GunsAndOptics: .270 Winchester Revisted / Ruger Model 77 Mark II

My son Jeremy is coming home this fall during our NY whitetail season, perhaps catching the last week of bow season and the beginning of gun season. Today I thought I would do a little range work with the Ruger .270 which I believe is his favorite rifle. He has taken two deer with that rifle two years ago including a 146 7/8 buck that made NYS's Big Buck club. During that hunt he used Federal's 150 grain Hi Shok round nose ammo. The Ruger likes Federal ammunition better than any other brand based on many range sessions. The gun also shoots 150 grain loads better than most 130 grain loads. The exception to that was the best group ever fired with this gun at 200 yards which was the now DISCONTINUED 130 grain Federal Hi Shok loads.

For preparation for the hunt two years ago, I shot groups at 100 yards as follows:

Federal 150 grain round nose Hi Shoks (NO longer made) 1.5 inch 3 shot group / 100 yards
Federal 130 grain Hi Shoks (NO longer made) 1.25" group / 100 yards
Federal 150 grain Power Shoks round nose 1.75" / 100 yards
Remington 150 grain round nose core lokts 1.00" / 100 yards

I repeated my procedure for checking stock screws in the same manner as my last range test with the Ruger .338 Federal hawkeye by removing the barreled action from the stock and tightening the FRONT screw very tight FIRST to pull the action down into the stock. I then tightened the rear screws a little at a time until they were both tight.

Today's range session consisted of 130 grain Remington core lokts which shot dismal groups at 100 yards and beyond. The Winchester 150 grain power point round nose load shot around 1 3/4 inches at 150 yards. The Winchester 150 grain Partition Gold loads shot a slightly smaller group than the power points.

Today's hands down winner was the Federal 150 grain Power Shok round nose loads. I fired two groups with this particular load at 75 yards and both groups were in a tight cluster . The first group was 1/2 inch center to center/BOTTOM picture and the second group (TOP photo) was AFTER 3 clicks LEFT and 1 click UP and measured 3/4 inch center to center. I will hunt deer with that type of performance any day of the week.

I then cleaned the gun and have put it away for this fall for my son. Jeremy IF you end up reading this make a note and put it in your wallet that IF you purchase any ammo for this fall's hunt, make sure it is Federal 150 grain power shok round nose loads.

This gun is a tack driver with this load and previous tests have been out to 150 yards and beyond. I tend to sight my rifles in for the area being hunted and since the majority of shots are well under 150 yards, I do not go the usual recommended 3 inches high at 100 yards which would enable one to make 300 yards shots. We normally hunt a mixed terrain of crop fields and eastern farm wood lots.

Here are the photos of the rifle, ammo and targets from today's range session. Again if you own a Ruger and it doesn't shoot well for you be sure to check out my recent post on tightening stock screws and play the Ruger authorized assembly video and then try another range session with your Ruger bolt action rifle. Like any rifle your gun may like different loads than mine as most rifles are a "Law Unto Themselves In That Regard", however if you don't tighten the Ruger stock screws correctly, you could burn a lot of ammo and never be happy with your groups.