.270 for plains game? Should I be scrapping it?

[ActionBob]

Do take your 270. It is not hard to get it imported as others have noted. Us the extra money you might have put into a different barrel or gun for that eland trophy fee Then shoot the eland with your 270

A-Frame, Trophy Bonded Tipped, and TSX or Tipped TSX are all good choices and much better than the older bullets. A TSX at 270 velocity should be devastating! .

Listen to your PH on shot placement. Forget what you think you know about shot placement on non African animals. Practice shooting off sticks! Practice reloading and getting a second shot off also. Set up targets at various ranges and shoot off sticks eloading and transitioning to different ranges. O really doubt you will be shooting anything that is not at point blank range for a 270.

Afton House is worth checking into with their Mr. X. Riflepermits.com and Africa Sky are others that can help you. I've used all of them successfully.

Afton can also help you with shipping trophies and even with taxidermy now. Their pricing is such that I plan to look into that further for our next trip. Email them and ask for the flyer/info on shipping and taxidermy.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Everyone is recommending Swift A Frames but they are really hard to buy here in the US let alone the UK. I'm a fan of Barnes TSX or TTSX, Nosler Partition or Norma Oryx bullets.

 

[Red Leg]

Everyone is recommending Swift A Frames but they are really hard to buy here in the US let alone the UK. I'm a fan of Barnes TSX or TTSX, Nosler Partition or Norma Oryx bullets.

TSX, TTSX, and Oryx are all state of the art and any would serve you well.

 

[Labman]

I've used my .270 on numerous plains game animals from Impala to Eland. No problems with the 150 Gr. Nosler Partition. I've shot a total of six Eland on various hunts. Only shot one with the .270 but that Eland went down just as quick as those shot with my .338 Win.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Similar thread:

130 tsx vs 150 grain a-frame 270 winchester

270 Winchester is very limited by twist rate and looking around at bullets to see what would 100% stable. most bullets i was looking at such as the TTSX/LRX, trophy bonded tip, swift sirocco, and hornady interbond most if not all of these were marginally stable rather than 100% stable. then i...

www.africahunting.com

 

[DLSJR]

A .270 Winchester is fine for nearly any & all plains game, provided you shoot quality bullets. Shooting 150 grain Nosler Partitions ot TSX’s, my son and I have shot zebra, greater kudu, sable, warthogs, hartebeest and a variety of smaller game. All recovered easily and most with one shot.
I personally would not hesitate to use it on an eland if it’s what I had with me.

Shoot quality bullets in a heavy for caliber weight, like 150’s, and put them in the right place and you’ll find a .270 to be an excellent choice for most of what you can hunt in Africa, excluding dangerous game (even though it’d be excellent for leopards with a 150 grain Remington CoreLokt or Sierra Game King).

 

[Bert the Turtle]

1) get a copy of The Perfect Shot and study well
2) put a TTSX in your rifle and live happily every after. Heavy for caliber is good, but remember the only weight that matters is the weight that remains after impact. A mono metal bullet is going to give approximately 100% weight retention so it needn’t be excessive to begin with. Shoot straight and that 270 will do its job.

 

[Neil Molendyk]

1) get a copy of The Perfect Shot and study well

 

[TERMINATOR]

If you have a .270 you like I would not bother with anything else for Plains Game with the possible exception of Eland. As noted many times here...use the heavier bullets (150) and use tough bullets. Trophy Bonded Bearclaw, Swift A-Frames are my favorites. Mono-metal bullets are great. The Nosler Accubond or Swift Scirocco are great. The Nosler Partition is deadly as well.

I can attest that the Partitions, Accubonds and Trophy Bonded are deadly on African plains game

My first trip to RSA I shot a 7mm08 and had people tell me "good luck finding your animals". Shooting 140 grain Accubonds we found all my animals...DOA

 

[TERMINATOR]

Thanks folks!


Can I ask why the swift A frames are so popular on here? Are they a lead core?

Tend to be an accubonds man. I’ve seen good things about partitions but they’re hard to get here.


A frames seem to come up a lot though!

Accubonds will do just fine. I can say so from personal experience

 

[dogcat1]

Yes. My kids have used them several times. We shoot 150gr TSX's or Partitions.
Work great.

 

[Green Chile]

TSX, TTSX, and Oryx are all state of the art and any would serve you well.

I generally use TSX or A-frames but in my 7x57 referenced earlier, those were all 156 or 158 grain Oryx and they were great with zero issues on game. I only recovered one bullet from 15 animals. That was my first hunt with Oryx bullets.

 

[Rocked and Loaded]

Pierre van der Walt states in African Medium Game Cartridges that the 270 Win is “most sensibly used against game up to the 350 lb - 750 lb weight class.” Though he has a caveat that animals heavier than 450 lbs are probably better left alone at longer ranges (375 yards and further).

He also recommends 140 to 160 grain bonded bullets at “plains-range” since you may need to fire at shorter range where the high velocity of the 270 might cause unbonded cup and core bullets to fail.

I don’t know if I would be allowed to post it directly from the book but there’s a Optimum Application Bands for Different Bullet Weights chart that is really helpful for his explanations.

 

[Nyati]

Only needed one shot !

 

[Green Chile]

I will say when we found a big eland, the PH handed me my .416 Rigby with solids (elephant load) and said leave the little gun behind on this one. Same on the zebra...he said smoke it with that Rigby. There are practical limits to the 270's, 7mm's, etc.

 

[sgt_zim]

High MV and short range shooting is begging for bonded or monometal bullets.

There are legit reasons why premium bullets exist, and it's largely for this circumstance. Read about John Nosler's moose hunt with a 300 H&H at close range if you aren't familiar with it.

 

[Red Leg]

I will say when we found a big eland, the PH handed me my .416 Rigby with solids (elephant load) and said leave the little gun behind on this one. Same on the zebra...he said smoke it with that Rigby. There are practical limits to the 270's, 7mm's, etc.

My 7x57 is pretty effective on zebra and blue wildebeest. I wouldn't hesitate to use 150 gr .270 on either (it would have far better SD than a .30 of the same weight .279 vs .226). I suppose I would also listen to the PH with respect to the eland - zebra not so much.

 

[Rubberhead]

Here's a 180 grain Accubond pulled out from just under the skin on the opposite side of a zebra stallion. My biggest suggestion is to make sure your PH's shooting sticks have four legs instead of just three...if so, you'll be fine with Accubonds, in my opinion.

The shot is at about 1:40...not a great video, though, I just had a gopro shoved in my shirt pocket. @BAYLY SIPPEL SAFARIS

 

[rookhawk]

If you go to any elk camp in America the discussion around the fire in the evening is always Nosler Partitions.

1.) Old guy number 1 says: They've had devastating results and worked flawlessly for my entire adult lifetime.

2.) Old guy number 2 says: I had a lot of years of great luck with them until....

Bottom line, partitions open irregularly and you cannot predict how they "frange" with consistency. I've had devestating good luck with them and I've recovered animals after needless chases where the partitions didn't expand properly, or they deflected the wound channel to a non-lethal area of the animal.

We can do better. The a-frame is a VASTLY superior bullet even though I've surely killed more game with Nosler Partition's than all other bullets combined. Eventually, your luck runs out with NPs and then you're a former proponent.

As @Red Leg has stated, A-Frames, TTSX, and Norma Oryx are far superior bullets technologically than Partitions. In a distant second place (but still superior to NP) would be an accubond.

When you're not bringing enough gun, you better do everything you possibly can to get the very best bullet. Otherwise you're stacking problems that compound on top of one another.

FWIW, to kill the OPs bag list in Africa I always used 7x57mm rifles with 175gr bullets. My son used a 7x64mm that provided even more gusto. Nonetheless, I wouldn't hesitate to use the 270 if it had a really good bullet of appropriate weight.

 

[CBH Australia]

Replied on the other forum.
I made mention of the outfitters wife using a .25-06 on Kudu and that they are mounted on the wall.
I used a hire rifle for simplicity but certainly understand those wanting to use their own rifle as a part of the whole experience.