270 wsm for bear

[snipersam]

hi i am wondering wat u all think about a 270 wsm pushing a 150 gr hornady sst at 2870fps, will work for black bear. A bit slow for a 270 wsm more like 270 win volocitys but its a buddys gun and his load. the shot will be less than 50 yards over bait.

From wat i understand the sst is similar to a ballistic tip only its got the thicker ring 3/4 ways back on the jacket, so tat it will stop expanding at tat point and penetrate instead of blowing to nothing

[winmag]

Ive killed a few bears with my 270wsm, and a bunch more with lots of other cartriges. The closest was at 27 yards on a bear that will place in Oregon record book. I was very suprised when I didnt get a passthru. Im a firm beliver in bonded bullets while shooting at close range, tho Ive never hunted over bait. But I love the 140gr Accubond for my all round bullet in my 270wsm near or far. Hornady markets the SST as a ''premium'' hunting bullet, but IMO, theyre far better suitet for long range work because of how fragile they are. Just dont hit bone and youll be fine. Also dont speed them up if your gonna be shooting close range. They tend to disentigrate at high speed impacts. You should be fine with what youve got, but again dont hit bone. Tell your buddy we want pics!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bigngreen]

In my experience with the 140 SST's they blow up just like a Ballistic tip, they put a little control ring crimp in it but you blow right past that, though your going slow enough they may work. Can't beat the Accubond, and I really like the Berger if you can get them to shoot.

[snipersam]

tell ur buddy u want pictures? actually i will be doing the shooting using his gun cause i think its a better choice than my heavy barrel 243.

so winmag wat bullet did u use when u didnt get a passthru?

and wat exactly do the bergers act? i know from bergers website that there supposed to penetrate a few inches before they open but do ther penetrate or pass through at close range? a good sized exit hole would be nice in bush where u cant see 15 yards ahead of u

[mcseal2]

Bergers likely won't exit or leave much of a blood trail. They put a little pinhole entrance wound in for the first 2-3" and then expand rapidly for the next 12" or so. Bergers rarely give an exit wound unless you use a heavy bullet on light game, and don't leave much blood at all unless they exit. Bergers rely on massive internal damage to put the animal down in it's tracks or within a few feet so tracking isn't necessary. From my experience it works too, but I still prefer a bonded bullet and an exit wound, especially on a predator in heavy cover. I shoot the 140gr accubond in my 270WSM and like it.

I'd try your buddy's 150gr powder charge with a 150gr partition on it. If you load a few of those they should be plenty accurate at 50yds and you would have a much tougher bullet. At the speed he's shooting it isn't likely you would show pressure by switching bullets. For a $30 box of bullets you would have a bullet that would hold up to bone.

[moses42ak]

Though black bears aren't very heavily constructed animals, I would shy away from the SST's. In my opinion they are too lightly constructed for the distance you're talking about even at "270 Win" velocities. If you could get your friend to work up a load with another bullet, that would be great. But keep in mind, many a black bear have fallen to the 243 that you have. With a well put together, heavy for caliber bullet (100 grain) you should be fine if you choose to use it.

[snipersam]

ok time to be honest here i posted this question after i already shot the bear with the load mentioned. result was a very dead bear

bullet performance was ok although i would use something that would make a bigger exit hole next time around maybe 400 gr winchester platinum tip slugs from a rifled 12 ga tat should leave a 1 inch exit hole.

bullet hit square in the left shoulder at 30 yards it was all mushy, after going through just the hide and some fat there was a hole going in the chest i could stick 3 fingers in. u could feel the bone it was shattered. the bullet exited just in front of the right shoulder with a .270 size exit hole. what i think happened is when the expanding jacket hit the reinforcing ring in the jacket it sheared the petals off and just a .270 sized plug continued on. the bear was found after a few min of looking about 50 yards from the bait. it seems it ran in a half circle so it would have run farther than that. there was no blood for the first 15 yards or so. after that we werent looking for blood but i did see some walking up to the bear. there was very little blood on the fur on the exit side but quite a bit on the entrance, probably due to the huge hole just inside.


the bear hit the ground like a ton of bricks on the first shot i cycled the action put the cross hairs on his chest and figured no sense shooting him again he's done. at that point he got up turned around and left in a hurry. i shot twice more through the bush one nicked a hind leg. he was down just quivering after the first shot for no longer than 2 seconds. it was estimated to be 350 - 400 lbs alot of work getting it out of the bush.

i'm curious what size exit hole could one expect to see from a barnes tripple shock, nosler e tip or hornady gmx? my theory is to get a good sized exit hole for a good blood trail.