.270 Win Ammo Recomendation

cookimonster

Ok doing some more information gathering......

Can any one recommend a brand of .270 ammo -

Preferably 130 gr Soft Points for a 22 inch barrel with a 1:10 twist. This will be mainly for use on open hill deer - Sika, Hybrids and Reds.

I'm not mad about ballistic tips, but I have no experience with them and am open to argument, as am I to heavier bullet weight.


Thanks

Cookimonster

feartuath

RWS works fine with my Heym but was a bit expensive at 45 a box.

Cass

I've never owned a .270 so i won't try offer advice on bullet weight. However on this:

cookimonster wrote: »

I'm not mad about ballistic tips, but I have no experience with them and am open to argument, .....................

i would personally recommend ballistic tips over soft point.

I used soft point for years and had my fair share of runners. Not saying all my shots were perfect, but i had a few more than i thought i should have. Everytime is tracked the animal the bullet was never in them. Instead i had a fine hole for an entry point and a fist sized gaping hole on the other side. A couple of times i recovered the bullet in the ground behind the animal and i found a mushroom shaped lump.

I tried these rounds into a sand bank and the results were the same. No fragmentation. Instead i ended up with a lump. Not happy at all.

On foxes not such a problem, but for deer it was causing excessive meat damage. I switched out to ballistic tip, not because of research (this was years and year ago before i found "da h'internet") but i had changed to 308 and had a much better selection of ammo including BT.

With the BT i found that on those shots where i knew my placement was perfect the animal dropped with no runners. Every time i recovered the deer i had a small bullet size entry hole and in most cases no exit hole. Instead i had a shredded heart and even very little to no damage on the "opposite" inside of the rib cage.

The BT were dumping all their energy upon impact and not passing through. I was getting much cleaner kills and next to no meat damage. So i would not overlook them.

As for weight, regardless of calibre heavier bullets just need a little more elevation/adjustment. They maintain their speeds better over longer distances, albeit those speeds are slower out of the muzzle than lighter bullets. It's a case of give and take. You get a little, but loose a little. Same with lighter ones over heavier ones. Faster muzzle velocities, but quicker drops over longer distances and reduced impact energy.

ldc

My vote is for RWS also, expensive but you get what you pay for.

cookimonster

Thanks for the RWS advice, I always liked their .22 sub ammo.

Cass, thanks for the input, appreciated. I've been doing a lot of reading on the .270 win, to be honest it wasn't my first choice when thinking of moving up a calibre and power. I was initially looking at the 30 cals. A lot of guys I know are using 308 and the wide range of ammo is very tempting as was the universal use of the 30-06.
You cannot research either of the two 30's with out coming across articles such as ' .270 vs .308 etc, etc. So a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and the .270 tickled my fancy, plus I had to be different to the 30 lads. I know there is an issue with meat damage with the fast paced 130 gr bullets but I am willing to go with that for a flatter trajectory. It is my ignorance and to a degree some minor reading on the subject that had me concerned on poor penetration with BT due to bullets fragmenting too quickly before reaching vitals coupled with some secound hand stories relatinging to colossal damage done by said bullets.
So would you recommend a higher grain with the BT or stick with the faster more explosive BT bullet?

Cass

cookimonster wrote: »

............. and the .270 tickled my fancy, plus I had to be different to the 30 lads......................

That is how i got my first 308. Everyone else had either 270 or 6.5x55, and i wanted something different. The dealer was the one that suggested i go for the 308, and the rest is history.

I know there is an issue with meat damage with the fast paced 130 gr bullets but I am willing to go with that for a flatter trajectory. It is my ignorance and to a degree some minor reading on the subject that had me concerned on poor penetration with BT due to bullets fragmenting too quickly before reaching vitals coupled with some secound hand stories relatinging to colossal damage done by said bullets.

The 150 gr bullets i use in 308 would be on the lighter end of the spectrum for 308. As such i get higher speeds and similar effects as 130 in 270.

I'm not claiming the BT are superior to the soft point. You'll get guys saying the complete opposite, that soft point are better than BT for the reason you said, meat damage and the SP will start to expand almost immediately whereas the BT need to strike something hard. What i am saying is i have shot foxes, deer, etc. with both and i prefer BT for the reasons i've said above.

So would you recommend a higher grain with the BT or stick with the faster more explosive BT bullet?

TBH it's not a case of light or heavy. The first thing, as always, is what does the rifle like.

One of my 308's is a 1:11.25 twist. So she loves anything from 150 to 180 gr. After that it's a personal choice as to which i use. For the last couple of years it's been 178 gr Amax. They are slow at approx 2,650fps, but have good impact energy, are ballistic tipped, and i only shoot to distances of 150 yards max. My other 308 is 1:10. Now she'll shoot the lighter stuff, but she will also shoot up to 200 gr stuff which means i have much more options.

So when you get the rifle test out a few different rounds and see what she shoot well, shoots okay, and then shoots poorly. Then see if the ones she shoots well come in SP or BT or both and which she prefers.

cookimonster

Thanks for the advice and info, looks like I'll be punching paper before next season.

BTW another thing that I liked was the comparable ballistics of the .270's 130 and 150 grain bullets to that of the .308's 150 and 180 grain pills.
Another source of adult debate beside the fire after a day on the hill - 'mine is better than yours.....'

Cass

cookimonster wrote: »

Another source of adult debate beside the fire after a day on the hill - 'mine is better than yours.....'

:D:D