Is there any real advantage in changing a .270 win for a .300 win mag for long range shots (300 to 500 yards) at deer size game (130 to 180 lbs)?
I own a ruger m77 hawkeye chambered in .270 win, which shoots very well with the ballistic silvertip ammo. But was wandeing if I could get any advantage for long range shots with a similar rifle but chambered in .300 win mag. probably using the same type of ammunition.
For that sized game, I'd look at the .270WSM V the .270 to make a personal decision. I own both the .270 and .270WSM and I like the additional HP, myself.
While I have and do hunt deer with .300mags, the .270WSM will do all the .300 does.
Thanks. In terms of accuracy and trajectory, is there any advantage on the .300 win mag (180 grains, BC: 0.507) over the .270 (130 grains, BC:0.433) for a 500 to 600 yards shot?
You asked about "medium game", but went on to clarify that you mean deer and other thin-skinned (meaning, not hard to kill) medium game. For deer and the like, whichever cartridge you shoot well enough to place the shots will kill them just fine, so there's no disadvantage to using the 270 Winchester. There is also no disadvantage to using the 300 Win Mag, if you shoot it well.
The .300 win mag with the right bullet will have enough velocity, and put enough energy downrange to ethically take a deer out to 900 yards. But I do not advise such a shot. If you can't cut down to at least 300 yards in any terrain you aren't really trying. And at 900 yards you need to be able to shoot Sub .5 MOA to put that shot where it needs to go. That requires a purpose built rifle and a lot of experience. Not many shooters can pull that off.
For your purposes the .270 will continue to work well, but the .300 win mag wouldn't be a bad choice, more of just a change in flavor.
The .300 win mag is the choice of cartridge for many militaries as a sniper rifle cartridge. It shoots pretty flat all the way out to 500-600 yards or so depending on the load. The .270 shoot fairly flat too though.
As has been capably answered, your 270 Win is fine for game described out to 500 yards. No doubt that the 300 achieves this and more, but at the cost of rifle weight and recoil. The real value in the 300 at longer range would be the blood trail the larger diameter bullet provides. Even a big deer at 500 yards looks small and finding him once he's run a short ways can be difficult. You'll certainly find the animal more easily if shot with a 300 at that distance. A good hunter would get closer if possible as a 300 yard shot with either rifle will do the trick better and, in that case, why carry a heavier rifle that kicks more?
I'll echo what others have said. 270 is ample plenty for what your describing. If you want to get a little more out of it you can always hand load and tailor a load to your specific rifle. The 145 grain ELD-X has a claimed bc of .536, the silver tips your using are a claimed .433. i've looked pretty hard at the 300 win mag and after a lot of hem hawing decided that there wasn't anything I would ever realistically shoot at that my 270 couldn't handle. In fact, I seriously looked at tuning the barrel down and wildcatting a 270-08 and if I should ever wear the throat out of my 270 I suspect thats exactly what I'll do.
If you were shooting at sheep across ridges I could see the appeal of more horsepower but even then I think Id go 7mm mag instead of 300 win, little bit less recoil, nice bc on the bullets, plenty of selection, etc... etc... That being said, I've got a torn rotator cuff and heavy shoulder recoil isn't anywhere on my to do list so a 9 pound 270 is plenty good enough for me. Best of luck!
Agree with Broom and Mike.
Just ran some calcs with Shooter, with my current weather. At 500 yards you are talking about a 2 moa elevation difference at most. If 2 MOA causes a miss at that distance, you can't make the shot anyway.
The game in question is easily dispatched by either of your choices. Shoot what you are more accurate with, and what you want to hunt with. The rest is simply details.
My "long" shot is 100 +/- at best. The only time i took a deer at a distance was a bit over 200 yards with a .300 Win mag and it was down and dead before i ejected the casing. I like the .300 over the .270, ive used both, they both perform, but if i were going somewhere with distance id take my .300 Wby or .257 Wby, and the .257 being first choice, it just has trajectory like a laser, and sight in with a ballistics calculator and you can hunt without a rangefinder, just put the crosshairs on the target. This is merely an opinion, you should use what YOU are comfortable with. You will be doing the hunt, and the shot, therefore your comfort level and skill is what you need to consider, good luck
Likely as not, you'll never have need of a rifle for 400-500 yard shots unless your looking for it and really want to shoot at that distance. For big game I have never needed a shot over around 200 yds in my life, I've been hunting over 50 yrs. I did take a shot at 330 yds, according to the range finder, years ago but only reason I did it was to say I did.
The 270 win is a great round and covers quite a range of applications.
IMHO, the next significant step up is .338 "something" - such as .338 win mag, not .300 for extending the range. I am not sure if this is because of an inherent characteristic of the .338 size or not, but one thing is for sure, there is tremendous investment and competition in the .338 bullet market for long range applications (2 - 3X what you are attempting).
The deer itself might not notice any difference when you are hunting, but just keep in mind that there are things in the woods that eat deer as well.
Somewhat ignored on many forums is the effect of potential future hunting law changes and bullets. Some of the higher end precision bullets are built by machining them from copper alloys, so the SD is lower. In other words, using them increases precision, but the lower SD tends to push users toward larger calibers for similar effect. I am not in any way claiming that these are better or worse environmentally, but they are here to stay and over the life of you rifle, there is good chance that you will find yourself using them at some point.
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