Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Firing a .270 with two powders

Lil village idiot rich locked up at least two rifles last year due to over-pressure. The moron doesn't need help... 🤣

Oh!
So this is more of the same.

I wasn't sure what you were trying to get at. So, how is the accuracy with Hunter? Speed without accuracy isn't very useful.

Straydog is onto something .. when you have a temporary dip in velocity as charges go up, you've already exceeded safe pressure for that particular rifle, case, primer, powder, and bullet regardless of what the books say.

What I'd do, probably, is go back and shoot a ladder from 63 to 65 grains. I would not finish with the 65 grain load, I think it is too hot based on the velocities you're seeing, but it's often useful to go a little over what you plan to shoot just to see what it does. Carefully though, very carefully. If you don't like ladders, load 63 to 65 grains in half grain increments, 5 shots each, and go shoot 'em.

I would also consider other powders. I've had good luck with H4831 with 130s and 150s in the .270 but I think I'd look hard at H4350 with the 110s.

Yeah ... that was a fun day. Thanks for inviting me up to shoot!

Tom

I guess there's a possibility that he is nuts .....but he is right, no need for a brake on a 270 win too much noise for any gain!!

The brake info was for my memory later. It is in the notes I copied. As far as I know the brake had no effect on velocity. I like to hold a rifle like I would a BB gun. With that .270 I had to hold on almost for dear life. That takes away a lot of fun.

I am delighted with the suggestion I am already over max no matter what Barnes told me. I will run the Hunter again starting with a lower charge. The holes with it were closer together; in fact some were cutting others.

....and there it is, foilks.

GTC

Yes
More powder..
Get a 1/4" wooden dowel rod and stuff those cases with more powder, take a hammer and crunch those powder granules down to powder.....you should easily be able to get 80 grains worth of powder in every case.
Let us know how it works for ya.

It's like he's TRYING to blow up a gun,....damaging em' with over pressure just isn't enough.
Just bear in mind that when this .270 succumbs, locks up, goes sour,....it will be a SMITH'S fault,...and RM will be (once again) a victim of the evil bastid.

GTC

Fine. But load more than only one cartridge per powder charge, start well below max, and check the brass for excess pressure signs before shooting the next higher powder charge loads, as has been suggested many times on this thread.

I checked for bolt lift resistance on each shot and checked each primer before I fired the next one. They looked the same. When I got home I used a micrometer to check for growth. They all measured the same.

Neither bolt lift nor primer condition is a reliable indicator of safety. Case head expansion is in the same boat.

Depending on the bolt face, smoothness of the lugs, hardness of the brass, etc, you can be way over pressure before any signs appear.

Tom

You have just stated the opposite on reading pressure signs that i have ever heard. Please enlighten me on approved method when one does not own a ballistic lab. ED K

So might as well step up a grain or so and see what happens?

Yes....I think it's time you get it over with...just fill a case up to the neck with blue dot. report back...

Hey it works for my .270.

Why?

Life Insurance paid up?

"It can also vary with the ejector slot. I've encountered a few with sharp edges, or even a raised ridge from machining. Some of these would often leave an ejector mark on any factory load.

At the other extreme, some rifle/brass combinations won't show "pressure signs" until well over 70,000 PSI--which is why using a chronograph is a more consistent solution.
Yep, even mule deer said "

Why not?

Rich,

Without a pressure trace, or a Personal Ballistics Lab, the absolute best indicator of pressure is muzzle velocity. You know as well as any of us that you can not make velocity without pressue, regardless what any other pressure indicators tell you. When you exceed SAAMI velocity, you are exceeding SAAMI pressure. Take note of that 86000 psi number quoted above from Quickload. That sounds exactly right to me with the data you have presented..

SAAMI max loads for the 270 with a 110 top out around 3300 fps plus or minus a bit. You are hitting speeds 200 fps above that. It is not possible to do so without a significant increase in pressure.

Remember the old ballistic law of diminishing returns. It requires a lot bigger increase in pressure to get from 3300 fps to 3500 fps, than it does to get from 3100 to 3300 fps.

I don't know about you, but I would not trust that Mk V to hold that kind of pressure very long with my face and eyes laying over the action.