Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What 130 grain 270 factory load for whitetails do you Like the best ?I

Federal Fusion

JB
I am fascinated by it because I never heard of it until I joined this web site. Aussie temperatures are cool to bloody hot so you don't experience the cold here in the US but interestingly, when I immigrated, I chronographed Aussie imported handloads I brought with me in a bunch of rifles and the total spread was something under 30fps at the 22ish degrees I was chronogrpahing at in the Rockies at 7000ft.

It did make me skeptical but now I also record temps while developing loads so I can accrue data first hand.

Even more interesting was that I favoured 760 powder in .25/06, some loads in .30/06 and the 275 Rigby which all replicated sea level Aussie chronographing.

It really puzzled me. I did however, experiemce excessive pressure instances when culling out west when getting close to summer, or in the 95-105F range.

John

It's not just you. I've used Core -Lokts for nearly 30 years and I've never seen the accuracy out of them that I'm seeing the last few years.

norma brass, CCI BR primers, 130 accubonds, 54.0 gr of R19 is sub-MOA in both my 270s and my friend's one.

When I got my first .270 Win I found Rem 130's were what it liked the best. Then I started handloading and tore out what was left of my hair and always tossed in the towel and bought a couple more green boxes. Since I have found a couple of loads that gun and others like quite well but if I needed any on a hunt I'd sure hope to find those green boxes on the shelf. Nice thing about .270 Win is that odds are even the gas station or Git and Go has a few at 5 AM. I am of the opinion that factory stuff is way better now than when I started rolling my own ammo. m2cts

My brother came up this fall from TX. with a couple of boxes of Norma Kalahari 270 ammo. I think it was 120 grain bullets the stuff was scary accurate and flattened deer like they were struck by lighting.

I'll be trying the Hornady Whitetails in my 270. I've shot deer with the Horndady Customs in 243 Interlock bullets( 243 is BTSP,270 is a SP) and they worked fine. And as mentioned the price is right.

John,

I've mentioned in a number of articles that powder temperature-sensitivity depends on several factors, and not just temperature.

At temperatures down to about freezing and up to around 90, there usually isn't much difference with most powders, and what there is doesn't make any significant difference in point of impact. But a lot of the time when people chronograph ammo, they go to the range with ammo that's been inside their house, and then in their vehicle, and that changes velocity even less.

And some people test ammo in "cold" by simply freezing it, then shooting it in a warm rifle, which doesn't work for at least a couple of reasons. The barrel dimensions and vibrations change slightly in real cold, and the primer warms up almost instantly from contact with a warm bolt-face. Which is why I make sure EVERYTHING is the same temperature, by actually testing in real cold after the ammo and rifle is left overnight in my unheated garage.

At zero F. (or less) some funny stuff can happen. That's where a lot of velocity loss really starts to occur: I've seen close to 200 fps from 70 to zero. But even then it often doesn't make any significant difference in point of impact at typical hunting ranges, say out to 300 yards. A lot depends on the rifle itself. Heavier barrels show less POI variation, just as they do when shooting handloads with different powder charges.

But I have seen changes in 100-yard POI of up to 3", and not just in elevation but in any direction. That's very unusual--usually an inch or so is more like it, if there's any change at all. But it does happen, which is why I test rifles at zero, and sometimes lower, since I hunt in real cold just about every year.

It also depends on the cartridge. If a powder is basically perfect for a cartridge/bullet combo, velocity will usually vary less than with loads not so perfect. IMR4350 isn't overly temp-sensitive, though it's far more sensitive than H4350, but I've seen it lose only 38 fps in the .375 H&H with 300-grain bullets, and twice as much in the .30-06 with 165's--which should be ideal. Part of the difference might be the primer. I used Federal 215's in the .375 and CCI 200's in the .30-06, as I recall.

Spherical powders can become difficult to ignite and very erratic down around zero. I've experienced hang-fires in ammo loaded with spherical powders, and muzzle velocities were all over the place.

Basically I just don't see any reason for me to use really temp-sensitive powders for my hunting, since with the most temp-resistant powders I haven't seen any significant POI or velocity change when testing in real cold.

Have seen numerous examples of how they've helped other Montana hunters as well. One is a professional coyote hunter who thoroughly tests all powder at well below zero, because that's when the best coyote hunting usually takes place--and his shots are often long, where velocity loss can make a real difference, even if POI at 100 yards is pretty close to the same.

He normally uses only Hodgdon Extremes, because his tests have shown even some other highly-touted powders have varied too much in cold. He's got enough problem figuring out how much more drop there will be in super-cold air at 500+ yards without also having to compensate for varying muzzle velocities. The same thing is true of hunting open-country deer and elk in typical late-November temperatures

Another friend likes to use double rifles for timber elk hunting, where a typical small amount of POI change in bolt rifles wouldn't matter. But he was having a hell of time with cross-firing in his doubles in cold weather. I suggested switching to H4831 and it solved the problem.

This is also why most target shooters prefer temp-resistant powders. David Tubb advises them, and the most popular powders even among short-range benchrest shooters lately are Vihatvuori N133, IMR 8208 XBR and Accurate LT-32, all temp-resistant powders, once again because shooters don't have to consider yet another variable.

Every powder will gain some velocity at much over 80 degrees. But the change is far less with the best temp-resistant powders.

Will the average deer hunter notice any difference at typical ranges up to 300 yards? Usually not, because even a loss of 150 fps might not change POI at all at 100, and will only cause the bullet to land an inch lower at 300. But in some circumstances it does make a difference.