270 gopher loads.

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bruno

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looking for ideas on what anybody uses to shoot gophers with in 270? i know it's a little overkill, but it's what i got and want to use it for everything.
thinking the 100 gr bullets would be a good choice, but which one? how many manufacturers make a bullet for the 270 this light? are there any lighter?
what would or do you use?
 
looking for ideas on what anybody uses to shoot gophers with in 270? i know it's a little overkill, but it's what i got and want to use it for everything.
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A LITTLE overkill?! Kidding right?

It is a nice idea to be able to use one rifle for everything but I GUARANTEE you will do this once and get tired of it right quick after that. I have shot .308 Win at gophers and the noise, recoil, blast and lack of accuracy make it a self limiting activity. It just isn't fun. It is a waste of ammo and will heat up your barrel right quick. Shooting gophers is an excercise in volume shooting.

Sure, go shoot a few of your deer hunting loads at gophers. But have a plan to get a dedicated varmint rifle. A decent .22 rimfire with a half decent scope will be a thousand times more fun in a gopher field. A heavy barreled .223 is also an excellent choice.
 
"...it's what I've got and want to..." Good idea. However, you don't absolutely need a special load for varmints. Varmint hunting with your deer rifle, using the load you've already worked up, is great practice.
"...how many manufacturers make..." Hornady makes a 100(SP) and 110(V-Max and HP) grain bullet, Speer makes a 100 grain HP and a 90 grain TNT, Sierra makes a 90 gr Varminter and 110 gr Pro-Hunter bullet.
 
thanks, will try the sierra as they are cheap. the reason i want a dedicated varmint load is that i want practice working up loads, and having the ability to do so, why not?
as far as being overkill, i've shot many with 22's, and it gets boring.
i don't mind the recoil at all noise will not be a problem with plugs, and i like the practice with this gun

for the reccord, my buddy will be doing the same with a mild 7mm load if we can find a good bullet for it.
 
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My old 270 Sako was most accurate with heavier bullets. I tried Dominion 100 grains, but was not fond of them. In BC we can't shoot Richerdsons ground squirrels, (gophers,) now, but when we could we used to shoot them above timberline in the mountains. I used 130 grain bullets in the 270. Not much left after a hit. We never had near the numbers to shoot at, as compared with the prairies. It was just good practice at many various ranges.
 
well I shot one with a 130 grain partition this november. I was very impressed, blew it all to pieces just like shooting a vmax out of my 22-250. Awfully expensive but I was very impressed with it as a gopher round.
 
No a too bad of an idea using your big game load for gophers (fabulous paractice for regular huning), safety is a little more of an issue since you could end up with a lot more richocets, so you should keep that in mind. The varmint bullets would be less prone to that.

Hard to beat a dedicated varmint rig, even an hrm would dial up the fun from a 22. I must not be as jaded yet, a good semi 22 and a field full of gophers is still fun to me.
 
Bruno, use your hunting loads for the gophers. Then you will learn how to dope wind, and how much holdover is needed at various ranges. I don't know if you have a laser rangefinder or not, and if not, it is an excellent investment.Thousands of gophers have been dispatched to the promised land with 140 grain boattails out of my 270 weatherby magnums. Many 100's of them have found how effective a 200 grain out of a 300 Winmag is as well. I can't count high enough tototal the number that have fallen to 100 and 120 grainers out of the 25 06.When you can consistantly connect on a gopher with your hunting load at 400 yards, a deer is like shooting a barn. The old adage, "BEWARE THE ONE RIFLE HUNTER!" has merit. He knows that where he points it, is where it is going. Years ago, I experimented around with the light bullets,and the fast stepping varmint rounds and applied them, with great effect to the yotes and other vermin, but I get much more satisfaction out of the "heavies" shooting the bullets that they were meant for, and taking the loooooong shots. The satisfaction is unbelievable when you blast a mighty gopher at 300 yards with a 375 H&H 300 grain H- frame and make a one shot kill.
 
[QUOTE. The satisfaction is unbelievable when you blast a mighty gopher at 300 yards with a 375 H&H 300 grain H- frame and make a one shot kill.[/QUOTE] I was hoping you didn't need a second shot to make sure you killed him?? If the first one didn't kill, what would the second one do, LMAO
 
Bruno I use my 270 hunting loads for gophers. The $18 per 100 win 130gr SP at 2980 fps work excellent as gopher controll, in front of old faithful IMR 4064. Just take more than one gun shooting so you don't fry the barrel. I have a load that puts 4 rounds in a business card at 100 yards. have fun
 
brobones said:
Bruno, use your hunting loads for the gophers. Then you will learn how to dope wind, and how much holdover is needed at various ranges. I don't know if you have a laser rangefinder or not, and if not, it is an excellent investment.Thousands of gophers have been dispatched to the promised land with 140 grain boattails out of my 270 weatherby magnums. Many 100's of them have found how effective a 200 grain out of a 300 Winmag is as well. I can't count high enough tototal the number that have fallen to 100 and 120 grainers out of the 25 06.When you can consistantly connect on a gopher with your hunting load at 400 yards, a deer is like shooting a barn. The old adage, "BEWARE THE ONE RIFLE HUNTER!" has merit. He knows that where he points it, is where it is going. Years ago, I experimented around with the light bullets,and the fast stepping varmint rounds and applied them, with great effect to the yotes and other vermin, but I get much more satisfaction out of the "heavies" shooting the bullets that they were meant for, and taking the loooooong shots. The satisfaction is unbelievable when you blast a mighty gopher at 300 yards with a 375 H&H 300 grain H- frame and make a one shot kill.
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:runaway::sniper::slap::dancingbanana:
 
"...and make a one shot kill..." Did you have to hit it or was the shock wave as the bullet went by enough? snicker.
Shot a ground hog one time, at about 20 yards, with a .30-06 220 grain Silvertip out of my M1. The sights were off a tick. The first shot removed the entire bottom half of the head. As it was shaking like mad, I ran up(could still run without too much pain in those days) and shot it again. (Didn't have the bayonet with me. Otherwise...) The 220 blew the whole off side away.
 
The high velocity 90 gr bullets are useful for long range, or to prevent ricochets, but another option is to use a cast bullet loaded to 1200 fps. Little recoil, little noise, and enough accuracy out to 100 are the benefits, but they will skip off rocks and hard ground.
 
Scar270 said:
well I shot one with a 130 grain partition this november. I was very impressed, blew it all to pieces

I'd be thinking so. We've used the .45-70 @ <900 fps - what a hoot! But then we don't get kicked to pieces either. A .270 for gophers? Reminds me of the short-lived p**ing contest I had with a .257 W'by lover who insisted it was "better" for groundhogs out east (because apparently theirs are way more formidable than our western ones) than my .243 with 58 gr Varminators. How dead is too dead with gophers? A .17 HMR is the most fun, and accurate as hell, that we've ever had, and you can't reload 50 rds of a .270 for $12 buying components today. Gophers are great for shooting every gun you ever plan to use and a true test of your handloads' accuracy, but a hundred rds out of anything over a .223 is very taxing and only leads to blast fatigue and crappy shooting IMHO
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