.270 Win. Short-Medium Range on Whitetails

[Dutch Jennings]

This afternoon I had what I consider somewhat of a puzzling experience when I took a buck on the last of my three day Virginia hunt, downhill slope at about 50 yards. This was my first year using my .270 Win. and a Norma 130 grain soft point, mv=3050 per box data. It was a well placed heart/lung shot so I was surprised he ran about 70 yards before going down and was dead when I reached him. The entrance wound was small as you would expect and the exit wound was a little larger but not by much. So it looks like the bullet more or less penciled him, and it came out about six inches higher then where it went in which is also strange since the bullet path was downhill. I'm thinking that maybe I was inside the range at which a .270 soft point is going to expand due to it still traveling so fast, if that's possible. I do know it performed differently than I'm used to out of my 30 cal deer rifles. I'm interested in hearing other thoughts and experiences with the .270 at woodland ranges.

 

[Ol' Red]

I have shot two deer within 70 yards with a .270. Both dropped straight to the ground. I was using reloads with 150 grain Hornady interlocks. Both had very large exit wounds.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

Jill shot a few bucks and does out to about 100 with 270WSM 130 Accubonds. Kimber Montana Kevlar stock, real light. Great MT rifle. They dropped straight to the ground.

 

[Dutch Jennings]

I have shot two deer within 70 yards with a .270. Both dropped straight to the ground. I was using reloads with 150 grain Hornady interlocks. Both had very large exit wounds.

Exactly what I was expecting to see as well....so maybe a bullet failure? Don't know why else that would be but maybe I'll try some of the Hornady next time myself.

 

[Dutch Jennings]

Jill shot a few bucks and does out to about 100 with 130 Accubonds. Kimber Montana Kevlar stock, real light. Great MT rifle. They dropped straight to the ground.

Do you know what kind of exit wounds resulted? Just curious...

 

[Ol' Red]

Sometimes you can get a bad batch of bullets. I shot a pronghorn twice with a .30 Herret loaded with Hornady single shot pistol bullets, and they penciled straight through. That was at 70 yards and 85 yards. If I had not seen the blood and the bullet hit, I would have guessed a miss. I sent what was left of the box of bullets back to Hornady, at their request, and they replaced them. These rounds were coming out of a 10" barrel at about 2200 to 2300 FPS.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

Do you know what kind of exit wounds resulted? Just curious...

Went straight through both lungs and damage to the heart , lungs were mush and an exit hole the size of a small peach/plumb. These were all broadside slight quarter to us. Great Rifle and cartridge. Rifle is still lie new condition, no more than 40 through. Shot six deer and the other 32 32 shots were for load development and sighting in. Still need some break-in and load work between the 130 and 140gr. This is Jill's so that she can carry anywhere and not a problem taking game at out to 5-600yrds.