Is a 270 WSM an adequate elk round?

Rotten said:

I have taken 5 cows and a 5 point bull with a 270 wsm.
Absolutely it will kill elk.
1st cow elk was hit on a hard quartering shot at less than 100 yards. I can't remember the bullet weight but was a federal fusion either with 130 or 140 grain.
Bullet impacted behind front shoulder and clipped the top of her stomach which was full of hay from farmers field.
Enormous amount of tissue and blood shot meat I was pulling out clumps of hay under the skin from the rear leg bullet was a pass thru.
I ended up putting a faster twist barrel on it to keep up with the 6.8 western. That hasn't been working out so well for me because of the barrel maker not because of anything else.
As of this years elk hunt I shot the 5x5 bull elk in front of the shoulder and hit the neck it went maybe 4 yards spun around and hit the dirt. Shot was standing at 200 yards with a 165 gr Accu bond long range
Bullet going 2800 fps very little meat damage but still enough energy to fracture the scapula and break the spine with the bullet passing by it and not directly impacting the spine.
Furthest shot was at 400 yards on a cow elk with 140 gr interlock hit high shoulder passed through and again massive tissue damage and blood shot meat

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ROTTEN, What are YOU doing?? Didn't anybody tell you that you can't shoot an elk under 800 yards anymore because it's not "Sporting"??

1raggedhole said:

ROTTEN, What are YOU doing?? Didn't anybody tell you that you can't shoot an elk under 800 yards anymore because it's not "Sporting"??

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I'm sorry I forgot only the cool people kill elk past 500 with super duper magnums.
If I shot a elk passed 600 yrds it would probably start to swell up by the time I got to it and back out of the hell hole it decided to die in. Like my father used to say " son you shoot one down there you better bring a skillet with you.
Because that's where you're going to be eating it"

Thanks guys! Just to clarify, I have killed 17 elk (15 bulls and 2 cows), most of the bulls are Colorado raghorns shot just south of Craig in Hamilton. Most of those elk were shot with a 300 Weatherby! I have killed elk with a 7mm RM, 7mm Weatherby, 6.5 GAP 4S and the 270 WSM (a raghorn at 300 yards using 150 grain Paritions out of my Sako Tecomate). Two pass throughs and the bull kind of stood there for about 20 seconds and fell over!

I regularly shoot to 1200 yards at Thunder Valley in Ohio and 1000 yards at Mifflin County Sportsman's in Pennsylvania, I live in western New Jersey. I limit my shots to 500 yards, would prefer to shoot them at 150 yards! My closest kill is 176 yards and I've killed three bull elk at 500 yards (512, 500 and 489 yards), all first shot hits. I practice a lot.

I own a bunch of custom rifles, the last two being a Lane Precision in 280 AI and a GA Precision in 300 WSM, they are both topped with Nightforce scopes, they just about shoot one hole but weight about 10 lbs. scoped and not including an Atlas bipod. Just looking to lighten my load without my wife giving the stink-eye for ordering another custom.

My father killed a whole bunch of elk and deer out west with a Browning A-Bolt in 270 Winchester, shots were always under 300 yards. All my shots seem to be over 400 yards with the elk moving.

I appreciate all your help and information! Now to decide what scope goes on the CA Summit, it currently wears a Leupold VX-5 3-15. I had a 3-15 Nightforce on it and it made the rifle really heavy. I do like Nightforce scopes! Thanks again, be safe and shoot straight!

Aloeus said:

Nah, it'll bounce off. You probably need to step up to something more powerful like a 6.5 Creedmoor.


/s

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Excellent job, sir.

GSP814 said:

Thanks guys! Just to clarify, I have killed 17 elk (15 bulls and 2 cows), most of the bulls are Colorado raghorns shot just south of Craig in Hamilton. Most of those elk were shot with a 300 Weatherby! I have killed elk with a 7mm RM, 7mm Weatherby, 6.5 GAP 4S and the 270 WSM (a raghorn at 300 yards using 150 grain Paritions out of my Sako Tecomate). Two pass throughs and the bull kind of stood there for about 20 seconds and fell over!

I regularly shoot to 1200 yards at Thunder Valley in Ohio and 1000 yards at Mifflin County Sportsman's in Pennsylvania, I live in western New Jersey. I limit my shots to 500 yards, would prefer to shoot them at 150 yards! My closest kill is 176 yards and I've killed three bull elk at 500 yards (512, 500 and 489 yards), all first shot hits. I practice a lot.

I own a bunch of custom rifles, the last two being a Lane Precision in 280 AI and a GA Precision in 300 WSM, they are both topped with Nightforce scopes, they just about shoot one hole but weight about 10 lbs. scoped and not including an Atlas bipod. Just looking to lighten my load without my wife giving the stink-eye for ordering another custom.

My father killed a whole bunch of elk and deer out west with a Browning A-Bolt in 270 Winchester, shots were always under 300 yards. All my shots seem to be over 400 yards with the elk moving.

I appreciate all your help and information! Now to decide what scope goes on the CA Summit, it currently wears a Leupold VX-5 3-15. I had a 3-15 Nightforce on it and it made the rifle really heavy. I do like Nightforce scopes! Thanks again, be safe and shoot straight!

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I think that you should leave the Leupold VX5 3x15 on it .
Great optics in lighter weight package .

Depends primarily on bullet choice, barrel length and distance to target. With all that considered, the answer is yes.

GSP814 said:

I appreciate all your help and information! Now to decide what scope goes on the CA Summit, it currently wears a Leupold VX-5 3-15. I had a 3-15 Nightforce on it and it made the rifle really heavy. I do like Nightforce scopes! Thanks again, be safe and shoot straight!

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I really wish NF would make a hunting weight optic! Don't understand their hang up!

memtb said:

I've done the same. Of the two measured…..one was a .277 and one was a .243.

These were back before the mono bullets became available, both bullets showed full expansion, appeared to have substantial weight loss (a guestimate on my part), both had minimal penetration, both were encased in what appeared mass of gristle.

It helped confirm my desire for larger caliber, and better constructed bullets. memtb

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Can't argue with real results.

I will say that obviously a mountain of elk moose and other critters have fallen to a 270 with basic 130 soft points but you certainly would be wise to stick to broadside long shots behind the shoulder.

For my own purposes I'd never feel undergunned with my 270 but do tend to leave it in the safe in favour of my .300 win mag. There is a notable difference in how animals react when hit, that I've observed, between these two. The bigger bullet still going fast is more insurance. And my elk this year wasn't with a mono or a controlled expansion bullet . A match bullet! I forgot that those won't kill things and so did the elk. Of course, that match bullet is a 225 grain 30 cal eld m, not a 130 Berger in a 6.5 or something like that, again I really do feel like the fast .30 calibers are on a different tier of performance than any 7mm, 270 or 6.5 but I'm biased haha. The 7mms with heavy formcaliber bullets sure are hard to beat but I just don't care, I don't want one! . I'm a .30 cal guy and to my grave I suspect I'll always feel that a magnum .30 cal of some flavour is the king of versatile do it all rifles for everything that isn't varminting or dangerous game hunting. For those extremes the .223 and .450 Ackley have my needs covered…as if I'll ever "need" the elephant gun…

Calvin45 said:

I'd add that the boring old .270 is a more than adequate elk gun as well, not as in it can kill if everything is perfect but as in many guides and outfitters cite it as their suggested starting caliber for serious elk hunting. The wsm is the same thing with just a little more horsepower.

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A close friend of mine in my youth shot an elk at a little over 400 yards with a .270. The elk stumbled, got back up and started walking away. His follow up shot put it down. When he gutted the bull he found his first round had been stopped by a rib. I don't recall the load but was surprised the bullet was stopped.

deancot said:

A close friend of mine in my youth shot an elk at a little over 400 yards with a .270. The elk stumbled, got back up and started walking away. His follow up shot put it down. When he gutted the bull he found his first round had been stopped by a rib. I don't recall the load but was surprised the bullet was stopped.

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Yeah that is surprising but of course I do believe it. Crazy things happen sometimes that I can't get my head around either. You wanna talk crazy I know a fellow that had a 200 grain Nosler partition out of a 30-06 fail to penetrate the vitals of a moose at close range. He shot the critter multiple times to put it down, and found a barely expanded slug just stuck up against the scapula on the entrance side! That's hard to beleive but I beleive him, he has no reason to lie about this and he did shoot the critter two more times and both of those shots performed as you'd expect.


And then you have those times that defy expectations when little bullets do big things or slow bullets act like varmint bullets or super tough premium bullets somehow come apart…it happens.

My uncle had a bad experience with a .308 and 180 grain Remington cor lokt that absolutely grenaded on the shoulder of a spike buck, so badly that it didn't get into the thoracic cavity and just ruined an entire front quarter and resulted in a tracking job well over half a mile and the animal still alive and requiring a coup de grace shot to conclude the matter. When I think of bullet/cartridge combos that risk splash wounds on light framed game, a 308 with 180s of any flavour is not the usual suspect. And thousands of critters have been killed with those corlokts, they're not bad bullets, but that one was.

My brother in law had about the opposite happen…about 10 years ago now he and I both had antlerless moose tags. And he calls me in a panic that I need to get out there and bring my tags and he's sorry and so on…he accidentally shot two moose with one bullet. Saw the cow, didn't see the yearling calf about 30 yards directly behind her. About a 200 yard shot with a savage 99 in .308 Winchester, 180 grain Winchester power points. Cleanly shot through moose A and by sheer dumb luck or lack thereof the exited bullet still had enough zip to pop BOTH lungs on moose B. Crazy. I was a bit mad that I couldn't go hunting for my own moose but on the flip side my freezer was full and I had something to bother him about for future use . When I think of bullets that can shoot through two moose the Winchester super x soft point isn't what comes to mind, but it happened!

Crazy things happen. 400+ yards is certainly quite a poke on an elk sized beast with a .270 class cartridge especially if using a lower bc more traditional designed bullet.

Rotten said:

I'm sorry I forgot only the cool people kill elk past 500 with super duper magnums.
If I shot a elk passed 600 yrds it would probably start to swell up by the time I got to it and back out of the hell hole it decided to die in. Like my father used to say " son you shoot one down there you better bring a skillet with you.
Because that's where you're going to be eating it"

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Your father was a wise man. That's a good saying.

The 270 is great. Everything I've shot with one has died. Those animals got acquainted with the ground real fast. It doesn't matter, short mag or the great Winchester round. They are both good; so good they tried to reinvent the 270 by calling it a 6.8 or some crazy stuff like that.

Enjoy the great outdoors with what you have. If you need a 270, get one! I'd get the Standard Winchester (270)

Aloeus said:

Nah, it'll bounce off. You probably need to step up to something more powerful like a 6.5 Creedmoor.


/s

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This right here is why I visit this forum….pure gold nuggets of wisdom, bravado and sarcasm not found anywhere else on this planet or galaxy …I'm getting me a Creedmoor ….obviously they command respect.

My opinion. Run the ballistics on the bullet you're wanting to use. Then make sure your bullet will have enough velocity to function at the distances you want to hunt. Use the manufactured recommendation. Conventional wisdom states 1500ft/lbs is the minimum energy sufficient to kill elk. However my opinion is 200ft/lbs and up is "ideal", especially for smaller caliber/lightweight bullets