270 winchester - berger bulletsbergerbullets.com/articles/john-barsness-still-as.pdfpiring...

21st-Century

.270 Winchester

Still asFlat-Shooting

as Ever

The two new .270 Winchester boltactions have very nice walnut.

John Barsness

The .270 Winchester is one ofthe oldest cartridges still regularly chambered in bolt-action hunting rifles and the

second-oldest commercial huntinground designed for bolt actions – andfar more .270s are sold than .375 Hol-land & Holland Magnums. The lat-est Gun Digest lists at least threedozen current rifles chambered forthe .270 Winchester, in every type ofaction, but it’s conspicuously absentfrom “tactical” bolt-action rifles, whichcome chambered in cartridges rang-ing from the .223 Remington to the .50 BMG.

Handloader 29338 www.handloadermagazine.com

December-January 2015 39www.handloadermagazine.com

not much over 2,000 fps. As a re-sult, rifling twists for early smoke-less military cartridges were aroundone turn in 8 inches (1:8) for 6.5mm,1:9 for 7mm and 1:10 for .30.

In 1905, however, armies startedswitching to lighter, sleeker bul-lets at higher velocities – and sodid hunting rifle manufacturers. In1906 the .280 Ross became the firsthunting round to attain 3,000 fps,using a 140-grain bullet. Other light-bullet, high-velocity hunting car-tridges quickly appeared, and ifthey weren’t a 6.5mm, 7mm or .30,the rifling twist was usually barelyfast enough to stabilize a lightspitzer bullet, because the prevail-ing theory was that a rifling twistjust fast enough to stabilize a bul-let resulted in the finest accuracy.

This Barely Stabilized (BS) the-ory affected new hunting cartridgesthroughout the first half of the

with a 1:10 twist. Whether early .270ammunition attained that velocityis doubtful, but the trajectory wasstill considered amazingly flat.Most hunters still used iron sights,and most big-game scopes weren’tmuch better than irons. An actual(not estimated) 500-yard shot wasconsidered very long, and the flat-shooting bullet compensated forrange-estimation errors.

The one-in-10-inch twist waseventually found capable of stabi-lizing lead-cored, 150-grain spitzers,but nothing longer. This is whyNosler’s 160-grain Partition is a“semi-spitzer,” just short enough tostabilize in a 1:10 twist, and whyBarnes recommends a 1:9.5 riflingtwist for the 150-grain TSX – andthe heaviest Tipped TSX weighs130 grains.

After laser rangefinders appearedin the 1990s, some hunters startedshooting at game far beyond 500yards, and today we have three dis-tinct categories of big-game hunters.By far the most abundant are tra-

A tiny but growing numberare long-range hunters, who don’tconsider shots less than 600 yardsreally “long.” In fact, some refuse to shoot animals at less than 600yards and have been known toback up rather than stalk closer, to make a shot more challenging.(I’ve done some of this on var -mints, but not big game.)

The third group regularly prac-tices at longer ranges but only toextend their capabilities. My friendTim Fallon runs a very fine shoot-ing school at his FTW Ranch in theTexas Hill Country, training hunterson targets from charging elephantsat 10 yards to small gongs at 1,000.Tim feels the reason for practicingat long range is to make 500-yardshots seem relatively easy. Huntersin this category don’t pass upshorter-range shots, and in factmany enjoy stalking closer morethan shooting longer. I freely admitto membership in this category. Afew years ago, I went on a prong-horn hunt in Wyoming with a cus-tom 6.5-06 “dialed-in” well beyond500 yards and killed a buck at a little over 160.

While the .270 Winchester remainsone of the most popular big-gamecartridges on earth, it rarely ap-pears in rifles built for today’slong-range hunting, thanks to thetraditional 1:10 twist that won’t

The reason? Winchester’s idea ofa long-range hunting cartridge ap-peared in 1925, after the first bigrush of military smokeless powder

twentieth century. A prime exam-ple was the one-in-14-inch twist forthe .250-3000 Savage, just enoughto stabilize an 87-grain spitzer,

cartridges. As mentioned in mylast Handloader article on the 26Nosler (No. 292, October 2014),every smokeless cartridge of thelate 1800s started out with heavy-for-caliber, roundnosed bullets at

but even early .257 Weatherbyshad 1:12 twists that wouldn’t stabi-lize spitzers over 100 grains, thereason the original “heavy-bullet”factory load was a 117-grain round-nose.

The .270 Winchester was a light-bullet, high-velocity round, the orig-inal factory load a 130-grain spitzerat a claimed 3,160 fps in barrels

ditionalists, who sight-in for thelongest “hold-on” distance andrarely shoot beyond 300 yards,partly because in a lot of huntingcountry game can’t be seen beyond300 yards. This group includes asurprising number of successfullong-range target shooters, appar-ently because they know too wellwhat can happen to even a well-aimed bullet at longer ranges.

Above left, the Winchester Model 70’s comb is higher than the Ruger No. 1’s (right),making quick shots easier, but the latter will normally be used for more deliberateshooting anyway.

21st Century

.270Handloader 29340 www.handloadermagazine.com

130-grain spitzer from a .270 Win-chester. In typical western huntingconditions, at 500 yards a 10-mphcrosswind drifts the 130-grain .270bullet 6 inches more than a high-BC 140 from the 6.5. I know thispartly because I’ve shot a 6.5Creedmoor a lot – and not just to500 yards but 1,000.

Of course, several other 6.5mm

rounds do the same things, includ-ing the ancient 6.5x55 “Swedish”Mauser, one reason I own a cus-tom 6.5x55 with a one-in-8-inchtwist Lilja barrel. But a customrifle isn’t required, and neither ishandloading. For a few hundredbucks, you can buy a Ruger Amer-ican or Savage Whatever in 6.5Creedmoor and do the same thing.Mount a scope with repeatableclicks, buy a case of Hornady am-munition and start shooting.

stabilize bullets long and sleekenough to challenge common bul-lets in 6.5mm and 7mm, the cal-ibers on either side of .270. How-ever, this doesn’t mean all 6.5 and7mm cartridges shoot “flatter” thanthe .270 Winchester at commonhunting ranges. One of the mostpopular factory rounds amonglong-range hunters (or at least as-piring long-range hunters) is the6.5 Creedmoor, but with favored140-grain bullets such as the Hor-nady A-MAX and Berger VLD at2,700 fps, the Creedmoor doesn’tshoot nearly as flat as a typical130-grain, flat-based spitzer fromthe .270 Winchester at 3,100 fps,even at 700 yards.

However, thanks to laser range -finders, a really flat trajectory isalmost irrelevant in long-rangehunting. The big factor is the un-predictable wind, and minimalwind drift performs the samefunction as flat trajectory did backwhen hunters had to “guesstimate”range. In essence, wind is unknown“range” in the horizontal plane.

A sleek 140-grain boat-tail from a6.5 Creedmoor drifts only abouttwo-thirds as much as a flat-based

.270 Winchester Handloads overall

loadedbullet powder charge length velocity group

(grains) (grains) (inches) (fps) (inches)

Winchester Model 70, 22-inch barrel:

95 Barnes TTSX RL-17 59.0 3.200 3,366 1.23100 Speer HP 59.0 3.331 3,352 1.19110 Hornady Spire Point Hunter 59.0 3.401 3,164 .94110 Nosler AB N-204 57.0 3.387 3,167 1.19130 Hornady Spire Point H-4831SC 61.0 3.350 3,008 .71 H-1000 64.0 2,973 1.11130 Nosler Ballistic Tip Magnum 65.0 3.522 3,052 .54130 Nosler E-Tip VV-N560 59.0 3.476 3,021 1.20140 Sierra BTHP Magpro 62.0 3.277 2,902 .97140 Berger VLD Hunter 54.0 3.418 2,893 .45150 Sierra GameKing RL-22 57.5 3.376 2,921 1.02150 Nosler Partition H-4831SC 58.5 3.391 2,848 1.01 RL-22 56.5 2,854 .89

Ruger No. 1B, 26-inch barrel:

95 Barnes TTSX Hunter 59.0 3.200 3,467 .87100 Speer HP RL-17 59.0 3.331 3,532 1.12110 Nosler AB N-204 57.0 3.387 3,343 1.14130 Hornady Spire Point H-1000 64.0 3.350 3,132 .72130 Nosler Ballistic Tip Magnum 65.0 3.522 3,157 .71140 Sierra BTHP Magpro 62.0 3.277 3,033 .74140 Berger VLD Hunter 58.0 3.418 2,988 .77150 Sierra GameKing RL-22 57.5 3.376 3,027 .75150 Nosler ABLR 57.5 3.515 3,035 .63150 Nosler Partition 56.5 3.391 2,985 1.01Notes: All loads were fired at 100 yards, used Winchester cases and Winchester Large Rifle primers.

Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

Table I


So why would anyone bother withthe .270 Winchester? That’s a goodquestion, and the answer lies in itssheer popularity. Ammunition andcomponents are made by all themajor manufacturers, and riflescan be purchased just as cheaplyas Rugers or Savages in 6.5 Creed-moor, partly because Ruger, Sav-age and every other bolt-actionrifle manufacturer on earth make.270s, and partly because there are

millions of used .270 Winchesters.(Of course, due to rifle loonyism,a few companies make .270 Win-chester barrels with quicker riflingtwists and heavier, higher-ballisticcoefficient .270 bullets. This is es-sentially shoveling sand againstthe 6.5mm and 7mm tide, andeven I am not loony enough to fallfor it. If you are, be my guest.)

Odds are you’re one of the vastmajority who doesn’t shoot big

game beyond 500 yards, and thereare ways to make your .270 Win-chester basically match the windresistance of the 6.5 Creedmoorout to 500. And even if you don’tplan to shoot beyond 300 yards,there are ways to make your .270flatter shooting, thanks to huntingbullets made for the smallest .270factory cartridge, the 6.8 SPC,originally designed for militaryuse in AR-15 and other small semi-automatic rifles.

Let’s start, however, with making

Above, new .270-caliber hunting bullets have made the old cartridge more versa-tile, and (right) recent powders provide somewhat more velocity with some bullets.


21st Century

.270

Winchester did all this with mod-est recoil, and after handloadingfor at least a dozen rifles, it alsoseemed to be one of those “inher-ently accurate” rounds. Now, anybig-game cartridge will shoot ex-tremely accurately from a care-fully made custom rifle, but most

of those .270s were factory rifles,and some were as accurate as anycustom I’ve ever shot. This in-cluded my first .270, a Remington700 ADL that would group threeHornady 150-grain Spire Pointsinto right around an inch – at 300yards.

your .270 Winchester all it can beat 500, or even a little farther. First,let me confess that this projectstarted because a couple of yearsago I decided to quit traveling asmuch, instead hunting more inMontana and surrounding states(and Canadian provinces) with myfamily and friends. Soon afterwardI realized the .270 Winchester hadperformed great as an all-aroundMontana big-game round since Ipurchased my first one over 40years ago, taking game not onlyfor me but also my wife, Eileen,her son Sean and many others.

The Montana game includedprong horn, whitetail and muledeer, black bear, elk and moose, atranges out to 500 yards. The .270

.270 Winchester and6.5 Creedmoor Ballistics to 500 Yards

.270 Nosler 150-grain AccuBond LR, 3,000 fps (Ruger No. 1B):

yards: 100 200 300 400 500trajectory: +2 +1 -4 -15 -31wind drift: 2 5 8 13

.270 Berger 140-grain Hunting VLD, 2,900 fps (Winchester Model 70):

yards: 100 200 300 400 500trajectory: +2 +1 -5 -18 -37wind drift: 2 5 10 15

6.5 Hornady 140-grain A-MAX, 2,700 fps:

yards: 100 200 300 400 500trajectory: +2 0 -7 -21 -42wind drift: 2 5 9 14Notes: Figures computed at 5,000 feet above sea level, 35 degrees Fahrenheit, 25 percent humidity anda scope centered 1.60 inches above the bore, with trajectory and wind-drift figures to the closest inch.The ballistic coefficients used came from Bryan Litz, as I’ve found his tested BCs more accurate thanthose from many manufacturers, especially for specific rifling twists. For more information contact Ap-plied Ballistics, LLC, 25 S. Main St., Cedar Springs MI 49319; www.appliedballistics llc.com.

Table II


Center in Idaho. (The center isn’tjust a very interesting museum,since it’s also involved in shootingand hunting education: PO Box394, Lewiston ID 83501, www.jack-oconnor.org.)

The Winchesters weren’t put to-gether just for show. With mine,the first three-shot group at 100yards, using factory ammunition,measured .4 inch. (The scope, bythe way, is a 4x33 Leupold FX-II,mounted both because it lookedright and because many 500-yardshots were accomplished handilywith 4x long before hunters knewit couldn’t be done.) With the Leu -pold in Talley Lightweight mounts,the rifle weighs slightly over 8pounds.

The other .270 is a “black pad”Ruger No. 1B, also with excep-tional wood, purchased used atCapital Sports in Helena, Mon-tana. Many shooters remain suspi-cious of No. 1 accuracy, but Rugerstarted hammer-forging its ownbarrels 20-some years ago, aboutwhen the recoil pads were changedfrom red to black. This rifle shootsalmost as well as the Model 70,and the 26-inch barrel providesmore velocity. I plan to use theRuger on the plains of easternMontana, so a Leupold FX-II 6x36

At the instant of this epiphany, Ididn’t own a .270 Winchester butsoon found a used CZ 550. It shotextremely well, as 550s normallydo, but after a year it seemed likean imperfect compromise. The 60centimeter (23.62-inch) barrel did-n’t get as much velocity as possi-ble for open-country hunting andwas a little too stout for packingaround steep country. So the CZwas replaced with two other .270s.(Two replacing one is typical rifle-loony math.)

The first was a commemorativeJack O’Connor Model 70 Feather-weight from the limited run Win-chester put together a couple ofyears ago with really nice walnutstocks. I “won” an auction for therifle at the annual celebration/fund-raiser at the Jack O’ConnorHunting Heritage and Education

The Model 70 (above) is a little moreaccurate than the No. 1 (below), butnot much.

HighestBallistic Coefficients

of .270Hunting Bulletsfrom Bryan Litz

150-grain sampling:

Nosler ABLR (with 1-10 twist) .. .543(with 1-7 twist) .... .569

Berger Hunting VLD.................. .514Sierra GameKing ....................... .463

140-grain sampling:

Berger Hunting VLD.................. .487Hornady Interlock BTSP............ .445Nosler Ballistic Tip .................... .444

130-grain sampling:

Berger Hunting VLD.................. .452Hornady InterBond.................... .445*Cutting Edge HPBT.................... .444

*Hornady lists the same ballistic coefficient for all its plastic-tipped 130s.

Table III


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21st Century.270

was mounted, bringing the weightto a pound more than the Model70 Featherweight.

Both rifles, of course, are hope-lessly old-fashioned and hence totally impractical for twenty-first-century hunting. But I’m over 60now and, as an official old fart,don’t care. I also intend to kill abunch of game with both .270s.

While a bunch of newer powdersand bullets were tried in both rifles, the Winchester will mostlybe used with a traditional .270powder, Hodgdon H-4831, and acouple of old-fashioned bullets,the Hornady 130-grain Spire Pointand Nosler 150-grain Partition.The powder charge with the 150 ismore than most manuals list thesedays, but the Model 70 producesless velocity and, apparently, lesspressure than many .270s. Fromevery indication, the 58.5-graincharge is mild in this rifle butmight not be in others. As for 61.0 grains with the 130, Hornadylists 62.0 grains as maximum. I’veseen both bullets kill many ani-mals over the years, despite their“marginal” ballistic coefficients. In fact, those are the same hand-loads Eileen used from a Brown-ing A-Bolt in the 1980s to make a

Among the dozen consecutive animalsEileen took with one shot from herBrowning A-Bolt .270 Winchester weremule deer and moose.


dozen one-shot kills in a row onanimals from buck pronghorn tobull moose, at ranges out to 450yards – with a 4x scope.

Many .270s happen to put both130s and 150s in the same place at100 yards, and the Model 70 doestoo. Most practice, sighting-in andhunting will be done with the Hor-nady, with the Partition reservedfor bigger game, but the point ofimpact of the Berger 140-grainHunting VLD is the same, so it willbe used as well.

The Ruger No. 1 will be usedmostly with the Nosler 150-grainAccuBond Long Range at 3,000 fpsor so, but one of the lighter 6.8mmbullets will work great on prong-horn. I’d hoped to find some Barnes85-grain TSXs, because my friendsJohn and Billy Stuver have usedthis bullet with great success at3,900 fps with a top load of AlliantReloder 17. None could be found,however, so I settled for the Barnes95-grain Tipped TSX and Nosler110-grain AccuBond. Any of theseflatten the 300-yard trajectory somuch the bullets never land morethan 2 inches from the center ofthe reticle, though wind drift is a little more than with heavier bullets. The .270’s also not a badlarge-varmint rifle with traditionalhollowpoints like the 100-grainSpeer.

Next year the .270 Winchesterwill turn 90, but it doesn’t seem tobe slowing down.

John’s mountain buck was taken withhis very first .270, a super-accurateRemington 700 ADL.

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