.270 good enough?

[Tracer]

Snipper 77, I once thought the .270 could take anything in North America! Well, I was young back then and reading a few books on hunting, brought wants and dreams or doing the things that Mr. Jack O'Conner did with his fine .270 caliber rifle. I honestly doubt that there are very few hunters, who did what Jack did in the way of harvesting big game animals with a .270 Winchester.

However, I found out on my very first elk hunt decades ago, that there is much more to elk hunting, than aiming your rifle and firing at the intended animal. It is very important to select the proper bullet for the game animal one is trying to harvest. I used a 130 grain bullet at that time, poor choice really but I was told it would do the job hands down. I came to find out, NOT so in my case.

Today there are many very fine bullets to choose from and bullet weights of 160 grain can be found in the Nosler Partition bullets. This does wonders for penetration on big game like elk. However, it dose not turn the .270 Whinny into a .300 Win mag understand!

If you keep your yardage down to under 250 yards, you will be far more apt to succeed in harvesting your elk. Also do NOT shoot an elk, especially a mature bull on the shoulder with a .270 Winchester, as it will more than likely not penetrate as needed and you will end up losing the animal. I have been told by several guides in the past couple of decades, that more elk are lost to shoulder shots with smaller caliber rifles (cheap bullets too) than any other reason, other than just poor shooting.

[grit]

Poor shot placement aside, a 140 accubond started at 3050 fps will kill elk at several times 250 yards!

[silvertip-co]

Originally Posted by goodgrouper

Well, how 'bout this:





Pick the right bullet and put it where it counts!
I could just about put my fist through the exit hole and the shoulder was jell-o!

Oh yeah...(applause applause) the gg comes thru again. The 270 is what the shooter makes it and the fact that match bullets are generally not around for it means its a 'hunting' calibre. Even out to 700 yrds. Wow. Cool. Thanks.

[Chopaka81]

Originally Posted by Tracer

Use the Nosler 160gr PT & ...If you keep your yardage down to under 250 yards, you will be far more apt to succeed in harvesting your elk. Also do NOT shoot an elk, especially a mature bull on the shoulder with a .270 Winchester, as it will more than likely not penetrate as needed and you will end up losing the animal. I have been told by several guides in the past couple of decades, that more elk are lost to shoulder shots with smaller caliber rifles (cheap bullets too) than any other reason, other than just poor shooting.

I have to agree, I limit the use of my 270 Win for Elk hunting to dark timber hunting where my 27.5" bbl'd 300 Wby is getting hung up on the brush and braches. I have successfully harvested one nice bull with my 270 using the 160 Nosler SSPT bullet @ 2700 fps. It smashed thru the shoulder plates, severing the spinal cord and exiting with hole about the size of a silver dollar. Because of the spinal cord hit, it dropped like a sack of potatoes. The distance was 125 yds or so.

[7mmRHB]

Well, GG it looks like you have managed to get my picture on LRH while my computer was down !!!

The old 270 Win. still does the job at fairly long range!! Four days before I shot that little buck in the picture, my son used the same gun to take a buck at 712 yds !! He used the old high shoulder shot . The landing gear hit his belly and he dropped like he was struck by lightning. The 140 AB went through both shoulders and spine, with the off side hole about the size of a tennis ball !! I think an Elk would be in big trouble even at fairly long range with good placement !!! --- 7mmRHB

[joshua]

i have used the 270win to take 320 bull elk at 450 yards with one shoot.last year Using 130 grain hornady ib my bro and a frined using my rifle took two bucks at just over 300 yards and i took won at a 1000 yards all with one shoot and dropped like a rock. I shoot 135 smk at 3100 fps out of a 26 inch douglas with 59gr of h4831 for rock chocks at 700 yards

[NONYA]

320?WOw you must do some huntin...