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Ryan Nafe

Fellas,

Recently I took a look through my local dealer’s shop with the intention of buying a rifle that’s suited for whitetail deer from about 100 yards and under, be fast-handling enough to hit full-sprint animals at close ranges, and be at or under ~42” in overall length so as not to be too difficult to handle in brushy areas.

What I came across was a used but quite good condition Winchester/Miroku 1895 in .270 Winchester, presumably late 1990’s vintage. After initial inspection, I decided to give it a try and took it home with me. The trigger wasn’t the best and I wasn’t sure of the accuracy potential, but it pointed and swung like a sporting clays shotgun and I thought it was interesting to have a classic lever action in a full-power centerfire cartridge. Plus I’d never used a .270 before, which might actually be a crime in some jurisdictions.

After a brief exchange with Nathan I headed to my shooting area and discovered, to my disappointment, why it had likely been sold: even with the rear sight bottomed-out, it was still hitting about 8” high at 50 yards.

This was remedied by the addition of a Marble Arms tang sight. I gambled, not knowing if it would actually provide the necessary elevation adjustment, but it worked out.

I zeroed the rifle at 55 yards (a somewhat arbitrary number, I simply set up a target, estimated the range, then checked it with my rangefinder) using some Norma Whitetail 130 grain ammo, and after doing that, I proceeded to take a shot at the following target. Offhand standing, no support at all, at the same range of 55 yards, and not taking much time to do it. Simulating a snap shot at woods ranges, this was the result:





I think that’s quite an acceptable result, especially considering that the deer on the target is somewhat smaller than an actual deer, especially a buck of that size.

After this, I fired two strings of three shots as fast as I could, cycling and firing the rifle as soon as I got on target, which was about 3 seconds for each string. The overall group size expanded to about 7” but all 6 rounds would have been lethal hits.

Overall I’m quite satisfied with the rifle, it seems to fit the niche I was looking to fill just about perfectly, and all that remains is to test it on actual animals this fall.


All that being said, after being very careful and observant while deliberately testing how the rifle performs, here are the actual academic things to keep in mind with this rifle:

- It’s extremely sensitive to the rest setup, meaning that both accuracy and the point of impact will change noticeably depending on how the rifle is held and what rests (if any) are used.

- When the barrel gets hot to the touch, it will string shots accordingly and the aforementioned sensitivities will increase.

- It’s a difficult rifle to shoot accurately because the trigger is rather heavy and creepy, in combination with the above two factors.

- When fired slowly and carefully, on a cold barrel, using proper technique and paying extreme attention to trigger control, the rifle is actually capable of (at least with the Norma ammunition I used yesterday for the testing) ~1 to 1.5 MOA in my hands.

- It’s extremely fast to get the rifle on target and also extremely fast to get a follow-up shot downrange.

- Bullet points get dented in the magazine under recoil. This will make the BC of the last shot in your magazine somewhat lower and could cause problems with abnormally long shots.

- No provisions for a sling, so you’ll have to carry it the old-fashioned way.




Considering my very specific use case, I think the overall nature of the rifle is adequate for my purposes, though not perfect. I’m happy enough with it’s performance, and barring any unforeseen issues. I think it’s design and history is fascinating, I like power and flat trajectory it offers, and I really look forward to giving it a try this fall.

Let me know what you guys think of all this, if you have any questions feel free to ask.


As a side note, has anyone used the .277” 130 grain Norma soft points? They’re probably a little light and fragile for bush work but there’s a rather heavy cannelure on them and they should be explosive enough to at least allow for a follow-up if necessary. I haven’t chronographed this ammo yet, lighting conditions yesterday were simply too poor and today it’s pouring rain.


Thanks, fellas.