Hey,
I have just finished sighting in my 12-year-old son's first (real) deer rifle, and it's an absolute cracker.
It's a BSA Monarch in one of my favourite cartridges... the .270 Win.
I picked it up for an absolute steal and thought it would make a great deer rifle for young Harry.
I originally bought him a Howa mini-custom in 300BLK but sold it, as I just didn't feel comfortable with the 300BLK as a deer rifle - especially for an inexperienced hunter.
I know a lot of people use it, but I would hate for Harry to lose his first deer because he wasn't using enough gun...
So I picked this up from a mate, fitted a Nykron 2-7x32 scope on it, and bought a pack of Norma Whitetail 130gn ammo for it.
Went to my usual spot and fired exactly one round, then the scope broke!
But it wasn't a wasted trip, as I put a couple of rounds over the chronograph and checked the rifles' feeding and ejecting.
Feeding and ejecting was perfect, and I found the rifle holds 5 cartridges, 4 in the mag and 1 in the chamber.
The velocity clocked in at 2886fps, and I was curious about the velocity, as Norma states 3080fps but I wasn't expecting to see that, as this rifle only has a 22" barrel, and in my opinion .270's need at least a 24" to wring out all the velocity.
Before I left, I guessed around 2900 fps, and I was nearly spot on. But velocity and power were the last things I was worried about, as even a mildly loaded .270 is plenty for deer.
So the very next day, saw me back out for round 2 in sighting in the rifle. The rifle now wore a Japanese-made Nikko Stirling 6x32, and even though the sighting in session took a little longer than expected, I finally had it spot on 3" at 100m.
This made for a 200m zero with a drop at 300m of 8.5", plenty good enough for deer.
I am just so happy with this rifle. It was surprisingly light and handy, plus it proved really accurate with the Norma ammo, and everything on the rifle worked as it should. Plus it feels great having another .270-calibre rifle in the safe.
This is my second .270 Win, plus I've also owned 2 rifles chambered in 270WSM – which is an awesome cartridge.
I just love .270's, and even though I've never owned one, I reckon the .270Wby would be just more of a good thing.
Man, I'd love one of those...
It's my personal opinion that the .270 is the best of the bunch of cartridges based off the '06 case. And that includes the original .30/06. I just reckon Winchester got everything right when developing the .270.
So I'm really happy; Harry's really happy (he especially loves the wood stock), and we just can't wait to take it out in the field to try for a deer.
So keep your eyes peeled for a hunt report from a very happy 12-year-old!
Russ
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