For those of you who've hunted there, what do you think of the adequacy of the 270 Winchester for plains game? I'm assuming the use of premium bullets.

Simply practice, place your shots, and game will fall. Remember, if you wound it, you pay for it. This is why I use a 338 Win Mag with 225 grain TBBC bullets for plains game.
Jeff

With the 270 or the 338, you have to stick the bullet in the right place, if you do they both work....if you don't then neither one will work and the .338 (which is my favorite round) will wound just like a 270 if you don't hit them correctly...caliber does not make up for bad shooting....

The advantage to a 338 with a tough bullet is that you can take your shots as they come and you can angle them into the heart/lungs from any angle...A 270 will not do this as well.

For plainsgame I think the 270 is more than adequate if you want to pass on the worst angle shots, but it might cost you a Roland Ward trophy, and most Roland Ward trophies are going away from you...

My 270 has taken almost 30 head of plains game from Zebra & Wildebeast on down and they were all one shot kills with lung and shoulder shots with Barnes X bullets on the heavier animals and 150 Nosler partitions on smaller game.

As has been said previously, premium bullets in the right place are an absolute and if you can't make the shot you know you need don't take one.

When people say the 270 is not big enough for plains game, I have to smile as I know more Africans that use a 270 as a personal weapon than other calibers. I guess if it works for them that is good enough for me.

Good Luck & Good Hunting, "Z"

We used a 7x57 on plains game with no problems other than a poorly hit hartebeest. I used 160 Nosler partitions at 2817 fps. The .270 should use 150 grains and have identical results, actually the 7x57 shot clean through oryx, etc. I did kill some game with the .375 I wouldn't have shot at due to bad angles, that's the beauty of a bigger caliber, shot from the pelvis through the opposite shoulder with 270 North Forks and couldn't have tried it with less gun. With the smaller rifle, you'll have to wait for them to turn or pass on the shot. I don't like to pass up shots, so I like the .375, my 15-yr old som shot the 7x57.

I've shot my .270 as the light gun in my battery on several African hunts in Zim and the RSA. I shot heavy for caliber 150 grain Grand Slams, who at the time, were made by Speer and never had any problems. I had one shot kills on kudu and zebra, but the other posts are correct, pick your shots and careful in the thick bush! The only imagined problem was having the wrong gun in my hands at the wrong time! I'd have the .375 when I happened upon a big impala ram and the .270 when I stumbled across kudu and zebra. Both guns worked well in all instances, it just wasn't ideal.

The two PH's with whom I hunted last year carried a .308 and .270. They were knowledgeable about cartridges, of course, but did not get all excited about the subject like us American gun nuts do.

What they did get excited about was the performance of the Failsafe bullets I was using. They had not seen .308s or even .375's completely penetrate Blue Wildebeest and Gemsbok, while breaking shoulders, like the Failsafes do.

If I take my .270 to Africa, it will be with the 140 grain Failsafe, so I do not have to worry about the angle of the shot so much.

LE270,

I am going to RSA next May and plan on using my Browning A-Bolt 270WSM for all of my plains game including gemsbok, kudu, and zebra. Bullets with either be custom 150gr Swift A-Frames or factory 140gr Failsafes. While there is much debate about the 270's adequacy for plains game, I like my rifle, shoot it well, and am comfortable will the notion that I will not take certain shots. Use quality bullets and put them in the right place and the 270 will perform just fine.

Although less than ideal, it will do the job if premium bullets are used, and as with any calibre, you but the shot in the right place.