270 winchester loads?

[Rob96]

If you want a tougher bullet than the SGK but still stick with Sierra!, use the Prohunter. In 270 my experience with SGK was a devastating round, Bang-Flop-DRT. This year i sed the 180gr SGK in my 300WM. 80yd shot on a buck, entered in the mid rib cage and exited the same. Caliber size hole going in, quarter sized exit hole. Made it 10yds. The lungs poured out. My doe i shot around 95yds. Entered right behind the left elbow and hit the right shoulder. Doe ran towards me with what looked like stuff dropping out her underside. 5"Lx3"W hole in the bottom right rib cage. SHe ran right to me and dropped 20' in front of the stand. Lungs and heart had fallen out while running.

[hooligan1]

I have loaded a bunch of different bullets and weights for .270 win.
The bullet/load combo that shot and performed the best out of my old 110, was 130 Accubonds with 52.8 grains H4350. I burnt the barrel out of that rifle and sold off the parts. 130 grain Partitions was my second fave, and then 130 grain Btips. All really accurate and deadly loads....too much testing finally killed the barrel, and shooting too much through a hot barrel...damn it..

[gunnny12]

Been having a great time with 110 gr, Vmax with 45 grs of IMR of 4064 powder.

Close to 3000 FPS.



Jeff

[jimbob86]

Been having a great time with 110 gr, Vmax with 45 grs of IMR of 4064 powder.

I used 47gr with this bullet and with 100gr Hornady soft points.... good stuff.

[LOLBELL]

My load is a 140 SPBT either Hornady or SGK, both preform equally well. Varget gets me the best groups, 1/2 MOA. Everything I've done my part on died quick.

[Mike / Tx]

Well like just about any other caliber with the .270 thee is plenty of info to go around. I have been loading for and hunting with ours since around '84, and in that time have run the full gamut of bullets and weights for it within reason of price and application to hunting. I've gone as light as 110gr and as heavy as 160 and find that the 130 thru 150 have all three is needed for just about anything walking the lower 48, least anywhere I will be hunting.

In the years I have played with it the powder range from around 4064 to 4831 and slower have been the norm. I have tried them and most in between. The bad or good depending on how you see it is that ours seems to be inherently oblivious to the fact that it should be selective in what it shoots. So it happily digests just about anything I run through it with it's usual 1" or less groups at 100yds. Granted there are differences that seating depth plays a role with but overall, pick a powder, bullet, and shove them in some cases, work up to the velocity you want and then just fiddle with the seating depth till your happy.

The one thing I found that most .270 post I have read through don't mention is using a bit faster powder. When my mom was still in her mid 60's and was still hunting I loaded her up some 130gr Ballistic Tips over a charge of IMR-3031. She needed something with only a little recoil and being this rifle only weighed around 8# at most it had more pop than she wanted. Since then that particular load has taken over a dozen nice deer, countless hogs, and plenty of other critters along the way. It groups consistently around 3/4" at 100yds for as long as you want to shoot it through the same hole. The oldest grandson used it on a nice 250# feral boar at just over 250yds one morning and I told him to put it in his ear, which he did just that. The thing is this load is just barely breaking 2800fps at the muzzle and as most know the BT is a fast expanding bullet which in this case it doesn't explode but is rather tame by comparrison to most other loads. It just does what you want and nothing more even on close shots ranging down to around 20yds.

I have also loaded and shot a ton of the older Hornady 150gr RN as well as some older Speer 150gr RN which I loaded over around 50rgs of IMR-4350. These are not rolling out with the hyper velocity loads either but man do they get the job done. I also have used this same load with some Nosler 150gr Solid Base bullets which unfortunately they dropped from their line, with great success. I mention it since it has shot so well with ours you might give it a try with yours.

Truth be told there really aren't any bad bullets out there, as was mentioned above. The trick is to pick your shot, and put it where you get the least amount of waste, or trimming. For our family, we only take broadside or very slightly quartering shots. We don't like gut soup and having to wash tainted meat off. We also try our best to avoid a point on shot to the shoulder which usually results in some goodly amount of bloodshot meat. It's just something I was brought up doing and have found it is a whole lot nicer to NOT have to deal with those than to. If I am to make a frontal shot it will be high so as not to hit the main paunch area but to hit right between the shoulders and spine or right through the base of the neck shoulder junction. I have never had one not drop at this shot and if the bullet passes completely through it usually goes above most everything inside and exits high on a ham at which point it usually does minimal damage. Not saying this is every case with every bullet just my experiences.

I saw this posted and it struck me as odd,

(Notable exception: Winchester Power Points. They're completely unpredictable and shouldn't be used on paper, let alone an animal.)

My close friend recently purchased a nice lod Remington in .270. He has had minimal time to play with handloads so he picked up several boxes of factory to get it ready for hunting season.

One of the ones he DID try was the Winchester standard loads using the 130gr Power Point. Out of the Hodgdon, Federal, and Remington ammo he tried these consistently shot the best groups and had the best overall SD and velocity over his chronograph. So far those bullets have been three bang flops with about as normal performance as you could want form a standard cup and core bullet. Nice caliber size entrance, lungs and heart both destroyed, and a 3/4" or so exit hole. Shots have been from about 40yds to out just over 150 and the MV from his rifle has been consistent at just over 3100fps.

There again, he is a lot like me, and don't put a shot on the heaviest area of the shoulder, but slips it through the ribs just behind the front leg. He is a VERY picky fellow and would rather not shoot if he can't get the shot he wants.

My oldest grandson is also using these out of his Sako Forrester in a 100gr version .243 with good results as well. So far two bangs and two deer in the freezer.

So I don't know, things could be said, cases can be made about anything or everything. Best thing I can advise is to keep trying stuff till you find what shoots the best, stock up on those cause they might quit making them, and continue on through life having faith in what your using.

[Clark]

50 gr IMR4895 130 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip, 22" barrel, 2875 fps.
Sounds wimpy, but out of a light rifle, 8.9 pounds with scope, bipod, sling, and ammo, it shoots straight and kills big mule deer out to 510 yards.

[FrankenMauser]

My close friend recently purchased a nice lod Remington in .270. He has had minimal time to play with handloads so he picked up several boxes of factory to get it ready for hunting season.

One of the ones he DID try was the Winchester standard loads using the 130gr Power Point. Out of the Hodgdon, Federal, and Remington ammo he tried these consistently shot the best groups and had the best overall SD and velocity over his chronograph. So far those bullets have been three bang flops with about as normal performance as you could want form a standard cup and core bullet. Nice caliber size entrance, lungs and heart both destroyed, and a 3/4" or so exit hole. Shots have been from about 40yds to out just over 150 and the MV from his rifle has been consistent at just over 3100fps.

I believe it.
In general, the Winchester centerfire rifle ammunition that I've used has been fairly consistent (the very best one particular rifle has ever shot, in fact). But, when you're not really figuring accuracy into the equation (or your standards are low), good powder charges and quality primers have more to do with SD and MV results than the bullets.
However, my beef is with the bullets themselves.

In .27 caliber, in particular, Power Points have been amazingly inconsistent.
For example, I had a large lot of the 130 gr variety. After having abysmal results with some test loads, I decided to take a closer look at the bullets.
Bearing surface varied as much as 0.030".
Exposed lead at the tip varied notably.
Ogive shape was very inconsistent.
Jacket length varied as much as 0.090".
Diameter varied by up to 0.003".
And, worst of all, in a sample size of about 250 bullets, bullet weight spanned all the way from 118 gr to 143 gr! What the ____?! Most bullets, even really cheap bullets, typically deviate no more than 2% from the target weight (so, 127.4 to 132.6 gr, in this case).

And all of those issues will show on paper when tested properly.

.22 caliber, 6mm, .30 caliber, and .35 caliber have been just as bad as far as weight discrepancies. .22 caliber, in particular, also had MASSIVE issues with folded jackets, cracked jackets, torn jackets, lead smeared all over the outside of the bullet, or bullets visible bent or lop-sided.

"Quality."

[aushunter]

Which 4831 powder?
Hodgdon or IMR?
Reason I ask is they have a different burn rate!

The load you are describing will work.

I use a load of 57.5gr ADI 2213SC (exactly the same as H4381) with 130gr Hornady SST which gets 2850FPS out of my rifle.

Brought down a medium/large sized fallow with ease but as usual shot placement is key!

[overanalytical]

Thanks for all of your suggestions guys! I really appreciate you taking the time to post! I ended up going with 150 grain ballistic tips and 57 grains of Hogdon 4831sc. The reason I had chosen 150 grains was the higher ballistic coefficient should be flatter shooting even with a heavier bullet. I'll make a new post as soon as the weather clears up and I can get to the range with my results. I loaded up 50 rounds which should be good to get the boss dialed in and get some groups.

One thing I have not decided on... Should I run them through my factory crimp die, or run them without a crimp? Some people have said they crimp, some don't. What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

[603Country]

No crimp. Those BT's are very accurate. Have fun.

[Beepy]

No crimp. A crimp will deform the bullet and thus almost always adversely affects accuracy.

[BumbleBug]

In my opinion, the AR-15 fans have given the .270 Win a big boost, although I haven't seen it mentioned much. The 6.8 SPC is a "baby .270" that functions with minimal adjustments in an AR platform. The popularity of this set-up has put all the bullet makers to work making a whole new bunch of game/match bullets in lighter weights .277 cal. The 6.8mm game bullets have made the SPC an excellent mid-range deer cartridge in the AR. I suggest anyone interested look at the 6.8forum & look at Xman's thread with pictures of various bullet performance. A .270 Win can easily be throttled down to SPC velocities or it can give those bonded bullets a quantum boost! Bullet performance out of the .270 big brother should be very interesting to say the least!

FWIW...

[603Country]

I suppose that new 110 gr Nosler Accubond is a result of the 6.8 SPC. That bullet will cook along in the 'real' 270 at 3500 fps MV. With the BC it has, that gives it ballistics similar to my 220 Swift. Nice, or as they say in West Texas, "niiiiice".

[RC20]

Best results we have had in two different 270s were with 4350.

I don't say others won't work, and work very well or better but that is what we found.

I think its a good overall base powder for the 270.

Ours were 150 gr bullets.

I do disagree on the 130s for Elk (and moose) . I think 150s more better.

[DisplacedMainer]

I am not going to copy and paste his whole post, but Mike/Tx above just speaks the truth as I see it. Plus, (I do disagree on the 130s for Elk (and moose) . I think 150s more better) this.... I am a .270 fan, and like my 130's. I would not hesitate to use them on a moose, BUT, I would not take a shot that would hit heavy bone. Far to many moose in Maine are lost with under powered guns. I won't elaborate as my knowledge is anecdotal.