Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 270 + R26 + 150

Kimber Montana CM 24" factory air temp 55
150 LRAB
58.5. 3058
59.0. 3062
59.5. 3091
60.0. 3106
60.5. 3128

Control Federal blue box 130 3079

First two loads into one ragged hole...but of course Kimber's won't shoot

That'll do!

Thanks. I just picked up a pound of RL26 and looking forward to trying this new load in my Pre64 Model 70 FWT.

donsm70

JB thinks the vels are high. So do I actually. May have been sun angle. Will shoot again in a few days.

Wonder how it would do with 130's?

In my 22.5" Kimber MT, 59.0 RL26 gives 3,010 fps with a 150. For me, that's the end of the game.

That's cookin' for a 270 and 150's!

Rin - that's certainly attention getting for sure. If 3100 is safely doable it's worth the time/money/effort --- to me.

OTOH if 3000 is the top safe speed, it's not worth the extra time/money/effort TO ME because I was already getting 2900-2940 depending on lot variation.

At this point it's showing promise and thanks for doing the work.

Jerry

I'm running 2920 fps average velocity with good accuracy in my pre 64 fwt. That's with 60gr. RL26 and partition... "Good enough for the girls I go out with"...

Me too. I've shot a couple lbs now of Re 26 and have never broke 3100 but did run it to 61.5 for 3075 in my 24" Kimber. I stopped at 60 gr and 3040-3050 depending on the day with a 150 NPT. I'm a skeered to run it any higher, plus an extra 50 ft/sec ain't buying me anything.

At 3050, it runs really flat out to my max (500 yards). I shot 2 elk last year with that load - both under 75 yards, closer to 50. Bullet worked as advertised. The elk hated it <G>

That's great speed Rick and really, anything over 3000 with that sorta accuracy is pure icing on the cake.

Danged Kimbers! Ha.

I have been attempting to simplify my life by reducing calibers and searching out universal loads. My old Oehlers are getting dusty and I use 270's a lot.
I think I have/had it about close as I was going to get.
This RL26/150 gr combination certainly grabs my attention, darn interesting performance.
Never say never.

Has anyone tried RL26 with 140 ABs? I've used 62gr of IMR7977 for the last 3 years or so to get ~2,950 or so fps out of a kind of slow 22" Tikka barrel. I tried RL16 yesterday and got up to 2,980 fps with promising accuracy using 8.5 gr less powder! I'm inclined to leave it there since RL16 is turning out killer velocity in my Creedmoor, and looks good in .30-06. But if 3,100 fps were possible in a 22" barrel with the 140 AB.... Well I'd have to give it a try.

My experience with RL 26 and 150 g. bullets in a bone stock Kimber Montana (24 inch barrel) is a little puzzling.

All were shot in PPU brass, WLR primers and the same lot of RL 26. Hazy to cloudy skies, temps in the 40-50 degree range, ProChrono chronograph. No missed shots by the chronograph in the testing.

Last fall with the 150 g. Hornady bullet; started at 57 grains of RL 26 working up in 0.5 grain increments with two shots at each increment:
Charge Average Velocity in fps.

57.0 g. = 2886
57.5 g. = 2899
58.0 g. = 2921
58.5 g. = 2953
59.0 g. = 2993
59.5 g. = 2973 (not a typo)
60.0 g. = 2962 (also not a typo)

Then a total of 7 shots with the 60.0 g. load of RL 26 were chronographed in two different sessions a month apart. The average of them was 3044 fps.

This spring I repeated the same series only this time used the Nosler 150 g. partition bullet and started at 58 grains of RL 26.

Charge Average Velocity in fps.

58.0 g. = 3034
58.5 g. = 3058
59.0 g. = 3078
59.5 g. = 3123
60.0 g. = 3133

At the 59.5 g. and 60.0 g. pair one primer at each step had what appeared to be a slight primer leak, just a very small amount of black on the edge of a primer. The primer pockets on these cases after depriming appeared to be normal and new primers seated normally.

So I dropped the charge to 57.5 grains and a five shot average was 2945 fps. A week later shot another 5 shot test with 58.0 g. of RL26 and averaged 2973 fps. On the same day also fired two more with 57.5 g. of RL 26 and got 2963 fps for the two shots.

In other rifles I have been able to switch back and forth between Hornady and Partitions of the same weight and get very similar velocities and consistent performance.

John Barsness reports that Partitions often give higher pressures than cup-and-core bullets. For this rifle and bullet combination his observation is correct, even though it was out side of my previous - and admittedly limited - experience.

My results appear to vary from session to session even using what I consider to be identical loads. Some variation from shot to shot is typical but several shot averages show more difference from one session to another than experienced with other rifles.

Accuracy in my rifle is good, I've shot more than one 3 shot group at 100 yds that are under 1 inch. All shots (including some mild loads with 130 g. bullets) have flattened primers and the cases do not want to rechamber in the rifle without being resized. This is true of the PPU brass and WW brass I have tested. A fired case measured at the shoulder was 0.441". This is S.A.A.M.I. value given in my Nosler #6 Manual. I assume my Kimber has a minimum specification chamber. Consequently, I full-length resize cases for this rifle. After FL resizing the cases rechamber with just slight resistance

I will do more shooting but expect loads with the Partition bullet to be a couple of grains or so less than loads for other bullets.

A different 270 with a 23.6 inch barrel doing the same series with the 150 g. Partition bullet gave a two shot average of 3010 fps with WW brass, WLR primers and 60 g. of RL 26.

While we're up, has anyone clocked 100gr NPs with RL26 in a .243?

The data in the Alliant sheet looks pretty good.

I have had many 270's and have never broken 2875 with any powder and any 150 so I am very pleased with 150's at 3000. More doesn't make any difference to me.
Will try again with 145 ELD-X.

Rin,

More than a 150 at 3000 probably won't make any difference to the animal either. The nice thing about 270+R26+150 is you can get to 3000 and its a reasonable load that probably won't give you any fuss.

I'm going to give R26 a try in the 270. I can see myself being pretty happy with 2900 which is right where my H4831SC load is. The only difference is my H4831SC load is max and a R26 load at 2900 should be more middle of the road. Probably doesn't matter much but as I get older I seem to have a greater appreciation for driving slower and loads that aren't pushing pressure limits.





Trystan

Trystan
Must be experience because every shooter I know eventually quits pushing pressure limits.
150's at 2950-3000 is perfect especially w/o brass busting pressure.

Is this the part where "it's almost like a 7Mag"?