Load work for Ruger 270 Win, for Elk

[Roughwater]

I should add that I got that coal by looking at a buddy's 150 sst load book for his ruger. His & mine seem to both have extra long chambers, so I propose that it might just be a ruger thing...

Minute of Elk,

I think it may be a Remington thing too. The 2 Remington rifles I have (30-06 and 270 Win) also have really long throats and are often difficult if not impossible to set the bullet ogive into the lands. However, I have found that the VLD bullets in my Remington 270 Winchester don't shoot well set close to the lands anyway which is fortunate. It seems to like it around .080 or a little better from the lands.

Terry

 

[elkaholic]

We took elk from 85 yards to 865 yards last year with the 165 Matrix from either 270 wins or 270 WSM. The closest was a 300 class bull that my buddy caught trying to get out the back door, he hit him high with a heavy quartering angle and crushed three vertebra to pulp but did not exit, the bull was trying to lift his head up so he shot him in neck and that hit destroyed a lot of bone, his neck looked like a grenade went of under the skin. While the bullets did not exit the sectional density carried the bullet well into the elk, I'm not afraid of hitting bone on elk up close with them but you put them behind the shoulder and they are awesome!!
I shot the bull at 865 with my WSM, first bullet caught him a little back and got the liver an the back side of one lung, he took the hit hard and was only able to move a couple stumble steps but I put a second one through his lower shoulder, piled him up! The first bullet opened nice making a perfect wound channel, I really didn't need a second shot, the second bullet went through the heavy lower shoulder bone breaking in nicely and putting a good wound channel through the front of the lungs and exited out the front of the of shoulder, both bullets exited with a 1.5+ exit hole. I would not hesitate on an elk inside 1100 yards with my WSM and the 165 Matrix, at my elevation anyway.

I shot some whitetail doe's at around 200 yards with the WSM to see how they would do and the performance was stellar, first doe's heart was MIA and the second one with a heavy quartering put a 2in hole clean through her, with all bullet exiting.

The sectional density is king on elk IMO, I've shot a pile of elk with a 300 WBY and 165 Barnes but my 270 WSM with a 165 Matrix is much better on elk and at a much longer range!!!
The Matrix bonded 150 would be a solid choice I think for elk, I'd be shooting it if I couldn't stabilize the heavier bullets, fortunately we are at 6000+ft and they shoot from our 1-10 twists very well.

Rhian....Not too many people realize what a role S.D. plays. We all get so caught up in b.c and velocity that s.d. is forgotten. I believe that is why I have had some pretty good results over the years with 140's in the 6.5. As long as I don't try to stretch the barrel, that is......Rich

 

[notellm]

I have been playing with my 270 wsm, with the help of Bigngreen my rifle seems to really shoot....165 matrix with 66 grains of retumbo gets me a 5 shot group that can be cover with a dime at 100 yards!......Good for this beginner anyway? I shot them through my chrony and its moving at 2807. When i talked to the folks at matrix they told me 63 grains would get me about 3050? Is my chrony that far off? How fast should they be moving to effectively shoot elk at like say 800 yrds? So much to learn.... this site is priceless!

Thanks Larry

 

[elkaholic]

I have been playing with my 270 wsm, with the help of Bigngreen my rifle seems to really shoot....165 matrix with 66 grains of retumbo gets me a 5 shot group that can be cover with a dime at 100 yards!......Good for this beginner anyway? I shot them through my chrony and its moving at 2807. When i talked to the folks at matrix they told me 63 grains would get me about 3050? Is my chrony that far off? How fast should they be moving to effectively shoot elk at like say 800 yrds? So much to learn.... this site is priceless!

Thanks Larry

With that bullet and velocity, you can shoot elk at 800 yards. What barrel length do you have and what length was Matrix quoting? It makes about 40' per inch difference, give or take...rich

 

[notellm]

Elkaholic, thank you been scratching my head about the velocity. My little sako tecomate only has a 22 1/2" barrel. Thanks again Larry

 

[elkaholic]

Elkaholic, thank you been scratching my head about the velocity. My little sako tecomate only has a 22 1/2" barrel. Thanks again Larry

You are welcome! Good luck with your plans.......rich

 

[bigngreen]

I have been playing with my 270 wsm, with the help of Bigngreen my rifle seems to really shoot....165 matrix with 66 grains of retumbo gets me a 5 shot group that can be cover with a dime at 100 yards!......Good for this beginner anyway? I shot them through my chrony and its moving at 2807. When i talked to the folks at matrix they told me 63 grains would get me about 3050? Is my chrony that far off? How fast should they be moving to effectively shoot elk at like say 800 yrds? So much to learn.... this site is priceless!

Thanks Larry

I would camp on that load!! I use the same load with almost 6 more inches of barrel and long throat so I would think your about right, take the accuracy first and velocity second!
To get 3050 from 63gr with a 165 seems a little optimistic or a longer barrel in the 30in range. The 175 with a long barrel and that load may be about right, I get 3014fps with 64gr with them.
Depending on your elevation 800 yards would be fine with that bullet and velocity, I still haven't found the bottom end of velocity for expansion but I know down around 1900 fps impact is still looking good.

 

[notellm]

Most of my hunting is between 4-6 thousand feet. The area i pulled my elk tag for is more like 3-5 thousand feet. I figuring on setting the turret at 4K and just do a lot of shooting this summer. Cant wait for wolf season either! Thanks a bunch for everyones help! Larry

 

[elkaholic]

Most of my hunting is between 4-6 thousand feet. The area i pulled my elk tag for is more like 3-5 thousand feet. I figuring on setting the turret at 4K and just do a lot of shooting this summer. Cant wait for wolf season either! Thanks a bunch for everyones help! Larry

Good luck with your hunt!.....rich

 

[Roughwater]

Thanks Lefty.

I had just come from out back shooting off my 5 test rounds for velocity when I got your post and I had some cases already prepped so I made a 6th test load using your load data and went back out and shot it also. (I live in the country).

Here are the results from my test using a ProChrono at about 12 ft from the muzzle:

1. 55 gn RL-19= 2656, 2. 59gn H1000=2677, 3. 51.6 Gn IMR 4350= 2640,

4. 53 Gn IMR-4831=2640, 5. 61.5 gn Magpro=2824,

6. 56.5 gn IMR 7828= 2688

WLR primers used for all except WLRM used with 7828 and Magpro. All cases were once fired Norma cases neck sized with Forster bushing die.
The rifle used for test was Remington 700 270 winchester, with 24" barrel.

All the published data I have say's these loads should fly about 100 plus FPS faster than they do? I have checked the chrony agains a new Shooting Chrony and get pretty much the same results.

Any thoughts anyone as to why the velocity discrepancy??

I just wanted to note here for posterity's sake the velocities above were with a 150 gn 277 bullet, I believe with the Matrix 277 RBT, not the 165 Matrix VLD.

 

[Roughwater]

Hi,

In between working, vacationing etc I'm still working up loads for my friend's Ruger 270 Winchester based on the 165 gn Matrix VLD hunting bullet. At one point I thought we might be stuck at 2700 Fps velocity but I now have several loads at 2800 FPS or close and not seeing signs of severe pressure. Other than with the MagPro powder however I can't yet vouch for accuracy I am at near max on velocity with these loads so I'll soon be checking accuracy. These are my results thus far. Keep in mind these loads are most likely too hot for some rifles so back off a couple grains and work up. These results are from a 22" barrel.

Cases are Norma, primers are WLRM

1,Winchester 780: 60gn = 2820 fps

2. IMR 4831: 55gn= 2752

3. RL-25: 62gn= 2815 - compressed

4. Ramshot Magnum: 62gn= 2825

5. Magpro: 61.4gn= 2770

I used 2 chrony's to obtain the FPS with a Prochrony and a shooting chrony (beta master) directly behind it. Generally the FPS were very close to each other.

At 2800 FPS one ballistic calculator showed the following results using a G7 BC of .65 for the 165 gn Matrix VLD.

At 300 yds a Drop of 11", velocity of 2624 and energy at 2525
At 500 yrds a drop of 42", a velocity of 2510 and energy of 2310

Terry

 

[Joe King]

Terry I'm following this thread pretty close, I've been using Partitions for years in my 270 but with what I'm hearing about Matrix bullets and that their less expensive than partitions, my interest is peaked. Keep up the good work

currently I'm working up a load for the 7mag with 168gr Matrix VLD's, I have a 1 in 10 twist so with how close 168's perform to to 180's /190's I'm good with it, besides the initial testing shot round Robbin style all 5 powder charges shot 1moa or better and POI was within 1/4" for all charges

 

[Roughwater]

Hi,

Just thought I would refresh this post. We are still loading and shooting these 165 gn Matrix VLD bullets in my friends Ruger 270 Win and my Winchester 270 WSM and still likeing them very much. I have pretty much settled on the Win 780 powder and GM215M primers. We are using 59.9 Grains of powder in the 270 Win for the lightly, partially neck sized rounds and 59.7 gn in the Flull length sized rounds as they are crimped a bit tighter thus more pressure/velocity. They are cronographed at just above 2850 FPS.
I gotta reinterate however this is a max load so work up slowly.

We are getting out to shoot at least once a week and have begun to shoot at 200 yrds and hope to do some shooting out to at least 300 yrds soon.
My friend with the Ruger impressed the heak out of me at at our first time shooting at 200 yrds with 3 of 4 rounds at 200 with a sub .5" group. This with the full length sized loads I made up for us to practice with. They are .095 from the lands in the Ruger.

We have shot much of the neck sized brass multiple times so I am Full lengh sizing the Norma brass right now as they were starting to get hard to load in the chamber. The Norma brass seems to be holding up well. I would like to sometime Test the full potential of these rounds at long range sometime but for now we'll limit our hunting to ranges have shot at and feel confident with but getting there.

Good hunting..

 

[elkaholic]

hi,

just thought i would refresh this post. We are still loading and shooting these 165 gn matrix vld bullets in my friends ruger 270 win and my winchester 270 wsm and still likeing them very much. I have pretty much settled on the win 780 powder and gm215m primers. We are using 59.9 grains of powder in the 270 win for the lightly, partially neck sized rounds and 59.7 gn in the flull length sized rounds as they are crimped a bit tighter thus more pressure/velocity. They are cronographed at just above 2850 fps.
I gotta reinterate however this is a max load so work up slowly.

We are getting out to shoot at least once a week and have begun to shoot at 200 yrds and hope to do some shooting out to at least 300 yrds soon.
My friend with the ruger impressed the heak out of me at at our first time shooting at 200 yrds with 3 of 4 rounds at 200 with a sub .5" group. This with the full length sized loads i made up for us to practice with. They are .095 from the lands in the ruger.

We have shot much of the neck sized brass multiple times so i am full lengh sizing the norma brass right now as they were starting to get hard to load in the chamber. The norma brass seems to be holding up well. I would like to sometime test the full potential of these rounds at long range sometime but for now we'll limit our hunting to ranges have shot at and feel confident with but getting there.

Good hunting..

thanks for the post. That is pretty impressive for the ruger!
It is also one heck of a jump to the lands........rich