Hello All,
After lurking on this site for some time I finally decided to join up. I have lived all my life in the mountains of Central PA, near the famous Horseshoe Curve. Last fall, I decided to enroll at Penn State
as a full time college student in my mid 30's no less. It proved to be a good decision as notification was given by my employer 2 days after Christmas that the place would be closing its doors. Anyway, that's probably enough of an introduction for now.
As for the .270, a year ago I picked up a new Model 70 Featherweight with a high gloss stock. I typically shoot a South Carolina Super Grade model 70 in 30-06 but that gun weighs over 10 pounds scoped and becomes not much fun to carry. High gloss is not my first choice, but this particular Portugal made .270 had an exceptional piece of wood on it for a run of the mill featherweight and I could not resist. I mounted a Leupold VX3i 3.5-10x40 on it in Leupold DD's using low rings, lapped. I also installed a Timney trigger to replace the MOA. I've done the Ernie spring on other rifles, and the lighter spring provides a very nice hunting trigger, but I wanted to see what the Timney was all about.
Initial handloads for the rifle consisted of H4831SC and 130gr SGK's and Nosler Accubond's. Accuracy was certainly good enough for hunting, but not good enough to satisfy my expectations. So I played with the charge weight and the best I could do was around 1 1/2 to 2 MOA with the AB using 59grs of the H4831. I then put the rifle away as I was to busy to fool with it until this past summer rolled around. Around the same time, I picked up a book that is no longer in print consisting of hunting stories written by none other than JOC. Woven within the text of one story was mention of one of his old loads, and that was 49.5grs of IMR 4064. I keep plenty of that stuff around to feed my 06's with 150s, and decided to try it in the .270.
Consultation with my Lyman 50th Edition manual lists 49.5grs of IMR 4064 as max load producing a bit over 3000fps with the 130SGK. Working up to that load in my rifle using Winchester cases, with a COAL of 3.270 produced fine accuracy, MOA or better easily for 3 shots and more importantly, consistently. Shooting over a chronograph verified the velocity was near identical to data in the manual, at around 3015fps. Interestingly, the H4831 load clocked even slower than that in the 22 inch barrel. I then tried the 130AB over the same charge of 4064 seated at 3.340 OAL in Norma cases. Accuracy remained, although maybe not quite as good as the Sierra's. I did try some 150gr Hornady IL's too with IMR 4350, but the rifle showed a strong dislike for that bullet with that powder.
In today's world of chasing the latest and greatest, it sometimes it pays to step back and see what worked in a bygone era, provided the data is still relevant and can be verified. I look forward to harvesting a deer in the PA woods using this rifle in a few weeks, and I have no doubt that it will work just fine. A few threads below, I believe another campfire member arrived at about the same place I did with his .270 and harvested an elk, something I've never hunted. Anyone else find satisfactory results with 4064 in their rifle?
Jim
