Winchester's XPR Hunter - Mossy Oak Break-Up Country

Steady downpour today, the “Rainy Night In Georgia”, Conway Twitty and Sam Moore collaboration kind of day. I was alternating between working in the office and managing baby backs in the smoker without the assistance of my youngest granddaughter who, unfortunately, headed back to Texas with her family last night. That on the heels of California family departure a week ago. It is taking a while to get used to the resulting quiet, so I’ve been looking to the wisdom of Neil Young to take up the slack. All I have been able to glean from out cannabis supporting Canadian friend is that rock and roll will never die and that all music of the 1960s and 1970s is not as terrific as I had recalled.

Maine hunters are already prepping for deer season that, in one form of weapon or another, runs from September through the first week of December. Modern long gun deer season begins on October 28th for resident hunters, making this the time to start shopping for a new firearm, or prep an existing firearm, and to select ammunition or work up handloads. It is a time to get in range sessions, sight in rifles and to hone shooting skills, and a time to scout potential hunting areas. In addition to deer, there is also black bear and moose season, the latter for lottery winners.

Winchester’s XPR

The Winchester XPR has appeared on Real Guns in its introduction form, chambered for the 300 Winchester Magnum and, quite recently, as the Hunter Compact version chambered for the 7mm-08 Remington. Clicking on either or both of these links will get you to details.

The Winchester XPR Hunter differs from the Hunter Compact in several ways; 22″ – 26″ barrels vs. 20″ – 22″ barrels, 13 3/4″ vs. 13″ length of pull and hardware is finished in Perma-Cote matte blue rather than the Compact’s very dark gray. My personal preference is the look and feel of blued steel, which the Perma-Cote matte blue closely replicates.

Winchester Perma-Cote is a tough polymer-ceramic coating that is corrosion, abrasion, wear and chip resistant. It stands up to harsh chemicals. If the XPR tumbles down a sheep hunt mountainside and gets chipped, the metal is still protected by the Parkerized finish Winchester applies as a primer.

All Hunter Compact models are short action cartridges and built on a short action. All Hunter Models chambered for 30-06 Springfield length cartridges, included belted magnums, are built on a long action. For those who like their information summarized within neat little boxes…

A relic Leupold Vari-X III 3.5-10x50mm was mounted and laser zeroed. No high rise target adjustment knobs, a coin or screw driver is required to make adjustments, and the view is through a smallish 1″ tube and 50mm objective lens. Still, it offers a bright, crystal clear, crisp image…  amplified reality in every way. The Leupold click adjusts like Swiss clockwork and adjustments stay put on the heaviest kicking rifles. The Winchester medium height rings put the scope’s bell within a credit card thickness from the barrel and the XPR’s low 60° bolt lift had no problem clearing the scope’s eye piece. The combination of rifle and scope weighed in at 8 Lbs 1 Oz; not bad for a longish barrel magnum.

There are some features of the Winchester XPR that can’t be illustrated with pictures… which is problematic for me as pictures are the safe harbor of the mediocre writer.  As an example, The XPR’s chromium-molybdenum steel barrel is button rifled and then thermal stress relieved to remove the side effects of that process. I have owned or built rifles with hammer forged, button and cut rifled barrels. All methods can yield excellent results, however, the most accurate of the bunch were fitted with button rifled and stress relieved barrels.

A barrel nut secures the threaded barrel to the receiver and and adjusted to establish headspace. It is a very good system that reduces the need for highly skilled machinists and makes precise headspace setting a more predictable process. Embedded in this XPR’s stock, a recoil lug manages the load generated by recoil and fasteners secure the action through the stock’s flat profile interface pads. Furthering accuracy is a full floating barrel fit to stock that isolates it from the influences of temperature, humidity and uneven external pressure. XPR barrels are target crowned to assure uniform muzzle pressure acting on the heel of bullets as they exit.

XPR Receivers are machined from chromium-molybdenum steel bar stock for strength and for precision fit of the rifle’s bolt, barrel and trigger assembly. Enhanced safety touches come in the form of a red dot indicator that signifies the rifle is cocked, a two position bolt locking safety and a bolt release that permits removal of the bolt with the safety engaged for safe unloading. Part of the M.O.A. trigger design, the actuator that releases the sear when the trigger is pulled is physically moved away from the trigger to prevent unintentional discharge when the safety is engaged.

The Winchester XPR’s bolt, another piece fabricated from chromium-molybdenum steel bar stock, has a lug diameter body with just enough reduction at the bolt head to allow it to pass into the barrel extension. The recessed bolt face encloses the cartridge case head when the bolt’s lugs rotate into a locked position ahead of the extension’s lug seats.

A plunger type ejector is embedded in the bolt face, a sliding extractor is incorporated into the outboard lug, the bolt’s outer surface is coated with Nickel Teflon. The accumulative result is a very smooth bolt throw with a shallow 60° bolt lift and very solid lock up.

The bottom side of the XPR features a one piece polymer trigger guard and magazine frame. The guard is oversize to accommodate gloved hands. The poly detachable magazine is self centering. All chambers, standard and magnum, hold three rounds. I have no problem with this appropriate hunting rifle magazine capacity.

Where the Winchester XPR Hunter Compact is fitted with an excellent recoil dampening Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad, the full size Hunter receives an Inflex recoil pad. The Inflex is designed to shift the stock’s comb down and away from the face under recoil without taking on the form of the current generation of way-to-thick, unstable pads some manufacturers install on their firearms.

The best of the 270s?

Pictured L-R: 270 Winchester (1925), 270 Winchester Short Magnum (2001), 270 Weatherby Magnum (1943).

The 270 Winchester did not initially set the hunting world on fire. Bullet technology of the day worked great at a distance after bullets shed some velocity, but hits close in often resulted in fragmented bullets and superficial wounds on game. There was also the challenge of getting hunters to let go of their 30-06 Springfield chambered rifles and the bond they formed with that cartridge in military service. Hunter/writers like Jack O’Connor came to champion the 270 Winchester, but often in the context of the West and other location for longer range hunting.

The 270 Weatherby was Roy Weatherby’s first double radius shoulder, belted magnum. A long range cartridge, hampered also by bullets of the day, was used to hunt many varieties of game the world over. Both the 270 Winchester and 270 Weatherby have come into their own with modern bullet design with both being much more flexible in application than they were initially. Where the 270 Winchester has been frequently chambered by many manufacturers, the proprietary 270 Weatherby has overwhelmingly found a home in Weatherby firearms.

My personal appreciation for the 270 WSM grew from the purchase of a low cost Winchester Super Shadow, a product that entered production to coincide with the introduction of the cartridge. The Shadow was used at Real Guns for testing factory ammunition and for handload development. It was the positive results of this experience that brought an interest in working with the 7mm WSM, 300 WSM and 325 WSM. The Shadow was a bit odd looking and it certainly didn’t have the M.O.A. trigger or slick action of the modern Winchester Model 70 or XPR. Still it was inexpensive, accurate and able to produce some impressive ballistics. I’ve owned a number of firearms chambered for the 270 WSM; Winchester Model 70 Super Grade and Featherweight, Browning BLR and BAR. The cartridge has become one of my favorites for a number of reasons.

Ammunition availability and price: There are approximately sixty five factory loads, sold under fourteen brands, commonly available for the 270 Winchester. Twenty six factory loads, sold under nine brands, are available for the 270 WSM. There are eleven factory loads, sold under four brands for the 270 Weatherby. Respectively, ammunition prices range: $16 – $51, $33 – $74, $39 – $86. Within each there are premium brands selling at the low end of the price spectrum, however, ego brands like Nosler and Norma create the extreme high end.

For the handloader, there are six brands of 270 Winchester brass with a typical price of 44¢ per casing. Four companies make brass for the 270 WSM with a typical price of 67¢ per case. Four companies make belted 270 Weatherby Magnum case. Prices start at $1.02 per and range to $3+.

Bullet prices are uniform across the board, typically a 25¢ to 35¢ proposition for good hunting and recreational target shooting product. However, our form of capitalism will allow you to pay three times as much for magic bullets that will grow into beanstalks if left on the ground. Handloaders who tend to charge cases with powder to near full will use 19% more to fill 270 WSM in comparison to the 270 Winchester, 22% more for the 270 Weatherby.

Performance: The justification advanced for the 270 magnums over the 270 Winchester is the same made for other magnums; greater comparative velocity reduces time in flight, which flattens the curve of trajectory and increases and extends down range lethality. The things we do to cheat gravity and manipulate Newton’s Second Law.

At 150 grain bullet weight, factory ammo velocity by cartridge: 270 Winchester 2,850 fps to 2,900 fps, 270 WSM 3,117 fps to 3,160 fps, 270 Weatherby 3,150 fps to 3,300 fps, however, the latter is rated in concert with a 26″ barrel rather than 24″ barrel as used for the others.

Essentially, moving up the scale of cartridges flattens trajectory, retains energy and momentum. This yields a longer kill range and takes some pressure off the hunter for estimating target range and following a moving target. But Joe, the 270 WSM is not the fastest 270. Right. Which takes me to my last point and back around to the Winchester XPR Hunter.

Polling firearm distribution inventories, eleven companies produce eighty-five models of bolt action, lever action and autoloaders that range in price from $599 to $2,700. The supply of 270 WSM firearms is near the same, including number of distributed brands (different mix fewer models), action types and prices. Counter, a 270 Weatherby Magnum will come from Weatherby and it will be a bolt action ranging in price from $1,200 for a low end Weathermark to $2,500 for a Mark V Deluxe. For me, the 270 WSM offers the highest level of .270 caliber performance with the widest choice of firearms. The Winchester XPR Hunter, like my original Winchester Super Shadow 270 WSM, provides an exceptional combination of power, accuracy and value.

One range session is worth 1000 opinions…

Three types of handloads were assembled to evaluate the Winchester XPR Hunter. Bullets appropriate for hunting in weights of 130 grains, 140 grains and 150 grains were selected that are of premium quality and well proven within their intended applications. Brass selected was Winchester, once fired, and CCI magnum primed. A number of powder types were tried with those presented providing the best accuracy.

Assembly was straight forward; primer pockets made uniform, cases cleaned, full length resized, length trimmed, no crimp. None of the charges were compressed, but all were near case full.

No attempt was made to seat bullets close to rifling, but rather they were seated to the respective manufacturer’s recommended COL. I’ve seated bullets out where possible to recover case capacity, but I have never had a sporting rifle shoot measurably more accurately doing the same.

Temperatures were in the low 70s, humidity in the low 60s, there was no perceptible wind. Maine is seeing a short summer this year. All shooting was done from a weighted sled to isolate as many shooter variables as possible from the rifle’s accuracy potential.

 Warning: Bullet selections are specific, and loads are not valid with substitutions of different bullets of the same weight. Variations in bullet material and length will alter net case capacity,  pressure and velocity results. Primer selection is specific and primer types are not interchangeable. These data represents maximum loads in our firearms and test equipment and may easily be excessive in other applications. All loads should be reduced by 3%,  and developed following safe handloading practices as represented in established reloading manuals produced by component manufacturers. Presentation of these loads does not constitute a solicitation for their use, nor a recommendation.  

Winchester XPR Hunter personality…

You look at a rifle, pick it up and point, check out its heft and balance and you are left with a sense of the firearm. Then you chamber a round, pull the trigger and all of a sudden the rifle has personality. In the case of the Winchester XPR Hunter, three different chambers, three different personalities. The 7mm-08 Rem version of the XPR Hunter Compact is well mannered, accurate and and easy carry. A 300 Win Mag version of the XPR is an accurate thumper.

This 270 WSM XPR Hunter seemed the best overall balance as a combination. Accuracy was excellent, power was obvious and felt recoil was no greater than a 30-06 Springfield sporter. It did have some bark, but not to the extreme. Ejected empties were barely warm, barrel temp rose quickly; typical for a high pressure overbore cartridge combined with a standard weight barrel. Checking the Real Guns Barrel Burner Index calculator, the 270 WSM rated a 16.6 which is slightly more than the 270 Winchester, but well below the 270 Weatherby Magnum.

The Winchester XPR Hunter does not to pretend to be something it is now; no fancy walnut or metallic embellishment. However, as a modern tech look, it fares well; quality material, excellent part and piece finish and texture/color selection. It is a durable firearm, sold as an exceptional value.