270 WSM bullet weight advice.

Sako308

Well-Known Member
I have been home loading Barnes TTSX (130gr) for my .308 and have been pleased with the results. Was looking to go the same way with my 270 WSM (factory rounds are £3 each!). Assuming I can actually get hold of these should I go for the 110gr or 130gr bullet? I know you can step down a weight with these to keep the speed up (better expansion), on the other hand it's not like these are going slowly either way. It will be used in a light(ish) hill rifle on Reds and I wasn't sure if 110gr would be a bit light for the more sizeable beasts. Any advice welcome.
 
I know the rule of thumb for Barnes is, "Drop down a bullet weight", but for a cartridge which already as fast as a .270 Win, I would suggest dropping down from the conventional bullet you would use, which would be a 150-gr. Going down from a 150, or up from the 130-gr you are using on deer, to a 140-gr, you would be taking the .270 up to 7x64 class with the monolithic bullet.

In the .270 WSM, I would try 150-gr TSX or Scirroco.
 
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I would be inclined to stick with 130, you can run them quite fast as is and with 110 you may run the risk of ending up with a 3300 MV to get it in the sweet spot

i recently ran loads for 100gr as I have a gazillion of them
my best load was at a circa 3450fps.

whichever way you slice it that will bruise the hell out of a beast

apologies just realised this is for WSM. No change though
 
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150g, ran these in mine at similar velocity to 130g and it was a hammer. Bigger and slower is much better.
 
150g, ran these in mine at similar velocity to 130g and it was a hammer. Bigger and slower is much better.


Surprises me that more factory loads don't seek to push the 150's faster
2850 is a big drop from 3100fps between 150 and 130

never needed to try 150's in homeloads but if I did they would have to go faster than that to be worthwhile (otherwise all the numbers make the 130's better in every way)
 
You can push some 150-gr bullets as fast as a .30-06, but remember that there is less surface area for the gas to push the bullet. You don't need to goose the 150s, though. They have a high SD, and many have a high BC.

Jack O'Connor killed elk with 130-gr, but he shot 150-gr Partitions at 2,900+ from a 22-inch barrel .270 Model 70 with 58.5 gr of Hodgdon 4831 ( the old surplus blend, so don't try to match this load with any modern 4831). He used a 4x scope and sighted it for 3 inches high at 100 yards for his elk hunting in Idaho.

There are some professional game wardens who have killed over 2,000 head of game with the 150-gr Hornady Interlock at 2,850 to 2,900 fps.
 
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