Help needed reloading for .270 win

[cricco]

Hi folks. I'm having trouble developing an accurate load for my Remington 700 BDL in .270 win. I have tried numerous powders, such as H4830, 4064, Varget, etc. I can get O.K groups with some of these loads, but If I shoot factory Winchester Silvertips, I get clover leaf groups. Now, this bothers me! I am anal about trimming cases, cleaning flash holes, bullet seating, etc. I'm convinced that I'm seating the bullets at the wrong depth. I'm using Sierra 130 grain SP BT bullets and seating them from 3.30-3.36. Can anyone tell me how to go about finding the best seating depth for this gun? I have read in the past something about "smoking bullets", but I'm not sure how to do it. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here? Or better yet...how to find the proper seating depth?

[fryboy]

finding the best seating depth for a individual barrel takes playing with it , as for smoking that is easy if ur careful , start a bullet in a empty case long and then try it keep doing this until it just closes , some suggest stripping the bolt for this for hunting rifles ..eh ... anyways once the bolt will softly close pull out the cartridge and use a bic to soot the bullet ,now comes the trikki part , set it gently in and slowly close the bolt then open it and before it ejects catch it and pull it out , if it was done right u should see a lil scuff where the bullet was laying on the bottom but what u are looking for is the land marks, depending upon how many lands ur rifle has u should see that many lil flat marks somewhere on the ogive , if u slowly adjust ur die and recheck until the marks are barely in the soot and not on the bullet that would be zero OAL ie; just kissing the lands , alot of it will have to do with ur bullet a sleek pointy boat tail are the ones that usually ( but not always ) need to be closer to the lands for best results but i would suggest starting at leat .020 away and then working further away , if by the time u get to factory length or it seems to get worse go the other way ( out ) slowly until it seems to get better , every chamber and barrel will be different tho as well as the loading data , there is no other way than to just experiment and see what ur rifle likes best with that bullet, caution if u start crowding the lands u should drop ur charge weight as it tends to build up more pressure and in a heck of a hurry ( hope some of that made sense lolz ) often times a round nose will show better groups than a spitzer , look at the win silver tip for example , i believe u can still buy those bullets ? and then just match the length .....

[GabbyM]

The Silver-tips are probably flat base bullets. Which makes life easier. But they are very poor hunting bullets. As in they come apart.

My 270 is also a little picky on what boolits it will eat. I've only tried half dozen or so. Best shooting bullet by far is the 150 grain Hornady flat based IL soft point. The old one I've been shooting for thirty-five years. Hits like a hammer. Now and then I'll get a three shot one hole group out of my noodle barreled Weatherby. Plus they are not high priced bullets. What's not to like.

Published COL on a Sierra 130 sbt is 3.250”. If it doesn't shoot well at that length it probably just won't. My rifle won't shoot Sierra 150 gr SBT well at all. I like Sierra bullets for target and varmint. But they are very poor big game bullets anyway. You know if you rib shoot a deer within 200 yards with that 130 grain it will blow a hole out the back big enough to stick a foot ball in. On big critters like Moose it will frag and under penetrate. I like 150 grain bullets. Not only are they heavier but in most brands they are made stronger for the larger animals. I figure 130's are for Antelope. Back when I hunted coyote with a 270 I used Sierra 90 gr HP's.

For finding the rifling you can laod one out to 3.350” to 3.430" COL then chamber. You'll see the marks. A felt tip sharpie can blacken a bullet also. Bench rest loaders push a bullet up the pipe then use rods with stops to measure the bullet base to back end of receiver then do the same with a case. A little math and you have the COL. For a hunting load I'd load to the lands or backed off up to .030”. Roy Weatherby liked to let them jump.

After your results don't improve buy some Hornady SP #2740, 150 gr. Other bullets I'd use are the Speer grand slams or the new Deep Curl. Even though the deep curl is new this year so no one has any results on it yet. Nosler partitions are OK but IMO not worth the price. For light animals the Nosler ballistic tips are good but not a deep penetrating bullet. You're in New England where bears live. Maybe you're just shooting coyotes?

If you are set on a boat tail bullet the Hornady 140 grain BTSP #2735 would be a good one. But if you have any thought of shooting moose or bear I'd definitely go with a 150 grain flat base and that's not to much lead by any means. For deep penetration a flat based bullet will fly level and hit straight on to form a uniform mushroom then penetrate straight on. While boat tail bullets fly tail low then after the hit tends to yaw then tumble. You know. Like military FMJ-BT bullets. This is why bullets like the Speer Grand Slam are flat based.

Hope all that wasn't to negative. You probably knew most of it but there it is. As you can tell I like the heaver bullets in 270. From what I hear 140's are the most popular now. I'm good with 150's. They don't blow little deer in half and they shoot through big ones.

If you'd like to try cast bullets in that 270 drop me a PM and I'll send you some for cost.

[Nrut]

Hello cricco,
This is what I use to get the bullet ogive/distance to land measurement..
http://www.midwayusa.com/browse/BrowseProducts.aspx?pageNum=1&tabId=1&categoryId=18268&categoryString=9315***731***8868***9505***


In a Rem 700 I am using a 150gr Hornady loaded .010 off the lands over a charge of RL-22, W-W brass and Fed 210 Match primers..
I usually start .005 to .010 off the lands and move back from there looking for accuracy..
Case prep---
I deburred the flash holes, squared the primer pockets and cleaned the inside of the necks with a 30 cal. bore brush on a portable drill and partial resized the cases..
I have a friend who also gets excellent accuracy using RL-22 and Sierra 130's in his Rem. .270..

I believe RL-22 will give you sub MOA accuracy easily...

[Dark Helmet]

+ 1 on RL 22- hornady, 130 sst

[GabbyM]

When they started to actually sell multi bladed razors to men. I knew civilization as I'd known it was about to end. Now Midway has a modified cases for $5.00. Is there no end in sight?

[winelover]

I prefer the heavier bullets in my 270W also. I burn thru a lot of H-4831 powder in my 77 Ruger. I use the Sharpie method to determine COAL. The 150 Sierra's like 3.30" for COAL and the Hornady 140 SST likes 3.33" COAL. I do like R-22 with 150 Nostler Partitions again at 3.30" COAL.

Winelover

[roysha]

First let me say my 700 much prefers the 150 grain Sierra SPBT and H-4831. It has killed cleanly everything I have ever hunted and shot with it. Dead is dead and the people that think you need to spend $2-3.00 a bullet to get proper results are, in my opinion, NUTS!
With that said, here is how I determine an initial seating depth for a new or different bullet; Use a brass or steel rod that is somewhat near bore size. This isn't real critical but it must be at least over one half of the bore diameter. It must have one square,(flat) end. With the bolt in the rifle and cocked (FP retracted) slide the rod down the bore till it touches the face of the bolt. Use a magic marker, preferably a new one with a fine point, and mark the rod at the muzzle by holding the marker against the rod and turning the rod while maintaining contact with bolt face. Remove the bolt and with the gun pointed downward, drop the projectile you want to use into the chamber and hold it in place with a dowel or pencil with the eraser against the base of the projectile. Again slide the dowel down to the point of the projectile and mark the rod. Measure the distance between the two, picking one side of the marks or the other. I usually subtract .005 from this dimension as my starting point.
Of course, all this is predicated on the limitation of the magazine length and sufficient seating depth in the case to properly support the projectile.
Now, I can hear all the howling about how the point of a soft nose bullet is not perfect from bullet to bullet and on and on, but I have rarely found them to be more that a thou or two different. If you are experiencing a large variation in the length of your bullets, you may want to rethink using that bullet.

[fourarmed]

All the .270 rifles I have owned had definite preferences for bullets. Find the bullet it likes and it will shoot. You could pull some of those Silvertips and experiment with them in your loads. I'll bet the rifle will not be picky using that bullet. I mostly shoot 130 grain bullets, and I have found that most rifles will shoot the Nosler Ballistic Tip and the Speer Hot-Cor spitzer well. I think Speer has discontinued the Hot-Cor, but there are probably plenty still on the shelves. The Hornady Interlock spire point is an excellent game bullet, and worth trying. The Sierra Pro Hunter is usually accurate, but I am not sold on it as a deer bullet. I have one rifle that shoots the lighter bullets well, but is only so-so with any 130 I have tried in it.

[Lloyd Smale]

I would buy a box of 130 and 150 sierra flat based spitzers and a box of 130 and 150 ballistic tips along with a can of re19 and a can of 4350. If you cant find something in using those in differnt combinations your guy probably is just not going to shoot.

[Just Duke]

Bed the gun also. This always shrank my groups.

[jsizemore]

And if your feeding rounds from the magazine, make sure they'll fit.

[shoestring]

nosler 130g balistic tips, 49.5g imr 4895,wlr primers, win brass, 3.250 oal, savage rifle, deadly!

[Firebricker]

My 700 seems to shoot the best with 130gr Ballistic tips and H-4831. The only bullet it doesn't shoot as well is the SST 130gr the group's weren't horrible but not as good as the BT's or 140gr Sierra game king. The SST's probably could have improved trying different powder but H-4831 shoot's so well with the the other two bullet's I never tried anything else. FB

[44magLeo]

I find the max oal by using a fired case. Resize it so just 1/16 inch or less of the neck is resized. Seat a boolit just started in the case. With your hands if possible. Now carefully chamber this round. As you push the bolt forward and down you will feel the boolit seat farther in the case. Now as you pull the bolt back catch the case. Now you have a case with a boolit seated to where the boolit is touching the lands.
This oal is still a bit long. It is pushing the boolit hard to the lands.
Measure the oal. In my 270 I got an oal of 3.292. With a Hornady 130gr SP.
I then set my seating die to seat boolits too 3.290 Thats real close to 20 thou from the lands. A good place to start.
I just got the rifle, so this was the first step. This also showed me that at this length the cartige still fits the magazine. When I use a different boolit I'll do this to find where that boolit should seat.

[xr650]

Leo,
You are seating .002" (2 thou) off your lands. 3.292" - 3.290" = .002"
You need to seat at 3.272" COL to get .020" (20 thou) off the lands. 3.292" - .020" = 3.272"
Larry

[bigted]

here is my favorite load for 270's. ive owned a few and the first one i shot was my grandfathers m-54. this load has always shot well and killed well too. its my pet go to load for 270's which i never shoot anymore as i feel they are a little lite for most alaska hunting needs. here is the load;

54 grains imr 4831.
cci large rifle primers.
winchester once fired cases.
hornady 140gr bt sp's.
crimp on the leading channelure of the bullet.

i never owned or shot a rifle that was in good health that wouldnt shoot this load like gangbusters. ive killed elk, deer,bear,coyotes[wouldnt recoment this for fur retrieval],even a snarling marmot that interupted a morning ritual that needed my full consideration.

here is a by the way that blew my mind with this load. brother-in-law built a gong on a tripod that the gong was 5/8" coldroll steel. set up at 100 yds we made dimples in it for awhile...then packed it out to 450 yds and set up for shooting it. when we went out to retrieve it...the thing had many holes thru it and not from hitting a previously dimpled place either.......better penetration at 450 yds then at 100yds???????

[odette]

I also have a Remington 700 BDL in .270 Winchester, it was my grandpas favorite rifle. Unfortunately the best load for this rifle was using Winchester 785 powder and it was discontinued. This rifle with 785 powder puts 140gn Hornady BTSP's in the same hole at 200 yds, different brass and primers had little effect on the groups, but the rifle did not like 130 or 150 grain bullets and does not care at all for the light weight bullets. I have a few 140gn Sierra BTHP but at a loss as to what powder, I know not to use IMR4350, W760 and H414 all of which has shown horrid results in all range of bullet weights from 90 to 150gn. All the loads that I currently have were loaded by my grandpa from 1983 to 1996. They still shoot great and are accurate. Primer holes are deburred and necks were all turned on the fired brass, so I think all the loaded rounds that are left have been done as well.
How does the current powders rank with the powders made 20 to 30 years ago, are they better or worse? I need to find a replacement for the W785. I am on the last can the he left me. Is the 4831sc a good choice? Is it an improvement over the regular 4831 of years ago?

[odette]

I noticed that my grandpa loaded all his bottleneck cases with the bullets ran out to either just touching the lands or just short of the lands. Same is done with his 7mm TCU and 7.62x39 Contender rounds. I forgot to mention this earlier, sorry

[MrHarmless]

One trick to figure out where the lands start is to use a dremel to cut the neck of a sacrificial case to let off the neck tension. Just let's the bullet work back against the lands and into the case easier the first time for your OAL.

[EDG]

Try flat based bullets.

[Tenbender]

I have shot a boat load of Sierra 130 gr. bt bullets in 270. 59 gr. H4831 was always my ticket except a Remington 700. Never seen one that would shoot .