these days than just the old soft-nose hunting rounds.

I share Mr. Turbo's reservations about claims that the "The .270 diameter cartridge is a good hunting round, but the capacity and case length don't lend themselves to the most uniform burning configuration." Such observaions may originate with folks who are apparently unaware that the .270 case body length, configuration and capacity are the same as the .30/06, .25/06, 7mm/06 (AKA .280 Rem.) a number of foreign cartridges and a bunch of well-known wildcats based on the .270-.30/06 case, none of which seem to have suffered from non-uniform burning configurations.
I also agree that a lot of the .270's accuracy "problem" is with factory ammo. During my series of tests some of the brand name, top dollar factory loads were appallingly inaccurate. So bad in fact that one has to wonder how they managed to make them so awful. But it's worth noting that some component bullets were also disappointing. But loaded with premium bullets like Sierra's 135gr MatchKing, the .270 can hold its own on any target range.

 

[DustyGmt]

Mention of the JC HIggins reminds me of one......also in 270......used to make one of the more bizarre shots I ever witnessed. I was about 10 at the time, so it made an impression on me. Neighbors were an old couple.....long term family friends and we farmed for them. Old boy Frank was 2nd husband and from California. His 270 with fixed 4X scope. Day in question, one of Frank's sons from Kali was there visiting, and when we pulled up, son was setting up an 8 foot wooden step ladder in the driveway. Proceeded to pull out the rifle, layed it over a pillow, rolled up coat or some type of soft rest on top of stepladder, and pointed it south......across a federal highway at a pond about 200 yards across the road. Was aiming it at a muskrat swimming around in the pond. I'm only 10 and can't believe what I'm seeing. But after 30 seconds or so, gun goes off and muskrat meat flies about 10 feet in the air.

So standing several feet off the ground, on a rickety stepladder, shooting across a busy 2 lane federal highway, at a very small target moving thru water at least 200 yards away. And hit it.

My dad later used that gun to kill his first deer. When the old boy passed away shortly after that, his kids came for his stuff, including that rifle. Dad then went on a quest and found it's replacement.......a Rem 700......also in 270.

This group was shot with the replacement Rem 270 what is still going strong. That was 55 grains IMR 4350 under 130 grain Interlocks zipping along at around 3150 fps.

View attachment 1121214

I get nice groups like that with the 130 Interlock but it's Hornady factory ammo. I haven't used them on game but the Hornady American Whitetail line of factory ammo has given me pretty excellent accuracy out of my rifles and it's usually the cheapest thing on the shelf.

I have some 25 year old Federal 150gr Sierra GK "High Energy" and I shot 2 and they were pretty harsh recoil even for a .270. What is the High Energy label all about. I noticed some old Federal premium boxes with Bear Claws, Partitions, SGK's and Speer I believe. Some of them said High Energy and some didn't. Were they just loaded hotter?