Big Redhead, my experience had been the opposite.
M1Garand,
I rather think our experiences are more alike than opposite. Your experience with the 270
at the velocities you loaded is much like my experience with other bullets loaded to that velocity level. One very important thing I neglected to mention in my post is that back in those early days, I loaded my ammo hot. As long as I could open the bolt by hand I kept adding powder until I got CHE over 5 tenths or sooty primers, then backed down a half grain and finished the batch. I never chronographed those loads, but given the ejector marks on the headstamps and the loose, sooty primer pockets, it would not surprise me to find out that those 130gr Sierras were traveling 3200 fps or more.
I like to think I have learned a few things since those days. Most importantly, I no longer load "hot" (along with a few other stupid things I no longer do). I also learned, by experience and by listening to experts, that bullet terminal performance is determined by three main factors: 1- Bullet parameters, chiefly construction; 2- Impact velocity, and; 3- Target density, or "toughness." We can stretch one of these factors occasionally and probably get by with very few failures. But push all three past the limit and we're gonna get burned. By shooting a buck square in the shoulders with a lightly-constructed bullet at over 3000 fps, I definitely stretched all three factors, and I got burned. Fortunately, my buck was "sick" enough from having his front shoulder destroyed that he laid down within a few hundred yards and let me find him and finish the deal.
You know, when we all express our individual experiences truthfully and without excess emotion and embellishment, it appears that all our experiences are similar. The truth always rings out. It's just sometimes hard to distinguish from all the emotion (humerous posts aside, of course).
