270 w/150g ssts

[remingtonman_25_06]

I spent sunday morning at the range with my 270 win. I loaded up some 150g sst's with RL-22 and H-4831sc. Both powders have proven accurate with a couple other loads, so I figured I would stay around 56.5g-57.5g and go up in .3g. My OAL was 3.430", I used Win cases, and CCI 250's. The column on the left represents RL-22, 56.6g-57.5g. The middle column is H-4831sc, and I only shot 56.6g and 56.9g as that was a pretty horrible group. Velocities were as follows, starting with RL-22 and the top group of 56.6g. I did 4 shot groups. Very little wind, 100 yards, about 80-95degres.

group 1- 2957,2972,2983,2948 4th shot did not hit target???
group 2- 2961,2967,2968,2997 4th shot was the high flyer?
group 3- 2970,2972,2995,3004
group 4- 3010 3014,2972,3032
sidenote- at 57.2g, bolt was little harder to lift, plus there were shiny spot on the head of the case. So I'm thinking I'm running them to hot and thats whats causing the horrible accuracy. Keep in mind however, I'm shooting 57.5g Rl-22 or 4831sc with the 150g gameking and it shoots great, max load as well. Now for the H-4831sc velocity.

group 1- 2934,2889,2932,2909 4th was the high flyer, hot signs as well
group 2- 2948,2957,2931 3 shot group of 6 inches at 100 yards, think i'll stop there, pretty hot load
sidenote- I'm thinking the same thing with this powder. I'm thinking I need to back down and see what happens. I know the rifle will shoot the SST's, it shot the 140g SST THE BEST out of any bullet i've put through it so far, to bad I only had 20 bullets, so that gave an itch to try something else. Anyways, I would like comments or opinions/suggestions.

 

[SAVAGE PLINKER]

I have found Reloader 19 to group very well with 150 grain bullets in a .270 Winchester. Good Shootin'

 

[Mysticplayer]

I shot 150gr SST in my Savage 270 and they were superb. My load consisted of H4831SC, CCI BR2 primers in LC69 cases.

The milder primer might be all you need to dial in your barrel. If not, just start at 55.5grs and work up. My guess is that right around 2875/2900fps (55.7 to 56.0gr)will be where your barrel likes this bullet.

How hot was the barrel after three shots?

Jerry

 

[royinidaho]

my experience follows Jerry's.

Switch to cci-200s and watch what happens. I load RL-22 and 140 Hornady SPBTs. Accuracy was just good w/250s and is really great w/200s

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Jerry- Thanks for the info. I will start at 55.5g this next go round, and go up to 56.3g or so. I will do so with both powders. I'll probly get to it this weekend, hopefully. Bear season is coming up and Im thinking I want to take it. I dont know if its the CCI mag primer or what. I used Fed 215 with all my other loads and it seems to shoot ok. I ran out and thought I would use some 250's I had laying around. I think I have a couple 200's as well. If the drop in powder doesn't do it, I might switch to the 200 and see if it makes a difference. It was already prety warm when I got out there at 9, I bet it was close to 75, the barrel does not take long to get warm. And I would sure hope you all would know me well enough by now that I wait at least a couple minutes between shots, this depending on the caliber and temperature. In this case I shot 4 shots in about 15 minutes and my barrel was pretty warm. To only wait 1 or 2 minutes would not have been nearly enough. Anyways, think I'll get to pulling the remaining bad loads and load up some new ones.

 

[kraky2]

Am I getting this correct?? From what I'm reading you are trying hard to make the sst shoot good so you can use it for bear season?? I have experience with the bullet and whitetail deer. Probably 5 kills and all have been super explosive. The sst would probably be one of the last bullets I would recomend for a bear. There are way way better bullets out there for that purpose. I hope I'm reading the post wrong.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

No you read it 100% correct. I have shot 3 bears with lesser, and not 1 was with a premium bullet. All 3 were shot with a 25-06, 2 with the 115g btips, and 1 with a 117g sgk. They were all past 350 yards, 2 of the bears took 2 shots, the other took 1. I think a 150g sst out of a 270 is plenty for our black bear.

 

[kraky2]

Sounds like you have it under control. I'm not a bear hunter but here in Wisconsin most of our bear are shot over bait or are treed by dogs. They are shot at extremely close range where a bullet that is somewhat frangible can really go crazy. Some of the ballistic tips have been improved over the years. They seem to have better jackets than before. When the sst came out some people said they had talked to Hornady reps that told them it had a thicker jacket than the interlock. I've cut some apart and can tell you for a fact they don't. That plastic tip will get things opening up in a hurry on close range shots as was proven on the deer I saw killed with them. If you had great luck with the BT's and liked their performance I can guarantee you that the sst will be as explosive and probably slightly more so. If you are moving away from the bt's for any reason you should consider the sst NOT to be an improvement over them. I just wanted to make that point but once again....it sounds like you understand the whole performance issue and are comfortable with it and that's what is important.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Kraky- I'm not trying to sound like a know it all or anything by my post. I actually have only shot a couple SST's into wet newspaper, a 117g out of a 25-06, and a 140g out of a 270 wsm. Now the 117 lost the core and I was left with a jacket and a cup, the 140g was nicely mushroomed. If I can find the bullet, I will post it. I would think a 150g sst at 270 velocity over 300 yards would do me well. Most my animals I have shot have been 250+ bears including. I have no doubt that the jackets are thiner then the interlocks. I have never shot any game with a Hornady bullet, I'm mostly a nosler fan, with a little bit of sierra every now and then. I just like plastic tip bullets, and for some reason my rifle wont shoot nosler bullets, so I was using the gameking for a while, but my tips were smashing, plus the BC on the sst is about .75 better then the gameking. I really like btips. I think they are one of the best bullets around. From my experience, on wet newspaper, they lost there core and left with a jacket. However, many deer and elk have been shot with btips ranging from .224" 55g's to 180g btips on elk and had complete passthroughs. I've yet to find a btip. They are usually very accurate in most guns, have a high BC for hunting bullet, and are reasonably cheap bullet to practice. I figure the 150g sst would be a cheap substitute, just trying to make it work and get some field experience with the Hornady bullet at ranges of 300-700 or so.

 

[kraky2]

Rem 25-06....
My experience with the sst being explosive was with 140 sst's out of a couple of friends 270 win's. One guy simply will not shoot them anymore because of big holes and bloodshot meat....but here in Wisconsin the next deer hunter can be 150 yds away and YOUR deer can run past HIS stand and become HIS deer. For that reason my other friend loves the sst because it really puts them down.
RE the ballistic tip there have been writings that the jackets have been toughened up on the hunting line. I'm not sure if all bullets have been affected but for sure the 180 gr, 308 has been.
I've been buying the accubond blems right direct from nosler as of late from their "shooters proshop" and really like the price. I think they'll give an extra margin of penetration on shoulder shots or shots that are quartering away.....especially if I get invited back to my buddies in Alaska for a caribou hunt.
Anyhow there certainly are some guys out there that like the sst and claim they've been tough enough for large hogs etc. I don't want to sound like a know it all either. I like Hornady products but I don't think the sst was as tough as they wanted it to be and thats why they quickly jumped on the "bonded poly tip" wagon. Personally I think we'll see the end of the sst sometime soon but I could be wrong. Keep us posted if you wind up taking a bear and let us know how they did....I'm thinking a solid hit behind the shoulder, into the boiler room, hit from them is gonna do just fine.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Went shooting this morning. Good lord was it hot. I got out there at 9 and it was already 100. Suppose to be 110 today. I loaded up 2 more loads a piece with each powder, this time at 55.6g and 56g. The 55.6g h4831sc printed a 1 inch group, this was the first group shot of the day however. I dont know if that has anything to do with the barrel not being smoking hot, but I waited at least 10 minutes inbetween shots and after that 1 shot went off, it was back to being hot again. On 2 of the loads, I did not even shoot the 3rd as I did not think it was neccesary. Now this was not my usual concrete bench and lead sled set up back at the ranch. I'm out in the sand/desert/sagebrush Now I'm standing, shooting off the top of my 2wd pickup, using nothing but a front sand bag. All I can say is it sucks for load testing. And it was 100 degrees already. The barrel was blazing after only the 2nd shot. I also did not cronograph. Thats a whole nother pain in the butt. From now on, I'll just shoot my loads, and crono the one that obviously shoots best. I dont know if I should experiment a little more or just call it good and load them up. I am always picky and this isn't that great but given the circumstances, its not bad. Also wish RL-22 was shooting better, I bought a puond of it, and I'm almost out of h4831sc.