270 wsm ammo preference

[Bigfeet]

Wanted to ask if anyone has experience with the 270 wsm and which ammunition you like the best. I'm going to get a new rifle this year and have been fluctuating in caliber choice between the 270 wsm and 7mm Rem. I am leaning toward the wsm, a little less recoil (probably not much! and probably not a great reason to choose one over the other), plus I found one in the rifle I want (a Weatherby S2). Honestly, I'm primarily a bowhunter, but I may use a rifle on a special hunt or two at some point. As I may use this rifle for elk or moose, I was thinking I would stick to a heavier bullet - 150 grain (which, I believe, is the heaviest grain weight available in loaded ammo for the 270 wsm). Rifles, I know, can be finicky over which brand they like best, so I was hoping someone might recommend a loaded 150 grain brand that they have had good accuracy with.

 

[Shrek]

I can only tell you what not to use. No coated bullets ! This afternoon I have been cleaning a friends 270 that had started shooting poorly. Turns out he had shot a couple of boxes of Winchester supreme with lubelox coating. The rifle had gone from shooting 3/4"-1" groups to shooting 3"-4" groups. After more than 150 passes with 4 new bronze brushes broken every 10 strokes with a solvent patch it is still not clean and the coating trapped corrosives and the barrel is lightly pitted now. Going to get some non embedding bore polish and see what I can do but I suspect the barrel is ruined. For the first 100 passes it felt like I was pulling the the brush through paste. After 150 passes with a bronze brush the bore should be gleaming bright steel but its not. It is a dull grey with whitish corrosion spots.

 

[Matt Cashell]

Bigfeet,

i can't help you on specific factory ammo, but I have had two 270 WSMs that I handloaded for.

The two bullets I liked the best with it were the 140 Accubond and 140 Barnes TSX (now I would use the TTSX though).

I killed bull elk with both of those bullets from that cartridge, and had zero problems.

I really liked the cartridge, and had a lot of confidence in it in the field.

My issue with the 270 WSM is that it is pretty overbore, and torches throats pretty quickly if you shoot a lot. Since you will be running factory ammo though you likely won't shoot the volume of rounds, unless you are made of money . Quality WSM ammo ain't cheap.

If you want to go over 140grains, I would recommend going up to a 7mm or 30.

 

[Matt Cashell]

Dave, I used JB Bore Paste on a tight jag with Butch's patches, and got a lubaloxed barrel clean and useable.

If you let Wipe Out sit in there a week, it might loosen it up too.

 

[Whisky]

What's lubelox? Basically a moly coated bullet? Bad stuff!!!

Dave, I'd have ordered a new barrel after brush #2.

I spent countless hours trying to get a 308 barrel clean. Many patches, brushes, different solvents, JB bore paste on steel wool, tried it all. I didn't have access to a borescope but I suspect a carbon ring. I started getting high pressure in very mild loads!!! Also, the copper in there was unbelievable all of a sudden. I still don't know exactly what happened, and talked to a few different people on it. I was ready to order Tubbs Final Finish bullets and give them a whirl, but I just said piss on it. My 308 ended up turning into a 6.5mm SLR. I still got the barrel so when my gunsmith ever buys a borescope we can check things out. Only had about 1k rounds through it too. About 2 boxes of Moly coated bullets were shot through it right about the same time my problems first appeared. Possibly just a coincidence.

 

[Shrek]

JB's is what I'm going to get in the morning. He swears it was only a box and a half but I can't believe it . When I put the first solvent patch down it didn't seem really dirty but when I hit it with the brush the barrel was coated in goo. The first couple patches after the brush looked like they were coated in black grease. I have never seen such a mess. After about 130 passes the last new brush finally sounded like a brush on metal but the patches sill had black rifling streaks. I quit after 16 or 17 cycles. I lost count at 15 cycles.

 

[Shrek]

Whiskey , I suspect he will need a new barrel. It's an early 80' remington 700 bdl that shot really well before he ruined it with this coated bullet cr*p. If it won't shoot I'm going to talk him into a 280 AI barrel. He keeps says he is going to learn to hand load and I'm not going to tell him he can't get 280 AI at the store.

 

[Shrek]

To update my progress or more precisely my lack of. I got the JB Bore shine today and after 65 passes with a patch on a brush it is still not bare metal in the grooves ! I cleaned all the paste out and cleaned and oiled it and I'm sending it back to him as is. If it shoots ok now great if not I've done all I can do. Never never never ever put coated bullets in your rifle !

 

[Matt Cashell]

Sounds like it's a no-hope situation. It is just going to foul like crazy from now on.

On the plus side, he has a good excuse to have an aftermarket barrel spun on it.

 

[Shrek]

Yep. I was thinking and it seems that Winchester got a bad name for accuracy about the time olin started putting that stuff on their supreme line. I'm wondering how many people bought a new Winchester and then matched it with some Winchester supreme ammo. If they shot that junk first and it didn't shoot and then tried other ammo and it didn't shoot they would blame the rifle. I'm thinking the ammo may have been killing US Repeating Arms' reputation. All the early 2000's Winchester rifles I saw seemed well made but they were gaining a bad rep.

 

[big10hunter]

Sent u a PM.

 

[Shrek]

Bigfeet , I apologize for the thread hijacking.

 

[Shrek]

I was just rereading your original post Bigfeet and I would not recommend the 270 wsm . Expensive to shoot and ammo can be scarce. The 7mm rem mag would be better or a 7-08 , 308 might be even better as you are a bow hunter and will spend most of your practice time with your bow. Those two will kill any elk out to 450 yards easy and be much more shooter friendly. If not one of them then maybe a 30-06. The magnums kick hard and it takes a practiced shooter to shoot long range well. You won't see many long range guys shooting a big magnum without a brake for good reason. The kick will give you a flinch in no time. I don't care what you shoot , if you can't hit it for flinching then you can't kill it.

 

[Bigfeet]

Daveinjax,
No problem with the thread 'hijacking'. I find it interesting to see where these threads go. Not an issue.
Thanks for your thoughts regarding the rifle. I have looked into the pricing and scarcity of the ammo, and it certainly is a consideration. Still haven't made up my mind completely on that, so I appreciate your input. As for shooting a rifle, I have shot for over 30 years, grew up rifle hunting. Always find time to shoot my rifle a couple times a year. I think you're absolutely right about recoil and ability to shoot. The rifle I have currently is a featherweight Husqvarna 270 - kicks like a mule and has the worst trigger ever (heavy, lots of creep). I have had it forever and have decided to finally get something I can be more confident in, in terms of my accuracy with it. I have shot 7mm's, and heavier calibers, and the recoil of those is less than my current 270 (it really is pretty harsh!). Regardless of which I get, I think it will be nicer to shoot than my current rifle.