.270 Weatherby Magnum

[PeterCartwright]

I recently received a lovely (unfired!) Mark V Deluxe in .270 Weatherby as a gift!  As a shooter of normally more humble means, I've never considered playing with the California rifles.  Anybody have any real world hunting experience with this cartridge?  Seems like it ought to be taylor made for shooting muleys across canyons out west.  Does anybody load this round up with a heavier, premium bullets for elk?

My hunting around here (Michigan's U.P.) is better suited for shorter range, less destructive rounds, but I'm dreaming of a trip back West one day!  (Used to live in Oregon).

[Don Fischer]

It uses the same bullet's that the 270 Win uses and won't kill anything across a canyon that you don't hit well!

[mparks]

My dad has used one for years in the Northern Lower of MI.  Shots are similar to what you would see in the UP forests I would imagine.  Short and tight.  Only problem ever was with Weatherby factory ammo.  Probably a 130gr at 3300fps or something came apart when it hit the shoulder of a whitetail.  He's since switched to handloads with a 130gr Nosler partition.  The .270 Weatherby is pretty un-necessary for our kind of hunting where an 80 yard shot would be a long one but the Mark V is as beautiful and accurate rifle as you can ask for.

[nomosendero]

It uses the same bullet's that the 270 Win uses and won't kill anything across a canyon that you don't hit well!

Wouldn't that apply to every cartridge?

Oh, what the heck Don, I'm bored listening to football games on the radio. My boys are out of school, will have to wait for grandsons to come along I guess.

Yes, the 270 Wea. is a very nice & mostly overlooked round. Barrels & loads vary, but a good rule of thumb is that the 270Wea. will shoot the 150 gr. at about the same speed as the 270 will shoot a 130.
Or if you use the same weight the traj. will be a little flatter for the Wea. round. If I used it instead of the great 270 Win, I would use the heavier bullets(or 140) for Elk to have more Penetration & energy
but also for reduced wind drift, which cannot be plotted as well as trajectory.

[Don Fischer]

nomosendero,

yep!!!!!!!!!

[BD]

I've been hunting with a .270 Wby mag for more than 10 years now.  It's dropped a handfull of deer and a nice pair of caribou bulls.  Mine is one of the euromarks with the 24" #1 tube and it gave me fits until I floated that skinny barrel.  I also had a problem with the older WBY factory rounds using the 130 grain Hornady bullet, I took the front leg clean off a young four pointer without even penetrating the ribcage. Wasn't pretty.  That started me into reloading, and unless your're rich that's the path to take for this caliber.  Everything I've hit with the Nosler PT's has been DRT.  Same results using the 130 gr. PTs on deer and the 150's on Caribou;  caliber size hole into the boiler room,  1" hole out and the lungs are jelly. No meat wasted  I originally bought the .270 WBY as I was having a harder time judging distances as I got older, and it seemed like I was getting more long open shots as they clearcut northern Maine.  The 130 grainers at near 3,450 fps are pretty much point blank to 280 yards or so.  I load the 150's to about 3,100 and can hold dead on out to 200 yards even when it's snowing sideways.  This is a big help when you're shooting over a frozen lake or open snow covered ground at a moving animal.  My only complaint is that the bullet and powder companies are so busy testing the new slow powders in the latest short&fattenboomers that they can't take the time to develope any data for the old .270 WBY.  I'm sticking with a load I worked up using RL25 under the nosler 150 PT for now. I had a good load with RL22 and the 130s for a few years but then I bought a second couple of pounds of RL22 which was so much faster that I was wary of going back there. I took a brief foray into trying H1000 and Retumbo last year, but without any data i'm not willing to push any of them very far.
BD

[PeterCartwright]

Thanks, BD, your comments are very helpful!  Your experience pretty much fits my expectations of this cartidge.  I found a stock (4 boxes) of the Weatherby ammo at a very good price languishing in a small shop.  I bought it (though it's loaded with Hornady bullets) because it gives me some brass to start with and something to use on paper.  I think Hornady makes great traditional cup/core bullets.  I use them in my 6.5X55, .30-06 and .30-30 rifles.  However, like you, I don't think they're manufactured with the stresses of magnum velocities in mind, so I'm not surprised by your ruined meat stories.

Frankly, I haven't even purchased a scope for the lavish gift I received.  In due time.  In the meantime, I picked up some 140 gr. triple shock Barnes bullets.  When the time comes, I'll be curious to see if this rifle likes it or not.  Seems to me like that bullet ought to make a great do everything load.  Like you suggest, the time-proven Nosler partitions are always an option as well.  Guess I'm still childish enough to derive great pleasure from dreaming about future adventures with a new toy...and dreaming is free (smile).