I want to buy a new rifle and was thinking about a 270 wsm. is that a good cal or would a 270weatherby mag be better

If you buy the 270 WSM or the Weatherby be sure to price the ammo. Eyowwww out of sight for 100 fps or so over the 270 Win. With the WSM and the Weatherby you will have to buy your supply of ammo because they are harder to find in an out of the way store. The 270 Win is a proven winner, available everywhere, and not a barrel burner. A good 90% of my deer were taken with the 270 Win in over 40 years of deer hunting. Of course if you want to wow the guys in camp with a Magnum by all means go for it.

I would buy the 270 winchester in a heartbeat over either of the two you mentioned. If you don't reload, factory ammo is readily available for the old 270 WW and like popgun said, you aren't gaining much of anything with the other two. I don't rightly know why I never bought one. I have lots of calibers above and below that caliber but not a .270.

1895ss wrote:

I would buy the 270 winchester in a heartbeat over either of the two you mentioned. If you don't reload, factory ammo is readily available for the old 270 WW and like popgun said, you aren't gaining much of anything with the other two. I don't rightly know why I never bought one. I have lots of calibers above and below that caliber but not a .270.

Ditto. It is hard to beat the 270 Win without getting past the point of diminishing returns.

those are both great cartridges...I think the 270 and 325 wsm are the only interesting WSM's out there and the Wby is, well, a Weatherby (cool). I have driven a 150 gr bullet out of a 270wsm better than 200 fps faster than the 270 win with the same bullet. With that being said the 270wby will be even faster but it is still hard to beat the time tested 270 win for economy and availability.

This is still one of my favorite cartridges. It may be equalled, but never surpassed by some of the newer gee whiz calibers. All the best...
Gil

For me I've got to be different than the rest. I use the Rem 280.
I load my own and the 280 does a good job. Then again I like to stand out from the crowd. If everybody had 280's I'd own a 270.
Just Me

I'm a big fan of the .280 too and refuse to give mine up, but have to admit that any real difference between it and the .270 is mostly in our minds!

As to the WSM or Weatherby versions; the WSM might be nice if you insist on a shorter action than offered in a .270 Winchester but, as mentioned, brass will probably be a little harder to find and a bit more expensive. The Weatherby version will soon have you taking out a second mortgage if buying their brass and selling blood if you have to buy factory ammo!

All kidding aside, both are reasonably good rounds but really don't do anything substantially better than the old .270 Winchester...but hey, tastes do differ. Buy what yo really want and enjoy!

If you are self-. hand-. or reloader, keep a way from belted cases.

Why is that KW?
They load like any other bottle neck case. The problems come from over sizing the cases. The problem is that the belt headspace is usually loose enough that the shoulder is pushed back each time they are reloaded and then pushed forward again with each firing. That causes case head separation. If you set your die to just partial size the case leaving just a bit of the neck unsized you won't have any trouble with them at all.

I've reloaded belted 7mm and 300 WM for years, no problems that I can recall.

Paul is right. Adjusting your dies to allow the case to headspace on the shoulder rather than relying on the belt makes life much easier and the cases last longer...not to mention usually producing more accurate rounds. I honestly have no idea why the original designers of belted cartridges saw a need for belts. I know that they were originally touted as providing superior strength, but if you look at the belt location on a sectioned case, the belt resides at the exact point that the case is strongest anyway. The area prone to case-head separation is still "unsupported". In my opinion, headspacing on the belt makes no sense and certainly doesn't do much for accuracy in most rifles. I think this is pretty much proved by today's generation of cases that equal (and sometimes exceed) the pressures of the older belted cartridges while not sporting belts.

I edited the title of this thread to add on the 270 to differentiate it from the other "rifle" thread to avoid confusion.


-DallanC

I would also pick the .270 Win. over the others. Another good do-all round would be a 7mm Rem Mag. Both of these cals. will do the job on anything from Pronghorns to Elk and have been used for Moose. Ammo for both is readily available and reasonably priced.

I've had the pleasure of owning both the 270 and the 270WSM and can tell you both are great calibers but the WSM is the work horse of the two.
I used to love how fast my bullet would impact on it's target with the standard 270 and thought man that a fast round until I got the WSM, now when I shoot the standard it feels like it takes forever for the bullet to get there. I've got the Tikka T3 Stainless Lefthand 270WSM and have bought my last hunting rifle.....it is awesome!
Ammo prices are a killer too!lol