The .270 Winchester

The .270 Winchester cartridge was introduced in 1925. A case could be made for it as the most successful American hunting cartridge of the 20th century. The .30-’06 is undoubtedly the greatest cartridge, and the .223 Rem. and .308 Win. outrank the .270 in sales. But these are all military cartridges, with all the advantages of familiarity and brass availability. The .270 made it entirely as a hunting round, primarily a big game cartridge.

Underdeveloped

A criticism of the .270 is it got a bit left behind in bullet development. There are many target rifles in 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, .30 cal. and hence a huge array of cutting-edge bullets. One seldom hears of a .270 being used for competitive shooting. Nonetheless there are some very fine match and hunting bullets from Berger and others in .270. One I especially like is the 145-gr. Hornady ELD-X.

Over nearly 50 years I’ve loaded hundreds of .270 rounds. In my experience with 22″ barrels the 130-gr. bullets produce 3,000-3,050 fps and 150-gr. bullets 2,850 to 2,900 fps. I started loading the .270 using the old surplus H-4831 (still have a few pounds) and have used several others, all giving much the same results.

In the last couple of years, I’ve been reading reports of good results with Alliant RL-26 with 150-gr. .270 loads. I’m wary of “magic pixie dust” claims for new powders but the reports were intriguing. Then I thought, “new bullet, new powder, why not a new rifle? And to make things interesting make it one with a 24″ barrel.” My local dealer had a Weatherby Vanguard with 24″ barrel, a special run green synthetic stock with black spiderweb and detachable box magazine.

“The .270 made it entirely as a hunting round, primarily a big game cartridge.”

Rolling ’em

Components included W-W brass and Winchester Large Rifle primers. Bullets were seated to a cartridge overall length of 3.415″, the longest the magazine would allow. The Alliant reloading site doesn’t have data for 145-gr. bullets, but for the Speer 150-gr. BTSP they show a charge of 60.4 grains of RL-26 for a muzzle velocity of 3,034 fps from a 24″ barrel.

In the Weatherby rifle with this load my Oehler chronograph gave the following results (average of five rounds): 60.0 grains, 3,050 fps; 61.0 grains, 3,104 fps; 62.0 grains, 3,152 fps. Consistency was excellent with extreme spreads of only 15–25 fps for each of the five shot strings.

Just to put this in perspective, in 24″ barrels current factory velocity for the .264 Win. Mag, with 140-gr. bullets is listed as 3,030 fps. For the 7mm Rem. Mag., most 140-gr. factory loads are listed at 3,150 fps. Maybe there is something to this magic pixie dust after all!

Of course, this is an apples/oranges comparison as the magnum cartridge velocities can also be enhanced by handloading and the 7mm Rem. Mag. really comes into its own with bullets of 160 grains and up.

The Final Answer

I settled on the 61.0-gr. load for two reasons: 3,100 is plenty fast enough for my needs and with the 62.0-gr. load I had to tap the case and settle the powder a bit to avoid compressing the charge. Accuracy was outstanding, no surprise there. We were blessed with a couple of calm days so most accuracy testing was done at 300 yards, with three-shot groups running 2—3″.

In the 22″ barrel of my 1982-era Winchester 70 Featherweight, the 61.0-gr. loads averaged 3,040 fps — similar to what I expect with 130-gr. bullets. Considering the heavier weight and higher ballistic coefficient of the ELD-X bullet, this is commendable.

With laser rangefinders and reliable scope adjustments, velocity is not so critical in dealing with bullet drop. Where velocity and slippery bullets really help is in reducing wind drift. Time of flight of the bullet is less important in shooting at static targets, but is important in hunting. Game animals can move, for reasons of their own, in the interval between the trigger breaking and the bullet arriving.

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