270 on bears
- Thread starter recoveringunut
- Start date
KiloCharlie....
that bear I shot was my first shot with 25-35...never picked it up before...
My daughter was under 2 in the yard and a bear was cruising the yard sniffing around so i grabbed kid put her in house ran next door to inlaws grabbed 25-35 aimed at head , about 60-80 yards away, with iron sight and pulled trigger.
hit higher than i wanted bt went in one ear and out the other....exploded his skull....I was impressed....i liked that lil gun it was a lever action.....
I am shocked the 270 is that much more powerful....I just put downpayment on 270 WSM BLR on friday!!!! so i switching from savage 270 bolt to a lever....
that bear I shot was my first shot with 25-35...never picked it up before...
My daughter was under 2 in the yard and a bear was cruising the yard sniffing around so i grabbed kid put her in house ran next door to inlaws grabbed 25-35 aimed at head , about 60-80 yards away, with iron sight and pulled trigger.
hit higher than i wanted bt went in one ear and out the other....exploded his skull....I was impressed....i liked that lil gun it was a lever action.....
I am shocked the 270 is that much more powerful....I just put downpayment on 270 WSM BLR on friday!!!! so i switching from savage 270 bolt to a lever....
Republic of Alberta
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- ,location, location
From what I have seen, a regular off the shelf 150g bullet will go through both shoulders of a 6 foot black bear even at close range.
I think those who profess that bigger calibres are needed are either selling something, or are caught in the "Macho" need for huger overpowering everything. The H&H NE cartridges come to mind. Not required, or very practical. Everything in the 30-06 family is the most you will need for anything except for Hippos and Elephants as long as you choose a penetrating bullet. Undergunning is a legitimate concern, but the mid range calibres are all more than capable.
For the record my family hunts everything with either 30-06 (similar to 270) or 12 ga. I myself use .270 win. All the benefits of the 30-06 but flatter shooting.
For the record my family hunts everything with either 30-06 (similar to 270) or 12 ga. I myself use .270 win. All the benefits of the 30-06 but flatter shooting.
- Location
- Kamloops, BC
If thats all I had, Id use it, but if I had a choice from amongst my calibers, I would take my 300 Wby, just to be able to shoot atleast a 180 grain.
Northman999
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Yukon
I've hunted bears with .270, works perfectly fine. Most bears I've shot with it, or seen shot, crumpled right away.
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- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
You didn't specify which bear you were after, so I guess most guys are assuming you mean black bears.
My brother used his 270 Winchester with 130 grain Federal factory loads with no issues on black bears. This was before Federal had all the fancy bullets they have now.
My brother used his 270 Winchester with 130 grain Federal factory loads with no issues on black bears. This was before Federal had all the fancy bullets they have now.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Speaking for myself, I neither need to sell anything, nor do I believe I am in need of proving my machismo. I think that it is very true a person could, and should be able to hunt all North American big game with a .30/06 without being left wanting. While some cartridges are flatter shooting, I don't see how that benefits the average hunter who takes his game at nominal range. High velocity rounds tend to do more damage to the eating parts of game animals than do larger rounds of moderate velocity. That is why I think the .375's are such marvelous big game cartridges. Loaded with solids the .375 can drop the biggest game in the world, it does very nicely on thin skinned dangerous game, and at the same time kills game in the 100 pound range with less damage than you are used to seeing from a .243 or .270.
What I do dislike to see though is the implication that because an individual chooses one gun or another that his character should come into question. We each have a brain, and that brain brings us to certain conclusions based on experience and circumstances. I have friends with extensive big game experience who think a .22 centerfire is perfect for big game. In their experience, that works for them. I have other friends who are equally experienced and for them big bores are the correct answer for big game. For myself, I think the cartridge one chooses should have a reasonable expectation of killing a game animal from any angle with a single shot, within the range limitations of the cartridge and the shooter. Each of us is correct in our own way, and each of us will be disagreed with by others.
BOOMER
Now you bring me concern...in another thread i asked about 270 or 270wsm...I had asked about calibres to reach longer range, shorter range and do least amount of tissue damage......
I went put downpayment on a lever action BLR....now i am wondering if it was bad choice cuz it is 270 wsm....i currently hunt with 270...I am meat hunter not trophy! but thats not to say i would pass up somethin grand....I care about tissue and hide damage!
argghhh oh no....
Now you bring me concern...in another thread i asked about 270 or 270wsm...I had asked about calibres to reach longer range, shorter range and do least amount of tissue damage......
I went put downpayment on a lever action BLR....now i am wondering if it was bad choice cuz it is 270 wsm....i currently hunt with 270...I am meat hunter not trophy! but thats not to say i would pass up somethin grand....I care about tissue and hide damage!
argghhh oh no....
Relax, .270 isen't going to blow your deer up like a praier dog.. There are too many factors in ruined meat. bullet placmnet, bullet selection. shoot a critter behind the shoulder and your not goint to loose a lot of meat. There are just other slow "bush" calibers that produce less bloodshot meat.
270blr is a great combo of a bush gun with some range.. just make sure you can shoot the darn thing
Cheers
Seabass
My 270 is good enough because my Pappy uses it....that was good enough twenty years ago, but we are at a time when there is an enormous amount of readily available information to help us understand the limits of each individual cartridge and bullet it gets paired with.
Most of us that pack 338s and 375s for big game understand that for most shots we have a surplus of excess power...No harm there and certainly no ego trip involved.
Yes the 270 is a great round, but push the shot angles on big enough game and you will find its limits. The 338's on up have have plenty of extra power for this sort of stuff.
My 270 is good enough because my Pappy uses it....that was good enough twenty years ago, but we are at a time when there is an enormous amount of readily available information to help us understand the limits of each individual cartridge and bullet it gets paired with.More information doesn't make animals any deader.
Surplus of excess = wasted
Agreed, no harm done. If that is what you want, have at it. As for no ego, I respectfully disagree. These forums are full of people who insist that anything short of an RPG round is only good for deer or varmints.
Undergunning is a small problem in the hunting world. Overgunning is not a problem at all. However, this doesn not mean that I can't shoot a moose with a .270 legally and humanely and ethically.
My point exactly. Why stop at .338. Why not an RPG. If you want to execute a Mississauga head shot. (shooting it's brain through its ass), then why not go 50 cal. Or a howitzer, or nuclear bombs.
You can always make an argument for more gun. Doesn't make them more valid hunting rounds. At what point, does the cost of the bullet, the gun, the detached retinas, the weight of the rig and all the other things come into play. You could argue these lead to less practice with the gun, and therefore less markmanship. Maybe bigger cals are needed for people who can't shoot or hunt.This is the ego part IMO.
If you had a bad shot because of shoulder, or a bad angle, the problem is not the gun or the round. the problem is the shot or the angle. More gun can help, but it won't fix a bad hunter.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
My 270 is good enough because my Pappy uses it....that was good enough twenty years ago, but we are at a time when there is an enormous amount of readily available information to help us understand the limits of each individual cartridge and bullet it gets paired with.More information doesn't make animals any deader.
Surplus of excess = wasted
Agreed, no harm done. If that is what you want, have at it. As for no ego, I respectfully disagree. These forums are full of people who insist that anything short of an RPG round is only good for deer or varmints.
Undergunning is a small problem in the hunting world. Overgunning is not a problem at all. However, this doesn not mean that I can't shoot a moose with a .270 legally and humanely and ethically.
My point exactly. Why stop at .338. Why not an RPG. If you want to execute a Mississauga head shot. (shooting it's brain through its ass), then why not go 50 cal. Or a howitzer, or nuclear bombs.
You can always make an argument for more gun. Doesn't make them more valid hunting rounds. At what point, does the cost of the bullet, the gun, the detached retinas, the weight of the rig and all the other things come into play. You could argue these lead to less practice with the gun, and therefore less markmanship. Maybe bigger cals are needed for people who can't shoot or hunt.
If you had a bad shot because of shoulder, or a bad angle, the problem is not the gun or the round. the problem is the shot or the angle. More gun can help, but it won't fix a bad hunter.
There are a couple of points here that I will comment on. First has to do with the idea of wasted power. I like bullets to exit. The reason for this is that you essentially have two wounds for the price of one, and if a follow up is required there is a better blood trail to follow. This is a nice feature when you have the opportunity for a quartering away shot.
I fail to see the relationship between bore size and ego. I have seen ego at work with respect to the cost of some people's equipment, but having good gear should be a source of pride.
With respect to making a shot that does not result in a bang-flop, it doesn't matter how fast your bullet, how accurate your barrel, or how large your bullet, sometimes game is wounded. Sometimes it's a marksmanship problem; sometimes the animal moves just as the shot is fired, or sometimes the bullet fails. In no case above does the choice of cartridge change the outcome, assuming the hunter was a competent marksman in the first place. Choosing a bigger gun because you can't hit anything with a .30/06 doesn't fix anything, but then neither does choosing a .270 if you are competent with more gun.
With respect to shots from dead astern, there is a need for the performance required for this shot to work. If I have fired my first round and the animal is now running straight away, I shoot; I don't wait to see what happens. My .375, .416, or .458 will drop him because the bullet has made it to the heart lung area of the chest while a .270 bullet is stopped in the gut. With a small bore making a going away shot on wounded game, the best you can hope for is to break a hip, which is not the most humane shot in the world, but it will bring things to a conclusion of sorts.
I have only seen one bear shot with a .270 (Tikka T3 using Hornady light magnum 130 grains) and the hole it put in the exit side of the bear was big enough to put my winter booted foot into. I was SHOCKED when I saw it. I had only joked to my buddy that morning that "it was good luck for him to be backed up by me with my .300 win mag"
Holy Moly, I got an education that afternoon, I quickly realized that you don't need magnum anything to kill something that is composed of fur, skin, and meat.
Holy Moly, I got an education that afternoon, I quickly realized that you don't need magnum anything to kill something that is composed of fur, skin, and meat.
A friend of mine has probably shot more bears than most of us have seen and a large percentage of them were shot with a 270 using Winchester factory loaded 130 Silvertips. The bears died reliably and the only reason he used anything else was just to try it. Strangely, he no longer uses a 270 but this might be because Winchester no longer makes Silvertips or maybe he just saw the light! Regards, Bill.
