Favorite 270 WSM Hunting Bullet

[Nathan]

My dad has a 270 WSM Tikka T3. He is thinking about changing bullets again. I'm wondering if you shoot this caliber, what bullet do you like for deer and elk. His longest shot is going to be about 400 yards, but occasionally his shortest is about 25 - 50 yards.

Any favorites you care to share?

[Savage99]

Nathan,

Your asking such a general question.

Elk at 25 yards. Elk at 400 yards. Deer at 25 yards. and Deer at 400 yards.

The bullet that's considered to have the widest range of performance considering everything above is the Nosler Partition.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Loaded 270WSM hot, I'd be worried about a conventional bullet surviving those 25 yard shots.

I like light and fast and I really like the Barnes TTSX line for deer. They show the 85gr TSX just short of 4,000fps and the 95gr TTSX just shy of 3,800 in 270WSM.

That's where I'd be headed.

[Wyoredman]

I use 140 gr SBT Sierra GameKing bullets in my .270.

I have shot Elk, Mule Deer, Antelope (pronghorn), Quebec Caribou, coyotes, prairie dogs, jack rabbits, black bears, mountain lions, New Zealand Red Deer, Chamois, white tail deer, rock chucks, and paper with them. Ranges from 25' to 450 yards.

Never, ever, ever had an animal get away.

I like Sierra.

ETA, the only reason I didn't list Big Horn Sheep, is because I used a 180 gr Sierra Gameking in my .300 win mag for it! Not a .270!

[hooligan1]

I use an Accubond weighing 130 grains in my .270 winchester, my load should be near 2900 fps, that being close to book specs. Its a penetrator and an accurate bullet, best of both worlds..kills nicely with well placed shots.

Btw, this was a 60 yd neck shot on a small deer looking right at me... boom breakfast sausage!

[Nathan]

Thanks. Yea, you guys are right on the issue with this round! Conventional 270 Win bullets just don't handle hitting a 50 yd deer well!

I tried to tell my dad this! I think he is moving towards partitions. Personally, I think he ought to move towards 308! His new(~10 yr old) hunting spot is just more 45-70 country if you ask me.

Funny thing is some guys use big boomers(338 Lapua, 50 bmg) in this area to shoot elk mountain to mountain.

[AllenJ]

Given a max range of 400 yards I agree with Mr. Pfleuger to use Barnes bullets but I would go with something heavier, somewhere in the 140 grain class. I've shot a few elk with Barnes bullets as has the group I hunt with and they have yet to do anything other that what they advertised.

[Savage99]

A gunwriter tested the new Barnes X bullets on deer and found that they are the slowest killers of all!

That the mono bullet does not fragment and it's the fragmenting of a conventional and some special bullets that increases the wound size.

Here is the exit wound a 155gr Berger VLD bullet made at 280 yards on a buck shot from that 30-06.

[Brian Pfleuger]

No way could he make that assessment without killing dozens of animals. He'd have to kill at least 10 with each bullet in order to make any statistically valid argument and even that'd be minimal. I've seen no difference in killing power except that the Barnes bullet are the best penetrators I've ever seen, and that's backed up by the experiences of hundreds of other folks reporting (often with pictures) all over the world.

Last year, I saw an 85gr TTSX hit a large bucks right hip at a 45dg angle, it shattered the hip and penetrated all the way through the liver, diaphragm and left side lung, stopping near the left shoulder. Darn near 3 feet of penetration AFTER shattering a large hip bone.

Big game bullets fragmenting being a good thing? First I've ever heard that argument.

[AllenJ]

Big game bullets fragmenting being a good thing? First I've ever heard that argument.

I've heard the argument before and disagree with it. They say for the bullet to be most effective it needs to dump all its energy into the animal, therefore it should fragment and not leave an exit wound. I've been hunting big game for 39 years, I've used lots of different type bullets to take big game, and the Barnes TSX and TTSX have impressed me more than any. Two holes makes tracking twice as easy

[Brian Pfleuger]

I think it's the difference between what would theoretically be awesome, versus the real life practicality.

I'd LOVE to have a bullet that expand so large that it dumped all of it's energy in the animal with JUUuuust enough remaining to poke a hole in the opposite side and drop on the ground, exhausted.

Unfortunately, that's (reliably anyway) impossible.

So, I go with second best. The fastest, best expanding, strongest bullet I can get. Guaranteed to exit, going to expand, going to cause hydro-static shock. My personal experience with the TTSX is limited, 3 deer with 2 versions in 3 different cartridges, but experience from all over the world backs me up. I've never seen anything like it.

Folks who aren't enamored with "Light and fast" would probably like the Hornady GMX line just as much, but they seem to mostly stick with "conventional" bullet weights.

[Wyoredman]

My dad likes Chevy's. My father-in-law likes Ford's! I like Dodge's!

[Brian Pfleuger]

Originally Posted by Wyoredman

My dad likes Chevy's. My father-in-law likes Ford's! I like Dodge's!

Yes, but the wise man prefers whatever the combined experience of others tells him is best, and is not loyal to a name or to insignificant, faulty and prone to statistical anomalies, personal experience.

[Wyoredman]

Agreed. Point being that any bullet built for hunting in high velocity rifles will work as the OP requires, be it made by Barnes, Sierra, Nosler, Hornady, Lapua, or Norma. California oranges and Florida oranges both make great juice!

[hooligan1]

I haven't tried the TTSX's yet on game but I have shot through a few whitetails with: Ballistic tips from Nosler, Accubonds, Partitions, Corelokts, Gamekings, Speer Deep Curls, Combined technology B-tips, Hornady BTSP,Winchester Power Points,,. I have personally taken 60 deer in my short life(50), because of liberal bag limits mostly antlerless deer.
The 150 grain Ballistic Tip at 2850 fps, from my 30-06 has taken the most, and usually (6 out of ten) the bullet held together long enough to create a nasty wound channel, the other 4 out of ten I never found the bullet. The Partition I have shot deer with was a 140 grain .270 winchester setting on 53 grains of IMR 4350, the rifle was a Remington Sendaro, the bullets always passed through on broadside shots even through the shoulders. Corelokts usually always passes through. Gamekings and Speers I have never recovered those dudes they always shot plumb through without a huge messy exit hole. Same with the Hornady and Power points.
I have developed a 130 grain Barnes TTSX cartridge for my .270 win, and it likes to shoot those barnes, so I'm thinking I'll be using the TTSX bullet for the deer this year and see what all the hub bub is all about.

[Savage99]

The Nosler Partition bullets will penetrate very well and also the front section will fragment some increasing it's' killing power.

The photo I showed above of the buck shot with a 155 gr Berger Hunting VLD shows outstanding expansion and a very large wound.

I would not take an end on shot with that bullet on deer. However for that broadside shot at that range it was optimum.

[jmr40]

Barnes bullets and Bergers both work. But both do it in completely different ways. If you need to penetrate deep on shots from odd angles up close the Barnes are the way to go. But many people make the mistake of using the wrong bullet. Barnes bullets need SPEED to expand. The idea, as Brian pointed out is to drop down in weight and shoot them at warp speed. If you try to use a Barnes in the same bullet weight as a conventional bullet it won't expand and will kill slowly.

I shot 130 gr barnes bullets from my 308 @ 3050 fps. I've considered going to the 110 gr at around 3300 fps. A 150 gr Barnes bullet cannot be shot fast enough from a 308 to guarantee adequate expansion. But since the 130 gr Barnes will retain 100% of its weight on impact, or darn close, it will match or beat a 180 gr conventional bullet hitting at the same speed. The downside with Barnes bullets is that at longer ranges, after they slow down you no longer get good expansion.

The Bergers are designed to penetrate 2-3" then basically explode inside the chest cavity. They often don't exit and the recovered bullet weight is well less than 50% of what they started with. They expand well even at long range where bullet speed has slowed considerably. Put one in the lungs of almost any animal and you will see a quick, dramatic kill. They do not penetrate well however. If you have to shoot a large animal such as elk from a less than optimum angle, they are not likely to reach the vitals.

There is no perfect bullet for every situation. Pick the one that comes closest to your needs and use it properly. A 270 WSM will shoot a 150 gr Barnes fast enough, but I'd still shoot the 130 in a Barnes, or any other copper bullet. In a conventional bullet or Berger, I'd go with something around 150 gr. You just have to understand what the bullet in your gun is best designed to do and don't take shots your bullet wasn't designed for.

I would tend to err on the side of better penetration to be able to take shots from odd angles. That bullet might not put an animal down in dramatic fashion, but it will put it down.

[AllenJ]

A 150 gr Barnes bullet cannot be shot fast enough from a 308 to guarantee adequate expansion.

JRM40 I'm not trying to cause an argument but according to Barnes their TTSX line expands at 1800 fps and their LRX at 1600 fps. Can you clarify your statement?

[black mamba]

Since I have larger calibers, I wouldn't be using my 270 WSM on elk. For deer I like the 140 Hornady BTSP. Accurate, dependable, economical.