cast bullet for 270 Win Vanguard / Howa 1500?

[catboat]

I picked up a used, blued, Weatherby Vanguard (Howa 1500) S2 with 2-stage HACT trigger and 3-position safety in 270 Winchester, rifle this past month. Haven't fired it yet. Waiting on some brass and jacketed bullets. Would like to shoot cast bullets in it too. It has a 1-10" twist 24" factory barrel.

Don't read much about cast bullets from the 270 Winchester chambering. Anyone having good reports about a 270 Win bullet design and a 1-10" twist? Would like something 140-160 grains, flat point. Sort of like a 311041 design, but in .278-280". Haven't slugged the bore or throat yet. Not new to casting, just new to casting for the 270 Win.

Comments welcome.

Thanks.

[richhodg66]

I have one of the old Sears Model 50 or 51, can't recall at the moment. Pretty good rifle, though. Got it in a trade bundle once, never had much interest in .270. Anyway, since I had it, I got a set of dies and when I got most of my dad's reloading stuff, I found a coffee can full of what I'm sure were the 280412, nominally 135 grainers. Dad never owned a .270 as far as he or I could recall, so I have to assume they were from the estate of a friend of his a long time ago. They were sized, checked and lubed with some kind of black lube which I presume was home made. They were real hard and sized small, like .277, so they didn't really shoot well, but I used them up plinking with them off the front porch.

Since then, I acquired a 280473 and a .280 sizer and the correct top punch. I cast a pot of bullets, but haven't gotten to trying them out yet. The general wisdom I hear is that bullet doesn't shoot well above 1500 FPS or so, which is fine. Maybe I'll get to that this week since I have some time. I did manage to acquire quite a bit of brass, so I need to get off my butt and give this thing a try.

[quilbilly]

Recently I acquired a nearly pristine Sears Model 53 (Win. Mod 70) in 270 as well as an old Lyman 120 gr Loverin style 280 mold. Sized to .277, my experiments so far with original iron sights have been impressive as I gradually increased velocity starting at 1500 fps. My most recent session was at about 1850 fps using 5744 and IMR 4198. The 4198 load gave me a 2-1/2" group at 100 yards with the 5744 at about 3-1/4". Hopefully that 4198 load will repeat at the next session. If it does, that load may be a keeper with that boolit. My lead is only moderately hard (60% pure + 40% hard chilled birdshot) and it has proven with several rifle calibers that it is accurate as well as mushrooming nicely on deer size game. I am tempted by the Lee mold for the 270 offered by Midsouth just for the fun of it.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

My Vanguard 30-06 shoots well (1-2 MOA) with cast. Enough 2400 for 1800 fps shot so well, I never looked much further.

[Wild Bill 7]

I have anew Weathery Vanguard in 270. Haven't had much of a chance to work with it yet. Put a Primary Arms 4x16 scope on it. I bought the Lee 135 grain mold and plan on using 3031 powder. I have the. Boolits powder coated and gas checked.
Also was working on some 223 tests with Lee 55 grain gas checked but haven't had much success with them with the AR.

[sigep1764]

My Model 70 in 270 Winchester was my first foray into casting for a rifle. Started with Red Dot powder, settled with best accuracy at 10 grains running around 1500fps. I then stepped it up to W748 powder and 34 grains is doing pretty well at 2200fps. Only been out to 50 yards but all groups are touching at that range. I collected all but one of the old Lyman 280xxx molds, but the Lee 277-135 is the one that shoots best. Have a thousand of them loaded up with the 10grain load, lubed with Lyman Orange Magic, sized .280, checked, and necked sized. Ive found that annealing keeps the cases very consistent. I recently acquired the RCBS mold for 270, a 150 grain mold. Gonna see if more weight helps accuracy. Lighter boolits than 135 grains showed less accuracy. Also, the barrel took a while to settle in with lead. Not scrubbing it, only patching it clean with Hoppes helped speed up the process.

[sigep1764]

I have some Lee 277 135 RF and Lyman 280468 lubed and checked sized to .280 if you'd like some. Just pm me.

[dsh1106]

PM me, I have have just about all the common available 270 molds that are out there. I size mine to .280, I have found that some molds will only drop a bullet at .278. The most accurate I have found is the H&G #69, I have shot .5" groups at 50 yards, just over .70" groups at 100 yards.

Scott

[quilbilly]

Yesterday I finished (maybe) my iron sight tests with CB's in my Mod. 70 (Sears label) and concluded its barrel likes 5744 and RE-7 best of all powders tried for velocities between 1800 and 2000 fps with the 120 gr. CB. The 5744 is slightly more accurate than the RE-7 but the RE-7 gets its best accuracy slightly faster for a flatter trajectory. When time allows I will put the scope back on. Testing was not bench rest but field style with a monopod/bipod.