270 work up

All the OCW method, the ladder method, the E.S and SD method and the voodoo kill a chicken method do is seek to predict what a load will do at longer distances. You still have to shoot at those distances. Or, as horrifying as it may seem you can just start there.

Besides, its a light sporter hunting rifle. There's no use going crazy about it. If he wanted an F-Class rifle he would have built one.
 
To a point, but really what the OCW and, in a maybe less precise way, the ladder method (though not the voodoo kill a chicken method, I find that method flawed to say the least) do, is they give you a charge that is more consistent than others might be. If you find that "sweet spot" where the bullet exits the barrel at the right time in the vibrations, and where the powder charge to velocity curve is not linear, then you have found a charge that is optimal. The idea, from what i understand anyways, is that no one is going to be perfect with every load, be it due to equipment, weather, whatever, so best to find a load where the velocity is not affected as much by a small variation in temperature, barometric pressure, or charge weight.

That way, when you go to reload for your hunting trip and you are maybe in a hurry or maybe using a load you developed when it was twenty degrees warmer out, you are less likely to see drastic changes in the velocity, and thus, the point of impact.

This is why I personally see a lot of value in this kind of testing and load development, even for a Sporter style hunting rifle. I'd rather be as confident as I can be in my load, instead of having to second guess it, or just call it "good enough". Just my opinion though....
 
I could have done it today, using of all things a M70 Supergrade Featherweight in .270 that I was working up loads for. Only it was 510 yards instead of 500 meters but close enough. Trick is to watch the vertical.
 
Dogleg said:
If bug-hole groups are your goal you might want to re-evaluate 3 shot testing, at 100 yards on a windy day with Partitions and a M70 Featherweight.

Don't get me wrong, in the right circumstances I like and/or do all of those things but jeezz pick a fight you can win. Besides, whats the gun for? If you want MOA to shoot 500 yards with hunting bullets then go to 500 yard range on a calm day and see what you get. Anything else is theory.
Click to expand...

This is just a hunting rifle, that's why I'm using NPs. It was my second time at the range with her. I have read the OCW methods and was using the round robin system of shooting the groups. I'm not planning on shooting beyond 300 yds and was just looking for comments. I was surprised I didn't get any of the "above max" warnings.
 
c-fbmi said:
Don't waste your time, 270 isn't worth the effort to work up a load for.........get rid of it and get a 280 or 6.5-284 or 7 mag or 264 WM or 6.5X55 or 284 Win, or 7-08 or 300 WM..........or pretty much anything but a 270 Win..........;):):):)
Click to expand...

I have avoided the 270, but now I have a rifle, brass, dies, bullets... etc.. It is a nice handy little rifle, a husky, it could easily put the 6,5x55,, and 7x57 and the '06 out of work. The 303 truck gun will still have a job, and the 7mm rem mag could be retired, and the 300 win mag could be retired, for all I use it..damn 270.. I took it in a trade, and did not sell it...
 
150gr Hornady interlock, 58.5 H4831. This is my Dad's pet load for his BSA Majestic. My Dad has used this load for over 40 years in this rifle, as well as used the same cases for that long. Only recently did one fail due to a loose primer pocket. Easy sub 1/2 inch groups out of his rifle with this load at 100 yards. YMMV of course.
 
c-fbmi said:
Yep Dogleg, it ain't easy to hit a chicken at 500 mtrs in a wind.......that's where the voodoo part comes in right?
Click to expand...

Yeah, no kidding. Like I should have held one chicken into the wind on this one. 510 yrds.



But then, that's not that hard to fix.



Sometimes you just can't win though. I didn't even come close to shooting this guy off his horse.

 
That particular one is a Cabella's 50th Supergrade Featherweight. It seems to like 130 grain SSTs and 60 grains of H4831, but its twin sister likes 59 grains.






Yeah, I know my hat doesn't match.
 
Last edited:
I use 58 grains of H4831 with 150 grain Hornady Interlocks in a 1953 Husqvarna 270.
 
I found 62 gr H4831 too hot in hot weather so I backed off to 60.2 gr with 130 NP with no perceived decrease in accuracy. Then I switched to 140 AB and moved to H4831SC. I backed off max charge and have settled on this sub MOA 200 yd load. I don't shoot .270 but once a year so took it out groundhog hunting this spring - it's a winner at extended ranges.
 
A word about H4831 (the powder.)
After WW2 Bruce Hodgdon acquired train loads, or maybe ship loads, of war surplus powders. They had a tremendous amount of a coarse, slow burning type. There was a drastic shortage of powder for reloading and Hodgdon's were in a stew to get their new slow burning powder on the market. They didn't take time to do complete testing on it, but they found it was slower than IMR 4350, so they put their new surplus powder on the market and simply called it, "4350 data powder," meaning it was slower than 4350, but shooters could use it in place of 4350 with the same data. And their "Data," powder was dirt cheap.
Jack O'Connor played with it and soon came out in headlines in Outdoor Life magazine, of which he was the shooting and hunting editor, That 60 grains of Data powder in a 270 Winchester with a 130 grain bullet was the greatest thing to hit the reloading market!
O'Connor had a tremendous following and soon literally millions of reloaders were using his load, even buying 270 rifles, just so they could get in on this famous load!
As a point of interest, when Hodgdon's got around to testing their surplus powder, naming their Data powder, H4831," they never even bothered testing Jack's famous load, because they said no one would change from it, anyway.
Many people will come up with various low prices for what they once bought H4831 for, but it came into a small, retail gun shop in central BC, for a cost of $18 delivered, for a 50 pound keg! I still have some of this powder, which came from those kegs.
I think it was sometime in the 1970s that Hodgdon started to either make, or purchase, a replacement for H4831, because their original surplus supply was running out. They stated you could use the same loading data as was devised for the original surplus H4831.
I'm looking at my notes and on August 20 1991, with a temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit I did a test. I loaded up ten 270 Winchester cases with 60 grains H4831 powder. Same cases, same primers, same 130 grain Herters bullets, with the only difference being the old war surplus powder was in five cases and the "newly manufactured" H4831 was loaded in the other five. I then shot them in groups of five in my Sako 270 rifle over a Oehler chronograph.
Those loaded with the old surplus powder averaged 3078, with an es of 33.
Those loaded with the newly manufactured H4831 averaged 2960, with an es of 45.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom