Advice needed reloading 270 win w/ 29" target barrel

Great_White_hunter

Great_White_hunter

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Finally got 270 dies, and know how to reload but have only reloaded for more standard barrels lengths (24). The rifle has model 98 Mauser action (from WWII) which has handled reloads before. I'm wanting any advice on both primers and powder selection for such a long gun. I will be reloading 130, 140, and mainly 150gr bullets.
 
29"? That's a long one, alright. Not sure what if any advantage could be wrung out of it over say a 26", but the powder of powders for any .270 we've ever loaded for has always been IMR4350. That said, given the length I'd probably be inclined to try working up using RL22, a bit slower burner. Never saw the need or was able to find any advantage in using any primer than a standard LR primer, a CCI200. My own .270 seemed fond of having a little starting room, about 60 thou off the lands which put the OAL at I think 3.330". Good luck. .270 is absolutely one of the all-time great calibers.
 
sbtennex said:
29"? That's a long one, alright. Not sure what if any advantage could be wrung out of it over say a 26", but the powder of powders for any .270 we've ever loaded for has always been IMR4350. That said, given the length I'd probably be inclined to try working up using RL22, a bit slower burner. Never saw the need or was able to find any advantage in using any primer than a standard LR primer, a CCI200. My own .270 seemed fond of having a little starting room, about 60 thou off the lands which put the OAL at I think 3.330". Good luck. .270 is absolutely one of the all-time great calibers.
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I can't agree that the, "powder of powders," for the 270 is 4350.
The 270 came to fame courtesy of Jack O'Connor's writings. And, about the same time, Hodgdon's became famous, largely due to the popularity of H4831 surplus powder. And Jack pushed, with a capital P, the use of H4831 powder in the 270.
Jack even credits himself with originating the long time, standard load for a 270 with 130 grain bullets, 60 grains of H4831.
Jack O'Connor wrote that he played around with the 270 and H4831 powder, as soon as Bruce Hodgdon gave him some to try. He said he found that 60 grains, which is the case full to the top, made an accurate, fast load. After he published this load, and wrote a few articles about it, Hodgdons gave printed loading information on it, using Jack's load, without any further testing on it, by Hodgdon's!
And here's something else. When Bruce Hodgdon first released surplus 4831 powder, they had no information on it, except they knew it was slower than 4350. Thus, they called the powder, "4350 data powder." That meant to just use it in place of 4350, because it was so low priced, and use the same loading data as 4350.
After Jack's experiments they determined a class for it, and named it H4831.
The term, a rifleman's rifle, has often been used to describe the pre 64 Model 70. Using the same terminology, I think it can safely be said that a rifleman's powder for a 270 has been H4831, ever since Jack O. made it popular.
All this to just say that H4831 should be great in your 270 with the 29 inch barrel. I hope you chronograph it, to see just what it will do with H4831.
To add something else. Jack didn't consider 60 grains with 130 grain bullets to be the end all load. He has printed in Outdoor Life, loads that had more than 60 grains in them, but most people couldn't get that much tapped into the 270 case and get a bullet pushed in.
 
I use IMR 3031 for all my reloading except for the 30-06 caliber. I have great success in my Browning .270 with 100 grain bullets pushed by 48 grains of IMR 3031. It cronographed over 3200 FPS and vapourizes gophers at over 100 yards. I use my .22 up to that distance usually. The 4350 powders are suggested but many powders can be used if you carefully develop the load to suit the gun. I prefer using a single powder and developing a load than to have too many powders and listening to all different suggestions. There is a lot of loading info on the net if you look and many different loading options.
 
I have a long time afinity and affair with the .270 and have tried H380 to IMR 7828 in the thing and I have two standard go to loads that have shot accurately with ample velocity in all my rifles:
#1:Winchester Brass, CCI BR2 primer, 60gr of H4831sc and a 130gr TSX, 10 thou of the lands. I had a Sako Finnlite (20"BBL) that shot .75" 5 shot groups all day with that load, at 3020fps. It shot sub MOA out of a Remington 700 with a 24" BBL at 3120fps. That load in a 29" bbl will likely touch 3300fps.

#2: Winchester Brass (seeing a pattern:D), CCI BR2 primer, 59gr of H4831sc, and a 140gr Hornady BT or 140gr Nosler Accubond. I seated both at 3.3"OAL. This load does 2925fps-3050fps between my 20-24" barrels. Again, well under MOA with very good velocity.

Buy a keg of H4831 and shoot it like crazy. It takes about 2 8lbers of that stuff before a rebarrel BTW.
 
If it was my rifle, I would cut 3" off the barrel. It would be handier, stiffer and I can't imagine any situation where another 75fps would make any difference.

I use a lot of long barrels for target rifles (30" to 32") and sometimes use a step slower powder to get a little more velocity.

In 270 you are basicaly out of capacity with 4831, so a slower powder may not do any good. Unless you have a slow ball powder.
 
Actually, my preferred powder in the 270 was Norma 205, which later became Norma MRP.
It seems to have more energy than 4831 and is much denser. 60 grains in a 270 with a 130 grain bullet allows room in the case to hear the powder shake.
I didn't have a chronograph when I was using 205 in the 270, but Bob Hagel lists some pretty impressive 30-06 loads with Norma 205, in his book.
With a Sako 30-06 and 180 grain bullet, he shows top velocity of 2838 with H4831 and 2900, with a grain less of Norma 205.
In later years I got a bit of Norma 205 and chronographed it with a 200 grain Speer bullet in my 30-06 Swede. I got 2715 fps, with no sign, whatsoever, of excess pressure.
Then I looked at an old Norma loading chart and they showed ½ grain less than I used, and a speed of about 25 fps less than my load. Thus, I was only ½ a grain over their book load and my rifle always took about a grain more powder to accomplish the same thing as another 30-06 I used to shoot.
Bob Hagel shows 2816 fps with the same Speer 200 grain bullet and the same load of N 205 in his Sako 30-06, that I used.
 
I was checking through a Nosler reloading manual and the used a 24" with their data collection showing that both the H4831sc and the IMR4832 were extremely close, and i know that IMR4831 burns just a tad faster than the H4831, so would the short cut (more surface area per grain) increase the burn speed to be nearly identical to the longer IMR4831?
I have had several people suggest H4831 (standard and SC), IMR4831, and R22. A friend has some R22 he said i can use, and I will be reloading some 25-06 later with a 24" barrel so I was thinking about picking up the IMR4831, I will just pick up some H4831 and start testing them all out, I have over 200 brass to reload so I figure I should be able to figure out what works best before I run out :D

Thanks for all the help,
Sincerely,
Rob
 
OH and Ganderite, I would think about cutting the barrel if this wasn't a family heirloom. My Great Uncle gave it to my dad under the condition he would give it to his son, and so forth. My great uncle made this rifle using a model 98 Mauser made in 1938 (it still has the eagles and swastika's stamped on it) a hand carved stalk, and that 29" barrel. With factory 130gr loads I am able to lay a 200yrd tread of <1". Yes this gun does weigh nearly 13 lbs, but I have been hiking with this thing on my back since I was 14, being 6'4" and 220lbs makes it easy to carry, and my long arms need a gun that heavy just to keep it steady in case of a standing shot ;).
 
Barrel length is irrelevant to choice of powder. This has been proven a number of times, but the belief that slower powders (and "overbore" cartridges) "need" long barrels is a myth. I believe it's due to the fact that heavy loads of slow powder and overbore cartridges lose more MV per inch of barrel reduction, but that's because they generate more MV per inch of barrel.

X2 that H4831 is hard to beat for the 150gr and heavier bullets - I'd look at IMR7828 and Reloder 22 as well. H4350 is great for lighter bullets, and the new Reloder 17 would be interesting to try.
 
I did some testing with H4831, H4831sc, IMR4831, and RL22. I have settled on a load, Hornady InterBond 150gr w/ 55 grains of IMR 4831. Shooting consistent 3 shot groups of 1/4" @ 100yards, best I got with other powders was 1/2-3/4" treads. Tried 55.5gr IMR 4831 and it loosened to just over 1/2 treads but was shooting them 3" right of where the 55gr were... I thought I let the barrel cool enough but maybe not... I haven't put it through a chrony yet but I should within the month, I will let you know mv when I find it out.


Thanks for all the help everyone,
Rob.
 
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