John Polk
Well-Known Member
For a .270 Win., 60 gr. of H4831 has been the "go - to" load with 130 gr. bullet since the days of Jack O'Conner - at least 75 years, try it.
60 gr. of H4831 has been my standard .270 load since 1967. It is accurate and gives excellent velocity.I'm almost all for speed. That's why I have 3 AI'd guns and 2 Gibbs. But there's a reason that many of the reloading manuals list minimum and maximum charges, and often indicate that the most accurate load tested was somewhere in between these two. So although I'm almost all for speed, I'm really ALL for accuracy whatever that takes within the bounds of safety.
my simple answer is "NO!"Hey guys, I've taken my 22" barreled .270 to 46.8gr of IMR 4064 chronographing 2800+/- a few FPS. Book max is 46.1 with 130gr bullets and 45gr with 150gr bullets. My tests have all been on 95+ degree days, and I'm just starting to see some flattening of primers with easy bolt lift. 3/4 MOA
Should I push this load any further?
I've been working up a load for my Tikka 270 for the 145 ELD-x. I had great success
with the ELD-x in my 260 Rem for the last two years. My 270 liked RL22 with a 150 Partition but not so much with the 145 ELD-x. Good velocity, but not consistent accuracy. I had some RL17 and have had much better luck with it. 54.5 grains
of RL17, Federal Match primers and Nosler brass, 3.34 COAL (magazine limit) results
in repeatable 3000 fps and .75 MOA or less. One note on the Nosler Brass, I'm on the 4th reload on this lot and had my first case head separation. Out of the 50 pieces about 10 are showing stress lines. Not sure if I should can the remaining cases.
Used new brass for this season's upcoming hunts.
I mentioned Hornady brass. I've got one lot of it that I just shot for the 6th time with no stress indicators at all. I'm going to anneal it and go again just to see how far it'll go.
I've had several tell me that Hornady brass is no good but the proof has been in my own experience so far. Just bought 300 more Hornady cases for my new gun.
4064 is a good powder for cartridges like the 30-06 with mid weight bullets. It can be used in medium overbore rifles like the 270 and 7rem mag., but do not expect full speed. it will be a bit slow. the 2800 fps you got using it is about right; sad thing is a 270 with a 22" bbl. may only see 2950 to 3000 fps with a full case powder. To some it really isn't worth another 10-15 grains powder for 150 fps and they will go with the thrifty choice if it is accurate.
Hind sight is ALWAYS 20/20!
I should have been a little more patient and went after a rifle with a 24" barrel. But hey, that means I see another gun in the future!
At the very least, another consideration I'm contemplating is getting a custom barrel made. Thinking something around 25" with 8.5 to 9 twist. Got any ideas on that?
I'm sticking with Hornady brass. Not competing, just want a good low ES round with the 145-ELD-X's, on the upper end of the spectrum if possible.
I just broke in another .270 and going to run FPS trials in it today.
The first gun seems to not like that bullet with any combination so far. So the new gun I'm going to trial Hornady brass, CCI 250 primers, and IMR 4064, IMR 4831, and H-1000. All once fired brass, bumped .002, CBTO @ 2.755 (chamber is 2.775), case trimmed to 2.533.
Also bought a new chrony, so now I can run 2 in tandem and verify results better. I'll update y'all later and thanks for the valuable information.