270 WSM opinions & experience

[UnTainted]

Hi ya'll,

My dad is looking to put together a new rifle. He currently shoots a 300 win mag and loves it. He's been looking at the 300 WSM and the 270 WSM. We've shot both, and like that the 270 has a little less felt recoil.

What are ya'll's opinions and experience on this round. He has already picked the rifle and scope that will go with this caliber. He's going to do it in a Sako 85 Finnlight with a Nightforce 2.5-10x scope.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

 

[George Hill]

The .300 Win Mag and the .300 WSM are pretty much too similar to bother getting a new rifle... but the .270 WSM is a good alternative to freshen things up.
Less felt recoil, flatter trajectory.
The .270 is always a popular caliber, and the WSM version probably the best of the breed. It's faster than the .270 Win, .270 Weatherby... and it's just tick off of the 7MM Rem Mag, with less recoil and in a lighter/handier rifle. Not to mention better accuracy potential than the other .270's.
It's becoming very popular in the hunting fields all over the pace, and ammo is pretty much available for it everywhere that sells ammo now.
Yeah, he'll like it.

 

[gbran]

Yeah, ditto what George said. I don't own one but after all my research, the 270WSM is next on my list. Luv that flatter trajectory.

 

[Triple S]

Don't take this the wrong way guys, but I believe the Weatherby is quite a bit faster than the .WSM out of a 26" barrel....I am a big fan of the WSM and the Weatherby, and own both, but the WSM is not what the what the Weatherby is. Yes, the WSM bridges the gap between the Win and WBY, but it still falls short by 150-200 FPS out of a 26" WBY.

 

[Triple S]

One more thing. I have had more success with the Weatherby's shooting more accurately than the WSM's. Yes, the WSM can shoot as well, but they tend to be far more picky about loads.

 

[George Hill]

I'm an outfitter now. Have been for almost two years now full time. I work with hunters and ranchers and I get to field test (not just range test) lots of equipment. I have 2 days a week just for that purpose. That's what I do for a living these days.
According to what I've seen and verified with a chronograph, the WSM beats it every time, from 70 to 115 FPS faster in various weights. The only time WBY MAG beats it is when the WSM is heavy and the WBY is lighter... And this was all factory loaded ammo.
And even if the WBY was faster - the WSM ammo is at least loaded consistently. I've pulled bullets from factory Weatherby loads and have found as much as - and I'm not kidding or exaggerating here - differences in powder charges as much as 3 grains. And that's with loads not just from the same Lot Number, but from the same box. If you want your Weatherby Mag to shoot well, you've got to reload that stuff. WSM cartridges are more efficient, and factory ammo if anything else, is at least consistent. Given the performance edge for off the shelf stuff, I'm taking a .270 WSM every time.
Now, I'm not dissing the Weatherby stuff *cough* much. *cough*

I love the .30-378 Wby Mag

 

[shuter]

"One more thing. I have had more success with the Weatherby's shooting more accurately than the WSM's. Yes, the WSM can shoot as well, but they tend to be far more picky about loads."

- Huh? Neither of my WSM's are the least bit "picky". Why would they be? Shorter, fatter cases are, if anything, slight MORE consistent. Both of mine are sub-inch 100 yd guns, out of sporter weight barrels, with Barnes TSX bullets.

"Don't take this the wrong way guys, but I believe the Weatherby is quite a bit faster than the .WSM out of a 26" barrel"

- Out of EQUAL length barrels, the Wby will be lucky to outrun the WSM by 100 fps. Insignificant, and I'll take a few fps less any day to have the unbelted advantages that the WSM offers.

The Weatherby is also proprietary, and not easy to find ammo/rifles for (at least in terms of a selection of rifles). I just don't see why one would be preferred over the WSM. Sorry.

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

$89.99 for a box of .30-378 ammo? ouch, that'd hurt more than teh recoil

 

[shuter]

"$89.99 for a box of .30-378 ammo? ouch, that'd hurt more than teh recoil"

- That's why God made reloading presses Actually, the recoil's not bad . . . as long as that funny thing with a bunch of holes in it is screwed onto the muzzle end of the barrel.

You can literally feel a heat wave wash over your head with the muzzle brake on - but the recoil is like a .243. They're fun, but I don't shoot mine very often.

see ya

 

[osage48]

270 Wsm

My wife bought a Browning A-bolt Gold Medallion last year in 270WSM. I loaded 130 Nosler BT to about Win 270 velocities for deer hunting in Oklahoma. She consistently shot 2" groups at 200 yards off a bench. I usually group off a rest a little better than her, but I have yet to fire a group. Appears to have fine accuracy.

 

[UnTainted]

Nice! Thanks for the replies everyone.

 

[George Hill]

The price of the .30-378 ammo has gone up 10 bucks since that photo was taken.
Recoil? I've fired .243's with more kick. I'm not even kidding. That Accumark shoots like a pussycat... hits like a JDAM.
This is how we do it in Utah:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssh8Vsbvn2A

 

[xringer3]

I haven't seen enough difference between the 270 win and the 270wsm to give up my 270 win. If I were to get a 270 magnum, then it would be the weatherby since there is not a great deal of difference between the other two.

I can't remember who ran the tests, but I saw some awhile back were the 270 win and wsm were compared with factory ammo. The fastest of the two was the 270 win in the Hornady Lite Magnum with the 130 grain Hornady Interbond bullet. Makes you wonder what the Light Magnum technology could do to the wsm cases, huh?

 

[Triple S]

We are beating a dead horse here, and I think the WSM and Weatherby are both fine choices, but to give myself some credit, the published Weatherby ballistics are faster than other published WSM ballistics than I can find...Regardless they are so dang close, any animal that walks will not feel a difference. On the point about the pickiness of the ammo, my two WSM 's are custom. One with a Kreiger barrel and the other has a Shillen, loaded with handloads, both will shoot sub 1/2 MOA (close to 1/4 a lot of times) pretty much every time out. I have tried many of the premimum factory loads, but have not found one yet that will do much better than 1 1/2 MOA consistently. My two Weatherby's are completely factory (one is a German built and the other is a "newer" model) and have shot pretty much all factory loads between 1/2 and 1 MOA very consistently. We all have opinions, but in my expereince the WSM's have been much tougher to find a load for. Now are they accurate? You dang right, but it took ME much longer to find the sweet spot. Both factory, Weatherby's have done extremely well with just about every facotry load I have tried. This is why I make my claim about their pickiness. Now everyone is to their own, but this has been my experience and why "I" choose the Weatherby over the WSM.

 

[Gordon]

I wanted a light plains game rifle to take to Africa with my Rem 700 SS .375 . I did not want to take a priceless old or custom gun but wanted accuracy, power and reliability. I bought a Winchester Ultimate Shadow Stainless CRF in .270 WSM. This is a hunting gun and not a gun I will range shoot much. To that end I mounted a silver finish Vari X 3 I had waiting for the right canidate rifle in silver low Dednutz mounts ( these mounts are the BOMB IMHO) and bought 6 boxes of Federal Premium ammo loaded with 130 grain X bullets. I shot a box up at the range sighting the gun in dead on at 200 yards where I was getting 2 1/2" groups off the bags with three shots very close together of 5 shots in the last string. yes I lightened the trigger down to a crisp 3 1/4 pounds.
I went deer hunting in Colorado a couple weeks back and got a 200+ pound 4 pointer at a Leica Lazered 270 yards with a centered shoulder hit. The exit hole on the far side amid ships(ribs) was about 1", the lungs jellied and the near side shoulder pretty well torn up, but the deer sagged down at the shot and only kicked for a few seconds-perfect performance! Now one deer is not the complete answer, BUT I think this combo will down everything under wildebeast up to 400 yards and I have confidence in it. I put the gun next to my old 1953 Win 70 .270 and think "I've lost over a pound and picked up 150 yards range and it's waterproof". I will be sticking to the 130 grain TSX bullets at 3300fps, if I need more I'll go to the bigger guns!

 

[George Hill]

"Regardless they are so dang close, any animal that walks will not feel a difference."
That's exactly right. We nit pick insignificant differences way too much. Any .270 is fully capable of taking down clean just about every big game species in North America save Polar Bear... which I wouldn't want to hunt with anything short of a TOW.