Thanks John for the 270 article in the new Handloader. Good info and very comprehensive as usual. With all of the new powders and bullets it's hard to keep abreast.

Glad you liked the article!

Am going to be publishing some more HANDLOADER articles along the same line with more popular cartridges. The next one up is the 7mm Remington Magnum.

Gonna load up some RL-16, 140’s tomorrow and see if I catch lightning in a bottle.

Most rifle loony endeavors (whether a new rifle, scope, cartridge, powder etc,) involve the expectation of completely changing your life. Good luck!

Good post, I remember your statement from an article IIRC that you thought that your old 270 was the hammer of Thor (my interpretation) until you found out the bullets were only traveling about 2700 fps. It changed the way I thought about max loads and trying to get that last 50 fps. At the ranges where the vast majority of game is killed 50-100 fps make no difference. Many big game Ouija board witnesses can attest to this.

Been there for quite a while. My "stock" loads for the .270, '06, and .308 are all pretty mild. My brass and barrels appreciate it. Under typical conditions around here, blazing speed just creates more instant aspic when the bullet lands. I've also lowered my usual 100-yard sighting in most cases to make precise placement at practical ranges easier. Long shots aren't common here, but quick ones are. It's hard to remember to hold a bit low when you're rushed; easy and natural to hold up a bit at longer range.

Me too, I seldom setup more than 1.5" high at 100. Normally I sight in at 200 because I tend to hold higher at distance than needed.

Prwlr,

I think you're confusing a couple of articles. Have written about how my first .243 was only getting around 2750-2800 with 105-grain Speer Hot-Cors, which the manual I got the load from (which used the same length barrel) listed it as right around 3000 fps. Also, have written about how a good friend (and fellow gun writer) was only getting 2700 fps from 160-grain bullets in his first 7mm Remington Magnum. In both instances, we'd been killing big game with our rifles and handloads for several years before our first chronographs disillusioned us.

My first .270, on the other hand, got pretty close to "book velocities," around 3000 fps with 130's and 2850 with 150's, from a 22" barrel.

Thanks for resynchronizing my two working synapses.

Hey, I'm old enough to be personally well-acquainted with the syndrome!

For real. Discovered a 130gr Accubond over 60 gr H4831SC makes a godawful mess of a deer with a shoulder shot. Son shot a couple there at under 100 yds. Went back to his 7x57.

There's a reason I like the .300 Savage as an upstate PA deer rifle. It has something to do with not having to discard most of a shoulder if the hit is a bit too far forward.

I load the 130 accubond over 55 gr of H4831SC in my wifes 270. Its a pussycat to shoot, puts bullets in the same hole, and kills just right at 100 ish yds

I never (dare I say) wanted a .270 due to having a 7x57, but have somehow acquired two. 60gr H4831 and the 130gr Hornady is "the load" in each. Very accurate, but hardly the "hammer of Thor", and no bang-flops. Have had several of those with the 7mm though, with less blast and recoil and less meat damage. And I now have three 7mms.

As the Grand Poobah is fond to hearing stated, the .270 Win. is the cat's meow in cartridge tech.

Its what the 7x57 Mauser was aimed to be upon conception, but never achieved in practise - hence hiding under the 275 Rigby moniker in some jurisdictions.

It is just so, that the .270 Winchester is so much more just so.

My standard load is a160gr NP at presumeably 2700 or so via 56gr of W780. Three deer have flopped or stumbled and flopped after dose of that so far. Just got back from the range after swapping the scope on my FN. 160s land an inch high, 150gr Sierras an inch higher. At 9lbs 14oz, not sure how much field time it's gonna get!

If there's something better than the O'Connor load of 62 gr and a long drop tube, I haven't seen it.

Don't need a drop tube with H4831SC.

I've found 60gr of RL26 under a 145ELDX gives over 3100fps MV. Who needs a 7RM?

I believe somebody even mentioned that combination in a recent magazine article....

You don't have to fill the case with powder!

You don't have to fill the case with powder!

Forty or more years ago, you weren't worth damn in Wyoming if you did't shoot a 270 for Elk. We shot a boat load with 150 Core Lock's off the self in a factory Remington box. Once I started hand loading we tried the Nosler Partitions and after several Elk we all decided there wasn't much difference and went back to the old Remingtons. I haven't shot them in a long while, but something never change.

What kind of long range groups did you get?

I could not get the 145 eldx to group worth a darn, 1.5" at best with 4831 SC.

This^^^. My brother killed so many bull elk with my post 64 fwt schnable and 140 Frontier Hornadys InterLock I had to make him a deal on it. Dayom I miss that gun and cartridge.

I shot one buck head on in the chest. Bullet was a lump under the skin on the rump and fell out when the butt was peeled.

Another good buck jumped from its bed and ran dead away. A Texas heart shot ended his day. Hanging to skin it and the bullet was a lump under the skin on the neck and fell out when it was peeled.

Waiting for the ones on the 308 and 30-06.


Okie John

The "science is settled" on those.😛

Switch,

Actually, somethings do change.

Forty years ago Pointed Soft-Point Core-Lokts has MUCH heavier jackets along the shank the of the bullet than they do now, the reason the acted much like Partitions. They don't have those heavy jackets anymore. The change occurred in the early 1990s.

Will see what RL-16 does this weekend. Loaded some up. 4831 has seemed to be the best so far, with 4350 second, but only with Barnes 140 TSX. Sako 85.

That's a shame, I didn't realize of this change. As I said I haven't used them in awhile. Most of my hunting theses days is with a Bob and Nosler Ballistic Tips'.

These days Ballistic Tips are tougher than Core-Lokts. We have had great luck with the 100 and 115-grain BT's in the .257 Roberts for quite a while now.

The exception might be the round-nose Core-Lokts. Those retained the heavy shank-jacket after the PSP's did not--but I haven't bought any in quite a while, so dunno.

I'll be looking forward to that one. At one point I had several 7Mags. Killed a bunch of game with them. Somehow they all got away from me. Feels like I need to get another one.

True, my friend, but when you have as much H4831 as I do, I still drop it. It's an embarrassment of riches.

Help me out here guys. I have only shot six deer in my 69 years and my mediocre hunting career. All of them were Alaska's little Sika Black-tailed island deer and all were does. Because of the islands brown bear population I carried a 30-06 and 165 grain Partitions, one neck shot and five lung shots. All the deer ran like heck for about forty yards and fell over. I mean they scooted and I was thankful for the snow and blood trail. Those little suckers ran further then any moose I have ever shot. All bullets passed through the deer and none were over 100 yards when shot.

A friend shot his two deer with a .223 Rem. and some flavor of a 55 grain bullet, another friend used a .270 Win. on two deer and another a .35 Whelan on two deer. All were under 100 yards and one shot kills.

It is my understanding some white tails in the north, like Canada, can be much bigger then in the rest of America. Does it really matter much what expanding bullet one puts through a deer's lungs? Do those Berger's really drop them with a lung shot? Are there any Berger's suitable for big brown bears?

Forty yards isn't excessive for a lung shot, or even a heart/lung shot. I'd say it's actually typical. High shoulder shots drop 'em right there, so they say, but the ones I've made were accidental.

Can we put in requests? How about the much overlooked .280 Rem loaded to its full potential? If JOC was having one made at the time of his death, there had to be a reason (and frankly I'd love to know what it was).

I was going to request the 7x57 but I believe you did that one recently.

I'm thinking about starting a thread on this very issue. It's been a long hot summer in Florida,and I've been doing some reading about mountain hunting. A lot of the guys that chased sheep in the Asian mountains in the 1980s through the early 2000s were using pretty heavy rifles in serious altitude with rugged terrain. And they were doing so even when lighter rifles were coming into vogue. Today, most of us cringe about hauling a nine pound rifle into a deer stand. Interesting, huh?

Appearently, the Grand Poobah, Ingwe, Ruler in Chief of the Merry Band of turdlike People, is growing lenient of late.
There is no way, such statement would have gone unchecked and the stater not met with hellfire and brimstone in the olden days.

Shall he henceforce be now known as Maximus the Merciful.

.270 not gay.

I thought I was the only one to notice that.

John - I just subscribed to the e-version of Rifle/Handloader/Successful Hunter and will be reading the .270 article today.

Really looking forward to your upcoming 7RM article, and hoping it has discussion of RL26 and 150-160 Nosler Accubonds.

I really like the Ballistic Tip 115 grain bullet in the Roberts. It is very accurate in my rifle. I see no need to shoot bonded or Partition bullets for deer sized animals. It seems Nosler has toughened up the BT in the past few years. As I said I haven't shot he Core Loks I quite a few years and never in the Roberts, so I can't make a comparison. `I'll make a bold statement and say I really don't mind fragile bullets on deer with heart and lung shots. I used to shoot the 270, 130 Sierra when they had a thinner jacket. Sometimes they didn't penetrate fully and even came apart in the chest cavity. Deer shot with this bullet traveled about 3/8's of an inch.

It is shooting sub MOA at 200. Planning to get up to Prescott soon to run it out to 1000yd. M70FWT w/ SWFA 3-15 in Talley lows.

Finally received my subscription copy today, looking forward to reading JB’s article. Also sent in my 2 year subscription extension. If you’re not getting this publication, you’re missing out on one of the few great reads left. Not only JB, but the rest of the contributors are outstanding. Oh, and you don’t need to be wearing tacticool gear to subscribe!

Where can I find this article? Is it online?

https://www.riflemagazine.com/home/index.cfm?CFID=61659819&CFTOKEN=12820062

Subscribe to the online versions and download entire magazine.

A good deal for all 3

I'm a 55.0 grs of IMR-4350 kinda guy!!

Mike

Hmmm

Just noticed on this computer i'm now

ready on the r
ight

A while back I stopped worrying about the last bit of velocity, and I also lost my taste for compressed loads. So these days when I put together some 270's they're most likely going to be about 55 grains of a 4350 class powder and a 130 grain bullet.

I should say that was only a comment about my present mindset, nothing against the article at all.

I enjoyed the read, almost as much as I enjoy 150NP's at 3050fps in my .270Win!