Handloads: 100 Years Of The .270 Win.

The .270 Winchester isn’t a military cartridge, and nobody ever claimed it was a target cartridge; it is a straightforward hunting cartridge. During the past 50 years, I’ve hunted quite a bit carrying a .270 Win. rifle, and, to tell the truth, no cartridges have come along that significantly better it for hunting.

Since it’s such a popular hunting cartridge, every brand and style of bullet is available for handloading the .270 Win. If you want to handload single-metal copper-alloy bullets, Hornady sells its CX, Barnes its Tipped Triple Shock and Hammer Bullets its Hunter. If shooting past the curvature of the Earth is of interest, Federal Terminal Ascent, Hornady ELD-X and Nosler AccuBond Long Range bullets carry high ballistic coefficients that retain velocity and flatten trajectories. Swift 130-grain Scirocco bullets, which were used for this recipe, also have relatively high BCs, and the lead core is bonded to a thick copper jacket. Shooting 130-grain copper-alloy and bonded-core bullets really negates the need to shoot heavier 150-grainers.

Hodgdon H4831 is the classic propellant for the .270 and delivers excellent accuracy and velocity, but IMR 4350 has probably delivered the best accuracy from the dozen .270 Win. rifles I’ve shot over the years. The recipe’s 64.0 grains of Hodgdon H1000, fired from a 24" barrel, nearly duplicated the advertised muzzle velocity of Winchester’s original 3,160-f.p.s. .270 Win. load from 1925 shooting a 130-grain pointed-soft-point expanding bullet. Shot from more common 22" barrels, various propellants fired 130-grain bullets close to 3,060 f.p.s.

It’s anyone’s guess whether new rifles will be chambered for .270 Winchester a century from now. But it’s likely safe to say that, at least into the foreseeable future, hunters will still be shooting the .270 Win. in the countless rifles already in the field.