Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer: 150 ABLR in .270WCF

This is a question for Mule Deer, but please feel free to chime in.

John,

What has been your experience with this bullet?

I have a new K95 in .270 and was thinking in using it with this bullet in my next sheep hunt, in August.

The powders I have available are Norma MRP, Ramshot Magnum, and Vihtavuory's N160 and 560.

I would start with Ramshot Magnum. In your book, I could see it gave you very good results with NBT 130gr and I am surprised you switched to Re22 when moving up to 150gr.

In a 24" barrel can I push it to 2,950?

Thank you very much,

Not JB, but the general feeling is Reloder 26 is the place to be with .270s and 150 gr bullets.........

Sure, W260, but if you have troubles finding it in the US, for what I read, imagine in Europe... For that reason I mentioned what I had available.

I've found the 150 ABLR shoots very well in some .270's but not in others--much like any other bullet, but especially boattailed bullets.

I switched from Magnum with the 130 to RL-22 with the 150 because 65.0 grains of Magnum was ALL the powder that would fit in the case with 130's--and even then, velocity wasn't exceptional. The results with Magnum and 150's weren't as good as with several other powders.

I could not get the 150 GR Nosler LR Accu Bond to shoot under 1.5" switched to 150 GR Nosler Part under .5"

Hola John,

Thanks for your reply.

I saw that you used 65gr of Magnum behind 130gr NBT for 3,052 fps and .54" in the 22" Model 70, and 3,157 fps and .71" in the 26" No.1B., both very inspiring.

I am using Norma cases and even behind the LRAB, 65g of Magnumr -if I ever need to get up there- would fit uncompressed.


As a sidenote, my first load LRAB and Magnum, shot at 100 meters, produced a 1.1 moa six shot group. Not bad, but speed was low at 2,770 fps and I have hopes that as I work it up towards 2,900-2,950 things will tighten a bit as I believe having read from you that Ramshot powders pruduce more consistency when burning at higher pressures. Next session will tell. I will give MRP a try, as close as it is to Re22 that give you so good results with the LRAB.

I am using a 0.008" jump... Is there any consensus on the amount of jump the LR Accubonds like best?

On the same session I shot two three-shot groups with ole 150gr IL that averaged 2,850 fps and 0.7 moa. Super imposed, the 6 shot aggregate measured the same 1.1 moa. They look like two different three shot groups and not like a larger six shot group, if I explain myself, so maybe I used a different hold between groups and I have a winner here.

Thank you for your comments and best regards,

I haven't found any definite pattern in how much jump the ABLR's like. It's varied from rifle to rifle.

I would look at the Swiss powders they make R26 and some of their powders are very close. I suspect it is the same base but different retardants. Look at the burn rate chart and for the powders that have integral retardants. http://www.reload-swiss.com/en/reload_swiss/service_2/rs_ladedaten_1/index.php

These are available in the UK and parts of Europe..

I did not realize you were in Europe , sorry, But it's on the shelves here regularly..... MRP and Magnum maybe first choices then.

well, that answers the question in the other thread I started

Most of what I have seen posted on the lrab is that it does like a jump. Even out .050 to .120 might be the zone.
I have played with them in a number of rifles and have never got better than what I would say is average accuracy.
I'm coming to the conclusion that if somebody has a gun that likes them that gun is definitely a keeper!

Thank You, John.

Tejano,
RS powders are readily available here, but nof of them seems close enough to Re26. RS70 seems faster, in my experience 1-1.5gr faster than MRP, at least in the cartridges I have used it; and RS80 seems to be much slower that Re26, but I have never used it.

W260,
I will work up my load with Magnum towards the desired 2,950 or so and see if the higher pressures tighten the groups a bit. Will also try MRP, close as it is to the Re22 that gave so good results to Mule Deer with this bullet.

K11,
Right now I am loading them close to touching, but the next thing I will try will be a jump like you say and see what they do.

Thank you, Gentlemen. I will report on the results.