270 Winchester for bull elk
- Thread starter todbartell
- Start date
Almost everyone I hunt with are carrying 270’s - the combined number of moose, elk, and deer they have shot over the last 25 years is at a wild guess in the 50 to 70 range. I have been hunting with them for the past few years, and have no qualms about their ability to knock over a bull elk at any given moment. Me – I am the odd ball in camp – I shoot 7mm rem mag with 140 grain AB – because I am comfortable and confident with the rife, and it is of the right weight and design that I don’t feel encumbered by it. When I shoot three gun I use a 5.56x45 Nato rifle, when I shoot service rife I use a 7.62x51 Nato rifle, on the days I dream of going to Africa I drag out the 375 Ruger. For all of my 30’s I hunted elk and deer with an ultra-light 30-06 Ruger. My best shot to date on a deer was in my 20’s with a 100 year old 6.5x55 Karl G rifle. From age 16 to 20 I used a BDL 270 that I bought and sold for 1 dollar. At the end of the day you need to practice stalking and shooting with whatever caliber you use until your competent - “It’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian” That’s my 2 cents.
The 280 AI is a wonderful cartridge. I had great success with load development at the range and in the field. I only loaded it with Nosler 140 gr. Accubond which seemed to do the trick with whitetails. The gun was a Cooper model 52, and only wished it had a 26" barrel instead of the 24". Here are a couple of bucks that I killed with the 280 AI, I know that I killed three bucks with it but can't remember the third one........old age.
https://imgur.com/a/O73KCap
https://imgur.com/a/OpZitFH
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
It does work well.
I guess...if you're shooting small ones.
Beauty Deer Track ! Your a Good Hunter ! Why did you wish your 280 AI had a 26 " barrel over a 24 " - Just wondering - Thxs RJ
Thanks Jim, that's only two of many many big bucks which my son and I killed. For obvious reasons the 26" barrel over the 24", "higher velocities." I've had several custom-made firearms, and always had a longer barrel installed than the norm. I try to achieve more velocity out of that particular cartridge than what the Nosler reloading manual states.......and it works all the time. Currently I have a 240 Wby. with a 27" Bob Jury barrel that shoots 3,625 fps with a 90 gr. accubond, terribly accurate as well.
Last autumn, 2017, I lent the 240 Wby. to my 73 year old uncle who hails from the Ottawa area, for a prairie whitetail hunt. His rainbow trajectory 308 win. is not your typical flat shooter for the Great Plains of Alberta. It was an eye opener for him to realized that flat shooters are an asset in the prairies.
Here is my 73 year old uncle with the buck I guided him to. Two weeks after this photo, my son killed a massive whitetail, again with a flat shooter, 7mm STW.
https://imgur.com/a/QchaORY
pete dobinson
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Courtenay BC.
Those are beauty white tails Track, nice pictures. Wish we had deer like that where I live.
There might be a big buck around, you just have to find him. No electronic devices of any kind, that's cheating.Hope you understand the rational of longer barrel length.
How about hunting farmland or private land, is that cheating too?
This thread was a great read, even though it seemed to start as a caliber war. My two cents on it is this. When I first got into hunting and shooting I turned my nose down at 270 Winchester and wondered why people bought them. I will admit I've never owned a 270 Win, but the more I looked and shot it is a fantastic caliber. I was swayed enough I've really considered it over my beloved 308 Winchester, and yet again here I'am comtemplating a different cartridge again this year. It's amazing how the latest and greatest can really mess with a person's mind. But this year it's looking like a new hunting rifle is really out of the question and my Enfield may actually see some action this year. Stupid diesel swap sucking up all my money!
Not at all. I hunt plenty of farm land, case in point, I'll be on a 15 section ranch hunting my mule deer buck this autumn. Mule deer are not as challenging as the whitetail buck, therefore I only shoot them with one eye open.
LOL!!! Pecker poles, that's funny. Most of our big whitetails are taken in the boreal forest fringe. Prairie whitetail antlers are not as big as the big northern bucks.
My son and his 2017 forest fringe buck.
https://imgur.com/a/NYmCzxM
https://imgur.com/a/fVpTiN6
Funny, I don't recall seeing a lot of boreal forest around Biggar.
