Who shoot's a 270WSM

[superdown]

I am considering a 270WSM i am pretty sure i will be buying a BAR in this cal. after we get done with our hunting trips for the year and Christmas. I would like to know what you think of the 270wsm and how it has performed for you. also what ammo you use?

[scottL]

Well, I'm totally new here after PC recommended this board to me last night but I'll take a whack at this one since I didn't see any other replies...

I used to spend just about all my spare hours for close to 7 years doing ballistics research (external and terminal) and cartridge (especially wildcat design) research. My most recent project is a 6.5mm/.264 wildcat based on the .300 WSM case, same (as I recall) as the .270 WSM. For the 6.5 caliber I actually shorten the case to reduce it's capacity by around 10 grains (major pain btw) to avoid some of the issues I'll mention below as that case simply holds too much powder in my thoughts for that small of a caliber... or for that matter for the caliber you mention.

Personally regarding the .270 WSM, being the smallest bore diameter in that series of cartridges, I see it as being over bore capacity to a great deal and suspect you'd see barrel throat erosion / *relatively* short barrel life on it, probably in the 700 to 1000 rounds (optimistically) range. I say this based on research of the 6.5-.284, the 6.5 Rem Mag, the .264 Win Mag and the .300 WSM. However this may not be a problem for you if all you plan to do is hunt with it primarily as even 700 rounds is a lot for a hunting rifle to see and would serve some hunters decades (hopefully most folks practice more than that though.) Even after throat erosion, unless it was severe, you probably would only find a need to clean it more often to avoid pressure increases and loss of accuracy, and possibly a need to change to a different load for the best accuracy as the distance the bullet sits off the rifling lands changes as the throat of the barrel chamber erodes.

That being said, despite the fact the .270 WSM burns much more powder than it needs (seriously diminishing returns at that point) and would have resultingly more muzzle flash and noise, the biggest concern by far in a hunting rifle for me would be *terminal bullet performance*. Bullet manufacturers *must* design bullets to reliably expand within an assumed velocity range. As there are no other significantly popular high-velocity .270 chamberings on the market, it's fairly safe to assume most are anticipating muzzle and impact velocities that are going to be notably lower than the .270 WSM is going to deliver for you - velocities typical of the .270 Winchester to be specific. So if you go with the .270 WSM it would be my recommendation to stay far away from typically less expensive, over-the-counter brands of ammo and stay strictly with the "elite" or "supreme" or other high-end (costly) boxes of ammo if you don't load your own rounds. Regardless, I would definitely encourage you to stay with bullets such as the Barnes TSX (probably not the TTSX btw), various makes of true bonded-core bullets or at a minimum one of the various makes of partitioned bullets... and in general stay away from the standard soft spitzer pointed bullets or those with polymer tips as these tend to open up too quickly at higher velocity impacts and/or break up on impact. And yes (though this may invite some criticism) I've even had the semi-recently released Barnes tipped TSX blow up on impact in my 6.5mm wildcat - and that using over 10 grains less powder than your .270 WSM would use. In fact the near-side hole on a bear I shot with the tipped TSX was the greater than the size of a horizontal football without hitting anything but 1 rib, and after talking to Barnes' Tech Line they stated I was pushing it about 250 fps faster than they designed it for; they recommended I change back to the non-tipped Barnes TSX... Thus my recommendation from staying away from all polymer-tipped variants in your chambering, even the Barnes.

You might find in the end though that the .300 WSM will serve you better as an all-around gun. You will likely have more rifle models to choose from, it will offer a greater variety of preloaded ammo, will have greater availability of bullet weights for sale at more stores, will have longer barrel life, will be marginally less fickle typically in finding accurate loads and will have less muzzle flash due to being a more efficient round (as it relates to more fully burning the powder prior to the bullet exiting the barrel.)

Just my 2 cents from a newbie to this site!  Best wishes on whatever you decide to go with!

[J Snow73]

WOW Scott nice first post I also have a .270 wsm, but have yet to shoot it so will have to get back to you hopefully after this weekend

[KimberRich]

WOW Scott nice first post I also have a .270 wsm, but have yet to shoot it so will have to get back to you hopefully after this weekend

No kidding.  Nice first post.  Welcome to the site and thanks for all the good input.

[superdown]

  Thanks for taking the time to post great first one. I will be using this exclusively for hunting i am pretty much set on the bar short trac as the rifle i want. I already have an A-boltII .325wsm so i want something smaller.

[C-Money]

Firefighter4607 uses a .270wsm. I hunt with him a lot. He killed a 346'' 7x7 bull with his 270wsm. He likes it and it has worked very well for him on a wide variety of game. I'd say go for it if you want one. Me, I use the .270win and have had great results with it, you might want to look at a few reloading manuals and compare the two.

[markts]

I love my270wsm

[superdown]

Anyone got pics of what they have shot with the 270wsm. I shot one fat whittie doe in Idaho about 8yrs ago with my 270win rem mtn rifle with 140gr. fail safe's put her down like a sack of rock's.

[C-Money]

270win, 274 yards, 2010, one shot. I have a bunch of other pic's of animals that have fallen to the 270win! This is my most recent. I will look for some of FF4607's kills with the 270wsm.

[wiremonkey]

i also have a 270 wsm. great shooting gun, very fast and accurate. i gotta say i like the 140 gr accubond but if i had it to do over i would have bought the 300 wsm just for the selection in bullet weight 

[superdown]

nice buck

[UBA]

I shoot betters out of mine and love it.

[carpsniperg2]

my wife has claimed mine here is her buck's from this year and last year. 270 wsm with my hand loads 130g nosler btip 4831sc powder cci lrm primer win case. she loves that gun. the 270 wsm is one of the best cals out there  has enough power to take any animal that walks around here and many other places and is one of the flatest shooting cal over 24 cal as well. great cal one of my faves

[ecnclan]

Haven't killed anything yet with my 270 wsm yet but very happy with the accuracy and velocity.  It doesn't use much more powder for a similar bullet weight than a 3006 and has a similar recoil.  Plenty of quality bullets out there especially if you reload. The 270 weatherby has been around for a little while and reaches velocities slightly higher while using much more powder, in comparison the 270wsm is actually a pretty efficient round.

[C-Money]

Hey Carpsniper, Those are some heavy horned bucks! Very cool!