.270 for varmints???

glang1

glang1

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Has anyone ever used the venerable .270 for varmints? I have cooked up some handloads with 90gr Speer TNT hollow points which I want to try out on the long range groundhogs. I have only used 130gr & 150gr bullets in it for deer. I am interested to see how it performs with the smaller 90gr bullet.

George
 
I think it will depend on your rifle just how long range you can go. In my experiance, some .270's just won't like the light bullets. And I had one that shot only Winchesters 150 grain factory good, but it did it very well. If your rifle can shoot these bullets, I can only imagine the carnage!:eek:
 
I will second that with my 270 Rem 700 anyways,! clover leafs 130 grains and shoots a 12 gauge pattern with light bullets. Not terrible but bad enough that you may clean miss a hog at 300 yards. It just did not like them!
 
Two-seventy for varmints?

I'd use my .270 for 'varminators'... ;)

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I will be trying some lighter stuff for my 270WSM in the future but right now I am using 95g V-max out of my one of my 264 WinMags and they are extremely accurate(out of my rifle).
The other 264 is showing great promise with 85 grain Sierra HP's(cloverleafs @ 100 yds)
I'm going to order some light stuff in 270 and see how they shoot.
Get out and try those 90 grainers,and you might be suprised!
 
NAA, one push of the 'post reply' button is enough. The site is slow at times.
Like pharaoh2 says, your rifling twist will determine if it will shoot light bullets well. Nothing says you can't use your 130's on ground hogs. Varmint hunting with your .270 is excellent practice for deer season.
 
a 95 grainer @ 3300 fps in a 260 is pretty good for coyotes if you want to hammer them hard. Id imagine pushing a 90 grainer @ 3500 would be only more spectacular :D
 
I've shot a fair number of varmints with 'stupidly overkill' cartridges (a few this afternoon with the 338 and 225 SST's at a toasty 2900fps :D)

Larger cartridges are generally optimized for big game bullets and suffer accuracy degredation with lightweights. But, this isn't actually a huge problem, as servicable accuracy can usually be obtained (in my experience) - I've got a 308 that shoots 85gr XTP handgun bullets in the .4's at 100, for example, and a 7mm08 that's sub-moa with 100 grain TNT's

However, big guns usually make poor varminters (accuracy aside). Recoil and blast make extended shooting sessions tiring. Burning a ton of powder makes your barrel hot really quickly (as does the sproter-profile barrel usually found on these types of guns). And, of course, they're much more expensive than smaller cartridges.

And, at least for gophers, it's hard if not impossible to get a better 'splat' than you can get from a 22-250. Although I *did* turn a few gophers into chunky red mist falling back to earth with the 338 today, it more typically punches a neat hole straight through before any expansion gets a chance to occur
 
todbartell said:
a 95 grainer @ 3300 fps in a 260 is pretty good for coyotes if you want to hammer them hard. Id imagine pushing a 90 grainer @ 3500 would be only more spectacular :D
Click to expand...

My load data suggests I will be getting about 3400fps out of 51gr of Varget. I will probably get out to the range next weekend to checkout the accuracy. I think some of the accuracy problems with the light bullets might be that they are NOT long enough to reach the rifling. I gave all my reloads a firm crimp to get the start pressure up. I'm hoping that will help with the accuracy. Most of the varmint hunting I do is groundhogs so I typically don't fire a lot of shots, but most are at long range. Have to start looking for a 6mm or 22-250 :D

George
 
You know that's a good point. And a little secret alot of guys use is the Lee factory crimp die, for those rifles that just won't shoot. It has been used as a last resort in some instances in working up a load. You may have somthing there.
 
I use 110 grain V-Maxs out of my Ruger #1B in .270. These things are awesome. I hit a big groundhog last summer and my buddy just started into fits of laughter. The V-Max launched the hog so hard that I had taken two steps and was into the third step by the time the hog hit the ground.

Chuck
 
Many moons ago I had a 270 built on a Mauser 98 action with a Pedersen
heavy 1:10 LH twist barrel ... it really liked 90 gr. Sierra HP's ahead of 60 gr. of H4831. A considerable number of 5-shot groups could be obscured by a dime. Very effective Varminter, especially when the breeze was up a little.
 
I never had much luck with the light bullets in my .270. I had some of my fastest near misses with a llittle sierra bullet. When the did connect - WOW.:)

Varmiting with a .270 is also an expensive proposition.:kickInTheNuts:
 
Fastest near miss ??? ... a miss is still a miss, and it's rarely the bullets fault,
whether it be at 3000 fps or 3700 fps. !

The little Sierra bullets ARE very accurate ... but you still need to put them on the target ! Doesn't matter how well the gun can shoot them, you still have to do your part. And they are indeed VERY convincing when you put them on a furry little critter ! On several occassions I remember seeing the sun back-light an eruption of red fog when spotting for a buddy shooting the same loads out of his 270 ! :D Sierra 85 gr. HP's loaded fair-snappy out of a .264 Win Mag. are also very effective long-range Varmint rounds !
 
todbartell said:
a 95 grainer @ 3300 fps in a 260 is pretty good for coyotes if you want to hammer them hard. Id imagine pushing a 90 grainer @ 3500 would be only more spectacular :D
Click to expand...

Too bad this thread isn't about the .260, though.... :rolleyes:








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