.270 Ammo For Elk

[Chris Sloan]

Gotta go against the grain and say the $50 fancy bullet ammo is just not as critical. Cant imagine many deer/elk hunters back in the 60s and 70s, loseing game they shot in the vitals because the bullets werent holding together. If caliber and bullet weight are right, standard remington/winchester ammo will consistently fill your tags. Its already proven. What would you want on a mule deer/ elk hunt, a 243 with 120 gr sstxz titanium turbo ballistic tips or 30-06 180 gr remington cor locts. Buy a couple extra boxes of ammo with the money you save and get some practice at the range @ 200-350( your max range) yds. Thatll help more than anything.

 

[1grumpy1969]

I shoot a .270 and have shot 2 elk with a 130 grain bullet. They are very affective. Shoot what you are comfortable with.

 

[AdamW]

Appreciate this info guys. Trying to decide between finding a better factory load or experimenting with some handloads in the coming year. Having always been a whitetail hunter, I've shot the cheaper .270 Federal Power Shok 130 gr. factory ammo for several years with good success. Shoots 1" in my 700, but don't know how I feel about a soft point that light for my first elk hunt. Longer range shooting and accuracy testing to be done this year either way.

 

[Chris Sloan]

So after that thread hi-jacking, whats there not to be " comfortable" with between 130 vs 150? Even though we are just splitting hairs here, confidence kills animals and that comes from knowing your useing the right tools. The old standard has always been more wt for more ft/lbs. Guess i just dont see any benefit of going lighter. 3 in diff in holdover @ 300 yds aint much, think id rather have the ft lbs

 

[Ryan Avery]

To the OP questions. I knew an old timer that lived up the CDA river in Idaho. He lived there his whole life and remembered when they introduced the elk up there. He told me they started hunting them a little earlier than most Anyways, he only hunted with two rifles, a 270 win and a 270 gibbs. He had shot well over a hundred elk, from 5 feet to 600 yards and had the racks to prove it. I asked him what bullet he liked, he said the one he had loaded at the time. But said he prefered the 130, he said it just seemed to kill them deader faster... haha

Shoot them where is counts and you will be fine with a 130.

 

[Jon Boy]

Like Ryan, I also know an old timer who had a pile of downed elk to a 270. He was an outfitter in Cody for years and killed everything under the sun with his 270, sheep, moose, goats elk etc. I was with him last year when he whacked a big lead cow, she fell over dead real quick. Only bullets hes ever shot were 130 coreloks.

 

[FlorianAli]

The 270/130 with a good bullet is plenty for elk. I've killed maybe 20 with the 130 partition, out to serious distances, most over 300 yards. The new favorite is the 130 GMX Hornady in their superformance ammo. After a long shot that hit quite a bit of bone, the bullet "only" had 129.3 grains left. Hitting the vitals with a good bullet will result in your getting the knives dirty. Hitting elk poorly will result in major disappointment.

 

[kcm2]

The previous comment about a 270/130 was by me. For some reason, the software credited someone else, and even now, it's still calling me "Ryan."

I have no idea why.

 

[Ryan Avery]

Kcm2, can you PM or email me a screen shot?

[email protected]