Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 270 WSM, Reload or not?

Just purchased a Tikka T3 Lite. Just got it scoped yesterday. Bought some factory ammo to start shooting as Im not equipped to reload for this round presently. Mag legth shows that factory OAL is the absolute max...and boy is it close with the Federal 130 TSX Fusion. Advertised velocity is max same as reloads. Even if its not quite up to the 3300fps advertised velocity, if it gets 3200fps, thats plenty. In your opinion, how much actual advantage would/could there be to reloading for this gun? Im sort of leaning towards thinking that if I can find a factory load that shoots well, it'd be nice to have a gun that, should I not have time to load rounds, I can go to the store and buy ammo and be ready to hunt on a moments notice.

I can honestly say that I have never killed a deer with factory loaded ammo...It would never cross my mind to ever buy the
factory stuff....Reloading is just part of the deal...
Bart

Like Bart said.

Did Federal's son marry Barnes daughter? Some confusuion about your TSX Fusion?

like Bart said, again.

The last factory round fired through one of my guns was in 1982. And that was only because I was 200 miles out of town on a job for three weeks and found a great deal on a Ruger 77 with 4-12x42 in 25-06. I just couldn't wait to get home to shoot the rifle, especially with all of the rock chucks down at the job site.

I have had good luck with factory PowerPoints in both .270 WSM and .300 WSM. In both cases, accuracy was very good and the rounds delivered advertised velocity. In the case of the .300, it was in a 23" Barrel vs. 24" as tested in the catalogue. Both rounds performed well on feral pigs on the few I shot with them. That being said, I prefer to load my own, but use factory every now and then to see what's new.

-Lou

Winchester, Federal and Remington make premium Ammo for the 270's that shoot extremely well. Those that have not tried them have a lesson in factory ammo accuracy coming. Furthermore, a lot of reloaders regularly shoot ammo that is less accurate than the factory stuff. I never use Barnes anymore, Noslers are as reliable as they come.

They say factory ammo is better than ever. Like Bart I have never even shot a big game animal with a factory load! I have shot at and missed a deer with slugs and dispatched some deer with the .22 but I have a thing about handloads.

Just use what makes sense. I bet those factory loads are as hot as can be.

Whats stopping you from loading the 270 WSM anyway? Most shops have them or order a set from Grafs and you will have it Friday.

Hello 280Rem, I handload for my 270 WSM and I can give this warning do not use MagPro on hot days! The MagPro was great when the temp was about 70 outside no bad pressure at all with 72.5gr of magpro and 140gr TSX. Then a good hot day about 95+ outside and this is what I got..
Randy..

#1

280Rem
I have only seen a couple of 270 WSM both loads were the 150 grain Win Super X PP.The rifle's were a Win and a Tikka both shooting that ammo where very accurate.To me the PP is the most underated bullet in the hunting stable.
Like the one fellow said I can't load this good for the price of the ammo.
The guy took a really nice moose last season with the 150 grain Power Points

#2

#3

What make is your 270? From the looks of the case head the bolt face don't look square, and how many times have the split neck cases been reloaded?

Those necks look like some of my R-P cases after 2 loadings in my STW.

I too got an overload using Magpro on a hot day. There was some dispute about this and it only happened on two shots. Of course I stopped shooting Magpro and would never use it again. My load was 74 grs behind a 140 Ballistic Tip from a tested Kimber 8400 270 WSM. The second case stuck in the chamber and I could not push it out with the little portable cleaning rod I bring to the range.

The year before I had worked up to 74.5 grs but with the new gun in cool weather and hunted with it and it worked well. Velocities were high and well they should be with all that powder.

I can't recall the velocity from the overload in 80+ F. weather but it was very high. Perhaps as high as 3400 +- fps!

By the way I would not use anymore of those primers. I guess they are Remmys? I am stuck with lots of Remmy primers. They split, leak and ruin a bolt face even with regular loads.

The rifle is a M-70 feather weight and rem 9.5 mag primers.

Yes, actually...Federal Vital Shok...my mistake. Not up on my factory loads...havent shot any myself in 20+ years.

That particular lesson may never be learned as I have no intention of shooting/hunting with factory loads. It's too much fun rollin' my own.

As other's here, I've taken all my big game animals in the past 30+ years with my own loads....there's alot of satisfaction in doing so.

Having said that, I am well aware that factory offerings nowadays are much "better" than years ago. If, for some reason I wasn't able to load my own anymore and someone stole my many hundreds of big game reloaded ammo, I would not hesitate to carry some factory offerings. You do what you gotta do, willingly or not.

Just my desire to take em' with loads I made up. Kind of complete's the entire hunt for me......IMHO.

.280Rem - well don't start now!!!...Good luck on whatever you choose to do.

I've got a 270wsm in a tikka lite, that shoots realy good with my handloads.
I never fired any factory ammo through it. The rifle shoots great with my handloads and I dont know or care what it will do with factory ammo, it'll never see any.
The bigest reasons for me to handload is I like handloading and buying components alittle at a time, it dosnt seem so expensive to shoot alot.
I guess if I didnt like handloading then I'd shoot less and shoot only factory ammo.

Jamie

I use magpro in both the 270 wsm and my 264. I have used it from 20 deg to 107deg with NO pressuer problems !!!!!!!!!!

Im shooting the same 140 tsx and 74 gr of magpro in my 270 wsm fwt. I shot my antelope last year in 95 deg weather and had no issues.

I wounder if you may have got a bad lot of powder?

280 Rem, I would think that a 280 is a better reason to reload for than the 270 WSM since the 280 is loaded to a lower SAAMI pressure than comparable rounds such as the 270 Win. By reloading you can squeeze more performance out of a 280 Remington than is available from factory standard loads.
That being said the 270 WSM is a great round to load for as it's been my experience that it is a particularly accurate round. I also don't think there are that many inexpensive choices for it out there either.
As good as some factory ammo is nowadays it is often tempting to not reload especially if you don't shoot much, but what's the fun of that?...................DJ

dj,

You really addressed my actual question. I know some here, many in this thread, load because they are complete "do it yourselfers". I am not. I reload for every round I have had up to now because I can do more with accuracy and velocity. One of the key elements of accuracy is seating depth IMO. That is removed with this gun and round due to mag legnth. Velocity, from all I have read, is max with factory rounds anyway. I can't honestly see the reason to reload for it, other than to say I killed the deer with a bullet I loaded. Which in my book, doesn't mean that much in and of itself, unless there is something about that bullet that is unique and better due to that unique quality IE accuracy and/or velocity created due to my craftsmanship. Just me personally, if I put a value on my time...which I do, then I cant justify spending time to create something that I can buy for less than the cost of my time, and that product be equal in performance.

Yes and no on mag length pre-determining your best accuracy with factory loads.

I also believe that seating depth is way up there when it comes to finding that accurate load. But to say that because a rifle (I have one exactly like yours/same cal.) has a magazine, that option is "removed"....is a false assumption. How many rifles out there don't have magazines, detachable or not?

I start out seating bullets for all my new rifles out as far as the mag will allow and still function properly. Whether I get good/great groups there or not, is always rifle specific. On some I do and on some I don't. On the .270WSM, I don't. It seems to like just a bit more jump, not much, but definitely more than loading it to the full length of the magazine.

Truly...it doesn't matter to me if you load for this rifle or not. I'd just hate for you to go on thinking that your (or any) rifle's magazine length has inadvertantly "removed" your ability to produce a more accurate bullet than a factory offering...which, as you state, is your main reason for not reloading for it.

Can't remember ever "saying" to anyone that I harvested any animal with a bullet I loaded. People that know me just know that's what it is. More important that feeling within....IMHO.

As I said earlier....do what you do because of your own reasons, but I just couldn't have you continue to believe that you can't achieve accuracy based on limitations due to magazine length. Simply not true.

Best of luck.

Here's my 270 WSM reloads in 2 different Kimbers:

8400 FW at 100yds:




Std 8400 at 200yds:




.............so far I haven't found any factory ammo that's approached this performance in my 270 WSM's........................DJ

magnumb...

I didn't consider the fact that I could seat them out further and not use the mag...just have a single shot. And also could seat shorter I guess. Do you know, or have you tried...is the Tikka 270WSM freebored so that its impossible to seat all the way out to the lands?

FWIW, I will eventually reload for it Im sure. I just like to do it. But for earlier stated reasons of convenience. I will find an acceptable factory load too.

Thanks for the input guys.

It's a long haul to the riflings. I, personally, wouldn't choose to single load although some people do. Obviously, it is that first shot that matters most and is all that one really needs MOST of the time. For convenients sake, it could be a bit confusing to try to separate the longer loads from your standard rounds (as we get older, memory is the SECOND thing to go). Perhaps easier for you and that remains a viable option.

I use to load as close as possible to the riflings, even into them at times. My 30+ years has shown me that each rifle is so different that there is no single answer, as I'm sure you have found. But pressure also become's more of a consideration, not always an obvious issue, but more often than when not seated too closely.

I also have found through the years that your seating depth for bullets generally (almost always) have 2 (perhaps more) sweet spots. One fairly close to the riflings and another, some distance away. Due to magazine limitations as you spoke of and especially with the Short Mags, the only way to approach finding a seating depth that gives you the accuracy you desire, is to seat a bit deeper each time to find the second sweet spot.

Once I forced myself to believe and apply this "2 sweet spot" theory into my handloading regime, it immediately opened up new possibilities. In application, it worked beautifully. The precision shooting masters have claimed this fact for years. Now, for me, a magazine's length is a non-issue. I would still much prefer not having to deal with the issue at all and load as far out as I wanted, but the reality of the situation makes that impossible with many rifle's...of numerous makes and caliber's.

As other's have said, the .270WSM is easy to load for. Doesn't seem to be finicky. Never shoots poorly with whatever it digests, which bodes well for factory loads as well. But loves certain loads over other's and shows it with tiny little clusters as shown in the post above. My groups are very similar....consistantly.

Hope this helps is some way. Best of luck to you.

Exactly all the same components for my load! Don't know what brass your using, I use Winchester. I also use 215M's. May move to Norma when these reach their end as my 300WSM loves Norma brass. My .270WSM loads chrono'd 3,240 fps (25 shot avg.) with just a tad more of RL22.

Great groups, the 200's are spectacular.

Yup, same brass and primers. I also load this load for my Buddies HS Precision with comparable results. I like the idea of Norma brass but with this load nuthin' seems to be broke so why fix it?........................DJ

Maybe we should patent this load.......grin.

+1 on the brass, but Norma is so uniform and consistant that I'll have to make the move when necessary....which may be never, who knows.

RL KURTZ,

The first thing I'd do, is get rid of the RP WSM brass, my shooting partner bought some "On Sale" to save a couple bucks, even with mid range loads he had split necks right from the git-go. This is the third incident with RP WSM brass I've read about on the net.
DS

Going to the store and buying ammo has a lot going for it. Me, I like to load my own, but I'll admit it gets to be a time consuming process. I loaded for a friend's 270 WSM. It shot my handloaded 140gr Accubonds and his factory 140gr ABs, 130gr BTs, and 130gr coated Bts all in the same place and all in 1/2" groups. What it may come down to is simply the cost of ammo. Once you get all the components, one could semi-quickly start loading for probably $12 a box (for Accubonds) - compare that to $30 a box of factory stuff. Now, put a price on 30 minutes it took you to get to the store and get it opposed to the 3 days (and hour or two after the kids are down) it took to load 50 rounds. Your call.

Fyi...my friend now just goes to the Sportsmans Warehouse and buys factory stuff.

.280,
I handload for the .270 WSM. Main reason is that I couldn't find a good factory round with the bullets I wanted to shoot, that would give acceptable accuracy.

I handload a 130 gr. Nosler Partition at 3250 fps from my 24" barrelled Wby. Vanguard, and 3140 fps with the 150 gr. Nosler Partition. Both loads are exceptionally accurate, and give me two rounds to cover everything from antelope through elk.

My .280, on the other hand, gave such great accuracy with Federal Premium Vital Shok ammo with the 140 gr. Accubond, that I really haven't been motivated to buy dies and start handloading. Probably won't, since I now have a near-lifetime supply of Fed. ammo.