Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Federal Blue Box 270/130’s

In the Lazy Man’s Sheep Rifle thread Brad mentions the Federal Blue Box 270W-130 ammo.
I have been using it to test many 270W chambered rifles for around 20 years. It gives around 3050 fps in a 22” barrel. It also shoots groups within .1” of my very best handloads.
I can gain around 50 fps but experience has shown me that I can’t perceive any difference.
I avoided using that ammo on game believing a premium bullet made a big difference. Then I used some of the stuff and again couldn’t see any difference. I continue to try to improve on it but I doubt there is anything to gain except in a few situations.
Thanks Brad.

PS I would certainly buy a case if there was any to be bought.

I've had the same experience with the .308 Win, 150 grain.

Federal blue box has shot well in every caliber I've tried it.

+1…….the 7.62X39 gives me groups in a CZ527 and Ruger compact that have to be seen to be believed!!

PennDog

I think my personal best with 130 gr .270 was 9 deer over 3 years; including a few fired each year to make sure it was still sighted in. Loved that stuff.

KC

Have a friend who is a die hard handloader. He could barely beat the Federal blue box with his load in his BLR. He gave up and bought 5boxes of 150 308 and hunted them out. Great load to test the abilities of a rifle.
GreggH

Ditto for me, also in 7mm Mag, .300 Win Mag, .30-06, .30-30, .270,.243

Sometimes over the years it was a red box, but same stuff.

And usually the cheapest other than Russian or Serbian...

I’ve also had great luck with 270 and 243 blue box. Stuff groups decent and works fine on deer.

Check and sort it for runout. Use any bananas for post cleaning foulers. The good ones may surprise you even more with how well they shoot, oddballs having been culled out.

Gunbroker item# 902161547 will fix you up with 5 boxes for $39.99 each

Works well for me. Would buy a case at a decent price

If all I could buy for any rifle was Federal Blue Box for the rest of my life, I would be just fine with it.

That would work

That is all my son uses in his 243.

I had a couple of boxes for my 270's, they got all shot up and never replaced them.

Rin, I generally agree however,

I bought some B B 300 WM with 180 Speer Hot Cors in 2008 for a new to me rifle. The closest I shot a deer was
@ 180 yds and out to 378 yd. Every one of those bullets separated and gave 'only' small or peppered exit holes.
They were plenty accurate and I killed & recovered at least 5 WT but the bullets failed.

I pulled the bullets and inserted good cup & cores and no more problems.

Jerry

I like the stuff because you can get it at wallyworld for 18 dollars a box when they have it never mind it s amazing factory accuracy. Mb

2 friends have ordered multiple NULA rifles from Mr. Forbes. 8 between them and all of them have test targets shot w/factory ammo. Mostly Federal Premium.

I fuss over handloads, projectiles, seating depth, primers, powder burn-rate and case-fill, case-prep, blah, blah, blah. But, I could also happily shoot blue-box Federal for the vast majority of my hunting and have the same level of success.

+1 on this. My experience with .243 and .308 exactly. Just plain works.

Back in the 80s that is what I used before I started loading my own. Different packaging then but basically same stuff with their 130 SP bullet. Federal seemed to perform better for me than other factory stuff. I shot a lot of deer with no complaints, great inexpensive ammo.