lr 270 question

[GoodOlBoy]

I have heard of folks making good kill shots on whitetail, and even elk with 140-150gr 270s out to and beyond 500, my quesiton is however is this a decent round to expect that kind of range from or is it light for the job? I may have a hunt comming up in Decemeber if I get real lucky in west Texas, but the place they are on normally shoots out to around 625 at whitetail and sika.

Just wondering if I should call it on account of lack of range before I get my hopes up.

GoodOlBoy

[petey]

It'll do it, as long as you practice and make sure the gun can shoot that good at those distances.

Here's some sample data.

140 grain, BC .490 travelling at 2900fps at muzzle.

at 625 yards you have roughly 1069 ftlbs of energy (I've seen them killed with 500 ftlbs) Bullet is travelling at 1800 fps at 625 and you have 88" of drop . Yup that's 7.3 feet, so hopefully you're using a mildot scope or something with target knobs on it? Just holding high doesn't fly at those distances obviously, so you need the proper glass along with a gun that actually will shoot at those distances. Only way to know is to try it with some field testing

[Ridge Runner]

no matter what the caliber its all simple math to 700 yds.
any caliber from the 260 rem on up (shooting high BC and SD bullets) will work.
RR

[GoodOlBoy]

Yepo have my target knobs installed, and yepo ya better believe I need ALOT of practice. Still there is time to get quite a bit of it in before the chance arrives.

GoodOlBoy

[petey]

Just keep in mind, figuring out your drop is simple enough, but wind is a whole other ball game.

If I hit where I don't hold at those distances, 9 times out of 10 it's b/c of something the wind is doing. You can only gauge the wind where you're shooting from. Unless you're blessed with a small tail wind/or head wind (which will play havoc on your drop also), you just have to shoot and learn to use your gut in how the wind is blowing. Watch the trees, brush, wind markers, anything that gives you a clue as to how much there is and which way it's blowing.

Once you get your drop figured, start practicing to learn how much a simple 2 mph breeze will effect your shot (enough to miss a deer at 700) Obviously there's simple calculations for that also..but the unknown is....how much wind is there for real between the target and me. You get the drift. That along with the 100 other variables and you're good to go!! ha ha. Once you start shooting those ranges and actaully hit what you're aiming at, I guarentee you'll get hooked.

BTW, it's normally a two man sport, so make sure you bring a spotter with some real good glass to watch what your bullet is doing. Have them set up behind you so they can pick up the bullet trace as it makes it way out there. I enjoy spotting as much as shooting sometimes.

From the recoil of my gun (no muzzle break), I can pick up the impact around 850 yards. Anything under, I don't know what my bullet did, so I rely heavily on what my spotter tells me and adjust my clicks accordingly. Some guys with muzzlebreaks get settled back down around 400 yards or less depending on weight and caliber of gun, and can see what their bullet is doing. I don't use those sissy things ha ha j/k there guys. There is a purpose for them, more so than elliminating "kick" and this is one of them.

[GoodOlBoy]

Got news for ya brother I am already hooked and I haven't even been on the line for awhile

I figure dad can spot some for me at the range since he already has decent glass. Beyond that we will have to see.

Thanks guys

GoodOlBoy

[Catfish]

A good gun and scope is not enough to make consistant shots at those ranges. You will need a good range finder at the least and an antimomater???, the thing you use to measure wind speed is a big help. You will need to carry the drop chart and drift chart. I like to dial in the drop and use mil-dots for drift. With deer I would have no problem with a 130 gn. bullet at those ranges, but don`t think I would try elk with a .270 at those ranges, even though a well placed shot would do the job.

[jeepster]

I use a 270wsm. i use my rangefinder in this case i find my target at let's say 600yrds. start shooting ajusting my scope untill i can aim dead on and hit where i was aiming., consistanly. It works for me,i know the guns zero at that range.

i use the same formula for my 340wby. my 270 is 0 at 400yrds. 140gr hornady bt. the 340 is 600yrds. i rely on my rf before i ever pull the trigger. instead of buying the newer scopes with a lot of rainging built in i rely on what i all ready have. nothing wrong with them at all, there great improvments, i just won't allow myself to purchase every new gizzmo that pops up. i try to be more creative with what i have on hand.

for refernce i print it on a target, then if i ever want to change i always know where to go back to. i use the 270 out to 500 yrds. on deer only, not that it wont work on larger game, that's just my own way. good luck.....


tip em over!!

[bigbrother]

Catfish is correct on needing both of the tools he suggested for long range shooting. One note on range finders, they're not all the same. Just because it says it can range 1000 yds doesn't mean it will. Most of them will range about 70% of their maximum on animals on a good day. So I would try yours out on some animals at 5 to 600 yds to make sure that you can get readings from it. We learned quickly that on groundhogs we could only get 500 yds or so from 1000 yd models. Ranging rocks, bushes may work but if it's standing on an open hill side you could be out of luck. Probably the best non-bino model available is the leica lrf 1200. It will consistently get you to 700/800 yds on deer size animals. You can pick up a simple wind meter for less than $100. Even if you're not fully devoted to this, it will be money well spent as you will up your hit to miss ratio instantly by knowing what the wind is doing where you're shooting from.

Another note about wind. Petey is right that it can change dramatically between where you're at and where the game is at. There are a lot of equations to help you determine what happens with consistent wind, with a stronger wind for the 1st 100 yds, then a lighter wind and so on. The best thing you can do is take a reading where you are, and estimate what the wind is doing at the target. What it's doing where the shooter is, is the most important. It's what starts moving your bullet off the direct path to the target.

That's why everyone that enjoys long range shooting says to practice. It's the experience in shooting in differing conditions that will help you make 1st shot kills on animals that your friends won't believe.

Catfish, let me know if you want to get together and shoot some groundhogs next summer. we always enjoy shooting with another long ranger. We have a farm we can shoot on out to 1 mile

[Ridge Runner]

Big Bro is right on, the farthest I have ever been able to range a deer with my lieca 1200 is 971 yds. if you wanna shoot beyond 700 you need to dial, the best setup is a kestrel or another type of weather/altitude monitor and a pda running a ballistic program.
Shoot a heavy for caliber high BC bullet at a moderate velocity and watch the fur fly!

The 6.5 gibbs is a 270 case btw, just necked down and improved to the max
RR

[bigbrother]

RR, who did you have build your 6.5? It's a sharp looking gun. I shoot a 6.5x284 mainly because the action I had was a 700 short action. Had it been a long action, it would be wearing a 6.5 gibbs. Ray Romain in Brockport, PA is a huge gibbs fan. He shoots the .30 at 1000yd bench rest comps. (as well as others) He's the smith that built my gun. (I would highly recommend him)

[Ridge Runner]

Big, the barreled action was built by none other than Raymond Romain. a local smith did the stockwork.
RR

[bigbrother]

Cool! What bullet are you shooting out of it? I've shot SMK's, the AMAX and Bergers all out of mine. Currently I'm sticking with the 140 Bergers as they are super accurate have a great BC and really work on deer and groundhogs. The AMAX work great as well, really opening up on deer way out there. The only reason I even bothered with the Bergers was because of the BC difference. I didn't have a lot of luck with the SMK's opening up on groundhogs so I never tried them on deer as I didn't want to risk it.

[Ridge Runner]

Big bro,
that deer was taken with a 139 gr lapua scenar, pushed to 3280 fps with 60 gr of re22, will not shoot another deer with the scenars, that one was a bang flop but I didn't like the performance of it.
Deer was hard quartering away, bedded actualy, POI was just at the top of the hip, when the scenar hit bone it broke in 2, a sectioned scenar shows a very large hollow cavity over 1/4" long from about there the ogive starts to the tip, it broke right where the hollow cavity starts, the tip was still at the hip bone, the jacket and core continued on, clipping the lower edje of the spine, sending fragments into both lungs, as the got almost to the offside shoulder they separated and were found SXS lodged under the hide at the top of the offside shoulder. she never regained her feet, but I feel I was lucky so I'm waiting on arrival of some berger 140's, gonna run some H-1000 behind them (62 gr). may lengthen the throat some and try to gain another 100 fps velocity, don't need it but if I can run a 140 gr (BC of .64) at 3300 fps it'll mirror the trajectory of my 7mm AM to beyond 800 yds.
RR

[petey]

RR,

If you came all the way up to Ray's to pick up your gun, then you drove right by some of our prime groundhog fields off I-80. We'll be hunting tomorrow so I'll let you know how the 180 Bergers perform on deer out of the 7.

We'll hit our typical spot, but if it doesn't produce anything by early morning I have a new spot about an hr to the North where we can shoot at least a mile in either direction and 600+ yards behind you. It is an awesome place to say the least and you can literally shoot 280-300 degrees around you. They got 18" of snow there on Monday and a little more the rest of the week, so initially we're going to hunt where there's only about 4" of snow (plus it's only a 35 min drive)

The weather looks fairly good. Teens to low 20's but there will be some snow accumulation, so hopefully it doesn't hinder our vision. Wind may play a factor since they are calling for about 10 mph. Hopefully we'll have some pictures, video and stories to share by the weekend.