found a great deal on a 270 weatherby mag. looks like on paper a great long range deer bomber. do you think it would be adequate for elk? i would love to see my wife use something a little bigger than her 25.06. what do you guys think?
It's a litte better than the std. 270 WCF and that, in its self, is pretty fine praise..It apparently has a 50 yd. edge on the 270 Win. according to the books.
I personally would rather use the 270 WCF, and skip the blast and recoil and weight, as that extra 100 to 150 FPS means nothing from a practical standpoint...I bet your wife would too, unless YOU just want another rifle, as is the case with husbands most of the time......Now how'd I know that?
Well, I'll tell you a hunting account that i heard on the range a while ago. It seems on one of their hunts to canada for big whitetails, this one fellow who exclusively uses a .270 Weatherby and usually at long ranges, ended up with a shot at 20 feet...i'm not sure how many time he had to shoot at it, but it was more than once due to the fact that the bullets were exploding on impacting the skin (hence a big mess and no penetration) ultimately his brother in law had to swing out the 7/08 (or 30/06 i forget which one he was using) and drop it, which he did in one shot. I'm not going to preach the way of the big and slow moving bullet, but i will say to wathc your loads and make sure you can kill as easily at 10 paces as you can at 300 yards
Posts: 1723 | Location: wyo | Registered: 03 March 2001
My wife shoots a .270 Wby and has killed several deer and one bear with hers. We will be going on a B.C. moose hunt later in the month and she will be using it up there. I will let the board know how it performs for her. BTW, Col. Craig Boddington does the write up for the .270 Wby in the #4 Nosler reloading manual. Check out what he has to say about the caliber. Spike Nail
It is my opinion that a 130 gr bullet is too light for the job on moose, Where it comes to big things that have massive bones and claws, something around 230-300 will do me just find. Old Timer
There really isn't anything bad to say about it ballistically. Slighter faster than a 270WIN (200fps?) and that caliber doesn't need to be praised any higher than it already has been, it can do it all in NA. I own one in Mark V, shoots great, generally putting its first two shots into the same expanded hole, then throwing the third, from a hot barrel about 3/4 of an inch high. That is consistent and that ain't bad.
Fast, accurate, and chambered in a quality rifle.......Hard to Beat!
------------------ Live Free! Madison, Jefferson and all the boys paid for it, and so did our very own fathers.
My first centerfire rifle was a Mk V in LH .270 Wby. Mag. Worked great, but ate my lunch at the ammo store. Unless you dig Weatherbys, my opinion is that it's not worth the price/weight when compared to the performance of the .270 Winnie. Muzzle blast and recoil are greater, also, even with the heavier gun. It was very good-looking, though.
I wouldn't ever switch from a rifle my wife shot well, unless she wanted to hunt something much bigger. Then I'd change as little as possible. It happens so many times that comfort is traded for something that seems faster and better on a sales flyer, with terrible results in the field. When the moment of truth arrives, confidence cannot be purchased with a heavier caliber. Of course, she may shoot it perfectly.
By the way, I made lots of close shots with the .270 Wby, both with and without Wby. ammo. Never any problems. I can't imagine a failure to kill a deer-sized critter at any range, with anything approaching decent shot placement. Talus
No doubt about it that the .270 wthby is a great cartridge. HOWEVER, I don't know about forcing it on your wife. I have a 25-06 that I like very much. Unfortunately it's the ONLY rifle my wife will shoot. She shoots it very well and has taken an elk and more deer and antelope than I can count with it, the elk was a one shot kill. If your wife doesn't mind recoil then it isn't a problem. Otherwise she would be better off with the gun that she is familiar with and shoots well. I've always given shot placement a higher priority than paper ballistics.
