Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Initial range test Reloder 26 with 150's in .270 Winchester

chamois,

In my experience, Magnum's enough slower-burning that the .270 Winchester tends to run out of powder room before similar results can be obtained, even though Magnum's a spherical powder.

A spherical powder halfway between Hunter and Magnum in burn-rate might be perfect for 150's in the .270, but the people at Western are having enough problems getting the Belgians to make enough Ramshot powder already!

Plus, the primary reason for RL-26 wasn't to come up with a perfect powder for 150-grain bullets in the .270 Winchester. Instead it was supposed to be a more temperature resistant powder than 22 or 25, and just happens to work really well with 150's in the .270. But a look at the other published data for RL-26 doesn't show any startling velocity increases in other applications, except perhaps the .243 Winchester with 100+ grain bullets.

Thank you sir!

Dang....a 150NBT at 3,100fps from a 22" 270Win is a potent and flat shooting deer load if I ever saw one. A 250yd zero barely cuts a 2.5" mid-range rise and falls 3" below point of aim at 300yds.

How do you think it will do with 130's? Or should I look at R23? The rifle is very fast & accurate with R22

Bob, Sundra was no doubt referencing his 7mm JRS which was his version of the 280 AI.

My point being if 26 and a 150-gr .277 bullet is a match made in heaven, the 270 is right there in that same realm.

I use RL-26 in my .25/06 (100 gr NBT),.270 Win (150 gr NP) and .300 Wby (180 gr NP).

Say what?

Yes, it is and quite sufficient.

Magic Powder?

3100ish with 150s in the Win is strong. Your not helping 7RM vs 270Win debates

Yeah, it's darn near perfect. 😃

Don't worry, I'm sure RL26 and other new powders are equally excellent in the 7RM

And I don't even have one!

Guess I'm going to have to call around and find some. Just got in a PV order and didn't even think of it. If 26 works well in 270, it should be perfect in 7RM. I have 5 270s and 3 7RMs, so definitely need to give some a try.

Thanks for the timely information. I have some RL26 in hand and another 270 on the way. 150 g. partitions are what I plan on using in the new to me Kimber 84L Montana behind some RL26. I am looking forward to your further testing.

So is the RL26 only good for 150 grain bullets in the 270? I currently have some 140 grain Bergers and some 140 grain Barnes TSX to try. Oh, and some Accubonds, also 140 grain. Would it be possible to safely surpass 3100 fps with RL26? All I ever use is H4831 but I'm willing to try something more "modern."

Indeed it is. Been using RL26 since last winter and matched with 162gr A-Max and CCI 250 primer in my 7mm WSM, it does very good things...

Alliant doesn't list any RL-26 loads for bullets under 150 grains for the .270. It might be too slow-burning to get enough in the case for decent velocities with lighter bullets, but they also don't list any loads for Reloder 23 with bullets less than 150 grains.

I tried 26 with some other 150-grain bullets this morning. 61 grains with Partitions is a little warm, judging from the muzzle velocity of close to 3100 fps, so I'm going to back it down to 60, but it was about right with 150-grain Long Range AccuBond.

John,

Thirty years ago,a friend and I loaded enough IMR 4350 to get 3000 fps from the 23.6 inch barrels of our Steyr rifles with both 150 Hornadys and 150 Partitions. We actally got our data from a second edition Hornady manual.

By the next edition,the data was revised downward,and I got nervous after a while and stopped loading with the old(probably not pressure tested data).

The reason that I bring it up is that the 150 grain Hornady interlocks and Nosler Partition were very pure death rays on everything we shot. A buddy once used a single partition to break all three shoulders of two bull elk. The Hornadys just electrocuted deer.

So thanks for new data to sanely recreate our old loads.

John,
Have you tried IMR 7977 in the 270 with 150's?

Interestingly I too shot Re26 in my 270 with 150 NPT this past weekend. It shot as advertised and I hit 3000 with 60 grains lit by a WLR. It shot decent in my 24" Kimber but H1000 shoots better and runs 2950 with the NPT.

I've also tried 7977 with the same components. It too will reach close to 3000 with a 150. In my rifle it wasn't as accurate as H1000 or H4831.

I really like the new Enduron powders. I've shot them all in various cartridges - they give advertised velocity and some have been very accurate. I'm hopeful they live up to their temp insensitivity billing. I've been almost exclusively using Hodgdon Extreme for the past 5-6 years. It's good to have a few choices now.