.270 whitetail bullet shopping again, for the last time.

I guess I also don't understand exactly what kind of performance you're looking for.

If you like the Nosler PT, but it didn't shoot, I'd go to the Hornady Interlock. Lots of folks call it a poor mans partition. It also has a reputation for accuracy.

I don't think there's any risk in a standard IL for WT deer specifically. You're not looking to push this load on moose.

I am running factory Winchester silvertip when 50 grain in my 270 With half inch groups it knocks down every animal that I have shot no problem Good luck be safe keep it in the 10 ring

If deer the target then GK, Pro Hunter, NBT, Hor SP or Speer SP. Pick which one and the weight your rifle likes.

If you re stepping up to larger animals like Elk, Moose, etc then I d go with a bonded bullet, partition or one of the above cup and core bullets with a heavy for caliber weight. 270 has slayed critters for years with standard bullets. Unlike many other calibers the .277 diameter bullets have always been designed around the 270 Win or 270 Weatherby and their velocity ranges.

Mike Hennig said:

Ok, so many years ago when I first started handloading I started off with the Nosler ballistic tip. I shot my nice buck with it perfectly broadside at 110 yards and the bullet completely exploded, it literally just made it to the vitals and that's it, the BT in my book was a varmint round, never shot another one since. I am told they made some changes to them but with all the nice bullets out there I won't give them another chance. Next up, for many years I shot the Nosler Partition. I loved the killing of that round, however I never could get it to shoot accurately out of my rifle, somewhere around 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards no matter what I tried. Next up, Speer Grand Slam. Shot many deer with great success, better accuracy, however I'm not of fan of the soft blunt lead nose that gets damaged and my hunting spots have changed over the years and I am reaching out to longer distances. Next up, the Barnes triple shock, unbelievable accuracy, honest 1 inch groups at 200 yards off a bench. Shot around 4 nice bucks with them, lost one. I will no longer shoot a solid copper. The picture perfect mushrooms in gel are all cute and all, but they don't kill deer the way the others do, some will argue but that's just the facts. I have hit deer perfectly with the Barnes and got little to no blood, deer have run off almost like they were not even hit, only to see them tip over 50-100 yards later. So, no more Barnes, and here I am now, looking again. I have thoughts on trying these options. Federal Trophy bonded tip, Hornady INTERBOND, not interlock, Nosler Accubond, and maybe even the Swift Scirocco 2. Again, this would be in the .270 Winchester round, in WI deer at ranges of 0-450 yards. I only want to do this one last time, enlighten me, give me advice, give me horror stories, tell me what to do..

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If you can find a stash of the old silvertips in 130 or 150 gr. you have good point protection. I've still got a couple boxes my grandpa gave me 30 years ago. They shoot accurate enough that I've taken two big white tails at 450 and 485 yds. They are 130gr

My whitetail round is a federal fusion 130 gr out of a 270 Win. I buy loaded cartridges, but you can buy the bullet by itsself if I remember correctly. Superbly accurate, low SD, cheaper than premium bullets, and the bullet is the right compromise of strength to stay together and expansion to cause a great blood trail, in my experience. I've shot one buck with them and the blood trail was impressive after a lung shot. He went about 20 yards and fell over. My cousin uses them too and averages about 4 deer a year with essentially the same results everytime. He's why I tried them.

If not hunting with a Fusion, Nosler Accubond would be second choice. It'll be my first choice for elk if I'm ever lucky enough. For whitetail I dont see any reason you need the accubond and they are more expensive than the Fusion.

130gr CT silver tip ballistic

I've got a 1951 Model 721 .270 Win that loves the Nosler 140 BT, and that bullet has performed well on thin skinned game such as deer and antelope. I agree that there was some questionable performance with the NBTs in the earlier generation, but not recently. I have zero concerns on the terminal performance of the NBT.

Bob Wright said:

Look at Hammer bullets then. You can do a search in LRH on people that have real animal kills, with reports of their experience. I just started working up a load in a 280AI and cannot give you real world experience just yet.
Steve at Hammer Bullets will be glad to help you. He is a member on this site.

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Please keep me posted on the progress your 280 AI loads. Thanks

Mike Hennig said:

Ok, so many years ago when I first started handloading I started off with the Nosler ballistic tip. I shot my nice buck with it perfectly broadside at 110 yards and the bullet completely exploded, it literally just made it to the vitals and that's it, the BT in my book was a varmint round, never shot another one since. I am told they made some changes to them but with all the nice bullets out there I won't give them another chance. Next up, for many years I shot the Nosler Partition. I loved the killing of that round, however I never could get it to shoot accurately out of my rifle, somewhere around 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards no matter what I tried. Next up, Speer Grand Slam. Shot many deer with great success, better accuracy, however I'm not of fan of the soft blunt lead nose that gets damaged and my hunting spots have changed over the years and I am reaching out to longer distances. Next up, the Barnes triple shock, unbelievable accuracy, honest 1 inch groups at 200 yards off a bench. Shot around 4 nice bucks with them, lost one. I will no longer shoot a solid copper. The picture perfect mushrooms in gel are all cute and all, but they don't kill deer the way the others do, some will argue but that's just the facts. I have hit deer perfectly with the Barnes and got little to no blood, deer have run off almost like they were not even hit, only to see them tip over 50-100 yards later. So, no more Barnes, and here I am now, looking again. I have thoughts on trying these options. Federal Trophy bonded tip, Hornady INTERBOND, not interlock, Nosler Accubond, and maybe even the Swift Scirocco 2. Again, this would be in the .270 Winchester round, in WI deer at ranges of 0-450 yards. I only want to do this one last time, enlighten me, give me advice, give me horror stories, tell me what to do..

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Accubonds all day long!!

Mike Hennig said:

Ok, so many years ago when I first started handloading I started off with the Nosler ballistic tip. I shot my nice buck with it perfectly broadside at 110 yards and the bullet completely exploded, it literally just made it to the vitals and that's it, the BT in my book was a varmint round, never shot another one since. I am told they made some changes to them but with all the nice bullets out there I won't give them another chance. Next up, for many years I shot the Nosler Partition. I loved the killing of that round, however I never could get it to shoot accurately out of my rifle, somewhere around 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards no matter what I tried. Next up, Speer Grand Slam. Shot many deer with great success, better accuracy, however I'm not of fan of the soft blunt lead nose that gets damaged and my hunting spots have changed over the years and I am reaching out to longer distances. Next up, the Barnes triple shock, unbelievable accuracy, honest 1 inch groups at 200 yards off a bench. Shot around 4 nice bucks with them, lost one. I will no longer shoot a solid copper. The picture perfect mushrooms in gel are all cute and all, but they don't kill deer the way the others do, some will argue but that's just the facts. I have hit deer perfectly with the Barnes and got little to no blood, deer have run off almost like they were not even hit, only to see them tip over 50-100 yards later. So, no more Barnes, and here I am now, looking again. I have thoughts on trying these options. Federal Trophy bonded tip, Hornady INTERBOND, not interlock, Nosler Accubond, and maybe even the Swift Scirocco 2. Again, this would be in the .270 Winchester round, in WI deer at ranges of 0-450 yards. I only want to do this one last time, enlighten me, give me advice, give me horror stories, tell me what to do..

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The partition has been my go to hunting bullet for years. Excellent performance but like you I never could achieve the accuracy I was happy with. I had to keep my loads just above where you would typically start in order to achieve mediocre accuracy. And I have not met too many people who don't want high velocity, great accuracy, and outstanding performance. I was mostly loading .280 Remington out of Browning A bolt that was cleaned up by my gun smith. Let me know when you find the combo we are looking for. Thanks

Mike Hennig said:

Ok, so many years ago when I first started handloading I started off with the Nosler ballistic tip. I shot my nice buck with it perfectly broadside at 110 yards and the bullet completely exploded, it literally just made it to the vitals and that's it, the BT in my book was a varmint round, never shot another one since. I am told they made some changes to them but with all the nice bullets out there I won't give them another chance. Next up, for many years I shot the Nosler Partition. I loved the killing of that round, however I never could get it to shoot accurately out of my rifle, somewhere around 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards no matter what I tried. Next up, Speer Grand Slam. Shot many deer with great success, better accuracy, however I'm not of fan of the soft blunt lead nose that gets damaged and my hunting spots have changed over the years and I am reaching out to longer distances. Next up, the Barnes triple shock, unbelievable accuracy, honest 1 inch groups at 200 yards off a bench. Shot around 4 nice bucks with them, lost one. I will no longer shoot a solid copper. The picture perfect mushrooms in gel are all cute and all, but they don't kill deer the way the others do, some will argue but that's just the facts. I have hit deer perfectly with the Barnes and got little to no blood, deer have run off almost like they were not even hit, only to see them tip over 50-100 yards later. So, no more Barnes, and here I am now, looking again. I have thoughts on trying these options. Federal Trophy bonded tip, Hornady INTERBOND, not interlock, Nosler Accubond, and maybe even the Swift Scirocco 2. Again, this would be in the .270 Winchester round, in WI deer at ranges of 0-450 yards. I only want to do this one last time, enlighten me, give me advice, give me horror stories, tell me what to do..

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I don't think this is a bullet type issue - it looks more like a shot placement issue to me. Having shot a bunch of deer over the decades, and of the ones that went down right away as opposed to running a short distance before expiring, there was one common thread ....... it was broken bones.

When I was growing up in western PA, the deer there were very nervous and high-strung - mostly due to the fact that they were harassed by a million hunters. They were on red alert all the time, and the standard behind the shoulder shot quite often didn't knock them down. They would run for several seconds before dropping, and this would be anywhere from 50 yards to 150 yards away. This was after a soft-point bullet had trashed the lungs. If the heart was hit, they sometimes ran a shorter distance than with a pure lung shot, but when one or both shoulders were broken, they typically dropped right there and didn't get up. I've seen this dozens of times, and my observations have been very consistent. Most of the animals were shot with the 308, although some were shot with other cartridges - some larger; some smaller. On rib cage shots, deer standing still often dropped at the shot, but running deer rarely went down with that shot placement. They kept right on going to die after a short run. The cartridge and bullet didn't seem to make any difference in how far they went.

I've also shot a bunch of large-bodied whitetails in northwestern Minnesota, all with a 12-gauge slug gun. The 1-1/4 ounce slugs do a good job, but even on deer that aren't all hyped up on adrenaline, the rib cag shots didn't knock them down reliably. I think they dropped more often than the Pennsylvania deer did, but often they would behave just like deer do when hit with an arrow. The results were far different when a shoulder was hit. We also hunted private land, and didn't want the deer to run onto a neighboring property after the shot. So, we made sure that we broke a shoulder with our shot, either on the way in or on the way out. Since these big slugs almost almost always came out the other side, this was pretty easy to accomplish. This messed up a lot of "grinding meat" but it beat losing the whole animal by far. We pretty quickly adopted the philosophy that if you want more bambi-burgers, just shoot more deer. That's what all those doe tags are for.

Mike Hennig said:

Ok, so many years ago when I first started handloading I started off with the Nosler ballistic tip. I shot my nice buck with it perfectly broadside at 110 yards and the bullet completely exploded, it literally just made it to the vitals and that's it, the BT in my book was a varmint round, never shot another one since. I am told they made some changes to them but with all the nice bullets out there I won't give them another chance. Next up, for many years I shot the Nosler Partition. I loved the killing of that round, however I never could get it to shoot accurately out of my rifle, somewhere around 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards no matter what I tried. Next up, Speer Grand Slam. Shot many deer with great success, better accuracy, however I'm not of fan of the soft blunt lead nose that gets damaged and my hunting spots have changed over the years and I am reaching out to longer distances. Next up, the Barnes triple shock, unbelievable accuracy, honest 1 inch groups at 200 yards off a bench. Shot around 4 nice bucks with them, lost one. I will no longer shoot a solid copper. The picture perfect mushrooms in gel are all cute and all, but they don't kill deer the way the others do, some will argue but that's just the facts. I have hit deer perfectly with the Barnes and got little to no blood, deer have run off almost like they were not even hit, only to see them tip over 50-100 yards later. So, no more Barnes, and here I am now, looking again. I have thoughts on trying these options. Federal Trophy bonded tip, Hornady INTERBOND, not interlock, Nosler Accubond, and maybe even the Swift Scirocco 2. Again, this would be in the .270 Winchester round, in WI deer at ranges of 0-450 yards. I only want to do this one last time, enlighten me, give me advice, give me horror stories, tell me what to do..

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If you haven't tried ballistic tips recently, they are much tougher than the originals. I use 130s with H4831sc in my 270s for elk. They have performed great. The guide I hunt with (who has 40 years experience) recommends ballistic tips for deer and elk. He carries a 270 with 130gr ballistic tips. He and the guides that work for him discourage the use of solid copper or bonded bullets. They complain about all the long, difficult tracking adventures they've experienced with deer and elk wounded with no blood trail because the bullet pencilled through rather than dumping energy inside the animal.

The first time I hunted with him, he had recommended ballistic tips when I booked the hunt. But at that time Barnes tsx were getting a lot of press and there were claims that "even a 270 could kill an elk with tsx." So I bought some, spent time at the range the brought them to the hunt. The guide said "you really don't want to use those" and handed me two boxes of ballistic tips. Using his range, I sighted in and practiced at various ranges. I asked in what situation he would consider a Barnes ttsx. He said maybe a quartering away shot on an elk with a 243.

Backcountry sports said:

Remington 130 grain core loc always puts them down or nosler partition

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I know most of you like 130 grain I the 270, good load, but I only shoot 150 gr on deer or elk, more killing energe at 300 to 500. But now that I am 80 I try too stay 200 or less. Been using Nosler bt bt for about 30 years now. Only deviate to partions for elk.

I love the 270, used the plain old Win and WSM with Interbonds, Partitions, Ballistic Tips, Trophy Bonded Tipped and probably some others.

I used the 130 Tipped Bear Claws last fall from my 270 with with a 3150 start speed. Took a decent sized Northern NY deer at about 140-150 yards. Hammered him pretty good but I was surprised that bullet didn't make it all the way through, pretty sure it was in the hide on the far side but my pops skinned it and probably lost the bullet during skinning.

All of the ones mentioned have worked amazing on both deer and elk. Nothing has made it over 50 yards and all have been heart/lung shots from ranges to point blank out to 325.

I would say the fast expanding Partition, Accubond or Tipped Bear Claw really give you a bunch of expansion and they all dig pretty deeply.

Here's a Tipped Bear Claw I ran into water filled jugs before I hunted it.









And here's the little buck that took and held one of them.





It amazes me sometimes as I've seen that same bullet whiz right on thru a cow elk using the same load. Weird stuff happens I guess.