Quality "Available" bullets to reload for my Savage M110 in .270 Win?

[Grifmt]

Thanks a million for that explanation. So if I understand correctly, I stand to get nothing but benefit, since I have zero intention of shooting over 400 yds. I will gain flatter trajectory, and still maintain fatal expansion velocity. Very interesting. Thank you again

No worries. I would say that you have very little if any loss.

In my 06, I’m shooting the 168TTSX around 2925 (and I’m not pushing it hard). I haven’t worked up a load yet but according to Barnes’ load data (I’ve always found their data to be accurate) you can push the 130gr TTSXs right around 3300.

-Matt

 

[TheJason]

@Derek44 you are correct, there is little downside.

I’ve killed a LOT of animals over the years with copper. I love not having to trim blood shot meat. Cut right up to the hole just about.

With the Hammer bullets I can get enough velocity to have sufficient expansion velocity at over 600 yards.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Loading copper bullets isn’t rocket science. Jam the lands to establish a baseline, load to correct distance off, follow data.

Correct me if I've been doing this wrong. With no gauge and no real hope of getting one in time for Africa, I have been measuring set off manually. I seat a bullet in an empty case and paint the bullet with a black Sharpie. Load it in chamber, eject, and check to see if lands have marked the black. I keep changing the die's seating depth until I see the lands just marking the black. Measure overall cartridge length. Then start readjusting the seating die till desired OCL = touching lands OCL minus desired jump distance. Of course, a bullet puller is essential tool.

 

[TheJason]

Correct me if I've been doing this wrong. With no gauge and no real hope of getting one in time for Africa, I have been measuring set off manually. I seat a bullet in an empty case and paint the bullet with a black Sharpie. Load it in chamber, eject, and check to see if lands have marked the black. I keep changing the die's seating depth until I see the lands just marking the black. Measure overall cartridge length. Then start readjusting the seating die till desired OCL = touching lands OCL minus desired jump distance. Of course, a bullet puller is essential tool.

Yeah you can do it that way. I just take a fired case and crimp it slightly with pliers, seat the bullet just into the neck and then use the bolt to jam the lands. Finding the right tension is key, too little and the bullet loves when you extract it, too much and it’ll stick into the lands.

 

[Don Fischer]

Sadly the 139s are not made for my 1:10 twist standard 270 Win. The 116s will work, but I would definitely have to talk with Steve about loads. The 124 and 117 Hammer Hunters are also viable for my standard .270 Win. Thank you

I don't know if anyone ever made a 139gr in 270. I had a 270 one time but I bought it for the rifle, not the cartridge. I reload and would take a 280 rem over a 270 generally. The rifle I had was a Harrington-Richardson Ultra 300 made on a sako L61 action by Harrington-Richadrson. My bullet of choice back then fot it was the 140gr cup and core. But something I should say about the 130gr in the 270, it certainy worked well for jack O'Conner!

You mentioned quality avaliable bullet's. Well I believe all bullet's are usually quality bullet's, it is just that some have different cahristics. if you shot your deer in the chest with a perfectly placed 130gr bullet would it be any deader than the same deer shot perfectly on the head with the same rifle and a 100gr bullet? I don't think so. But the heavier bullet will allow you a bigger target to shoot at and still get the desired results. You may be shooting 1/2" 100yd groups with the rifle and both bullet's from a bench rest at the range. In the field there is no bench rest and likely as not you cannot shoot those same small groups from a field position.

The word that get's us is avaliable! I can't believe how bare the Sportsmans shelves for bullet's are at the Bend store! I keep hearing there's no problem getting Hunter bullet's but your probably going to have to pay maybe double for them over your regular bullet's. Big thing is, they seem to be avaliable! I don't hunt that much any more. At my age getting a rabbit out of a bad spot might be barely possible. But I do have a decent number of bullet's on hand for the cartridges I shoot. Little short of powder. This shortage has convinced me that if I'm gonna have ammo down the road I'd maybe better hord stuff so some degree when I can. Strange, I have lots of case's for most of my cartridges, about 30,000 LR primers, adequate bullets for hunting and let myself get short on powder! The thing that won't fly in these times is shooting a lot of bullets from a bench looking for the best load. That consume's to many bullet's!

 

[Don Fischer]

Correct me if I've been doing this wrong. With no gauge and no real hope of getting one in time for Africa, I have been measuring set off manually. I seat a bullet in an empty case and paint the bullet with a black Sharpie. Load it in chamber, eject, and check to see if lands have marked the black. I keep changing the die's seating depth until I see the lands just marking the black. Measure overall cartridge length. Then start readjusting the seating die till desired OCL = touching lands OCL minus desired jump distance. Of course, a bullet puller is essential tool.

I have been doing about the same thing for years. But instead of a sharpie, I simply wipe off land marks with 0000 steel wool. I fit the case to the chamber first by neck sizing with an FL die, and fire it till the bolt no longer close's. Run the case up and if the bolt drags, the shoulder is rubbing. When the drag is gone I lock down the die and that die is only used on that rifle after that. For bullet seating I start long and push a loaded MTY in and you'll most always feel the bullet hit the lands. Take the round out, seat the bullet a bit deeper and try again. Once you get close to having the bullet just off the lands, You'll not be sure if it's off or just touching. That is where the sharpie would come in. For me I simply wipe off the marks with a piece of 0000 steel wool, re-set the die and do it again till the marks are gone. Then that die get's locked down also in that position. Good part for me is I never worry about re-setting the die again for that rifle. If I want to change bullet's I'd need to re-set the seating die but I don't change bullet's a lot. I pretty much stick to one bullet for one rifle. have two 243's and use a different bullet in each. One rifle like's the 75gr Hornady V-max and the other likes the 70gr Sierra MK. But while a FL die will allow the case to enter and seat easily, you can't close the bolt with that round in the other 243! Just goes to show the difference in the chamber's. I have not tried using the wrong seating die in the other rifle, I suspect the same thing could happen and all that would prove is a lucky guess! Every rifle I have has it's own deticated set of dies for sizing the the case to that chamber and seating the bullet to the lands in "that" rifle. I have seldom ever had two rifles in the same cartridge at the same time. To do so, both would need their own set of dies. I suspect that no one can actually re-set a bullet say .050" off the lands in a rifle, un-set the seating die and get the same .050" the next time. .050 ain't a long ways! I'm also pretty sure you could re-set the sizing die every time to awful close to the same place but just a lot of trouble for no more than a set of dies cost. But doing these thing I believe make a loaded round every time that is the best fit to the chamber the round is used in.

 

[mtmuley]

I don't know if anyone ever made a 139gr in 270.

Hammer makes a 139 grain .277 caliber bullet. mtmuley

 

[std7mag]

I'd go with @mtmuley on the Hammers if your going with monos.

For mine & @WVgoodguy22 hunting distances we really don't need the highest BC, wizbang bullets in most cases.

The ole flat based Hornady soft point would work just fine.

I've never had a Nosler Ballistic Tip let me down!
But ditto Sierra GameKings, or Berger VLDs.
But i don't shoot for the shoulder either.

 

[buffybr]

@Derek44 you are correct, there is little downside.

I’ve killed a LOT of animals over the years with copper. I love not having to trim blood shot meat. Cut right up to the hole just about.

With the Hammer bullets I can get enough velocity to have sufficient expansion velocity at over 600 yards.

I've also killed a LOT of animals over the years with copper. Since 2005 those are the only bullets that I've hunted with in my .300 Weatherby and .375 RUM.

After many years of killing elk with cup and core bullets from my .3-06 and Partitions from my .30 Gibbs and major trimming of bloodshot meat, I was very happy with the first elk that I shot with a 168 Gr TSX bullet from my .300 Wby and having almost zero bloodshot meat to trim. My next elk, also a 5x5 bull, only presented me with a quartering to me shot, which I don't like to take because of the front shoulder meat damage, I went ahead and put a 168 gr TTSX bullet on the point of his shoulder and lost almost 1/2 of that shoulder from bloodshot and other damaged meat in the wound channel.

On the first bull, it was a broadside shot where my TSX went in just behind his left shoulder and exited just be his right shoulder leaving almost zero bloodshot meat. On the second bull, my TTSX bullet hit his large shoulder bone just below his shoulder socket, shattering that bone and most of the shoulder meat within 6-8 " of where the bullet passed through. The bullet stopped just inside his opposite ham.

Shoulder shots may be OK on dangerous game and foreign animals where I'm not bringing the meat home, but here at home where I usually want to eat the animals that I shoot, I'll aim behind the shoulder reguardless of the type of bullet.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

I hear you on the store availability! Most of my reloading supplies have come from internet vendors. 130gr Interlock is plentiful though and that basic bitch bullet will do everything you need.

But we don’t like basic. No, we 270 oddballs need speed! I’ve a thread on here about 110 TSX which are now loaded, not yet downrange. My next coppers may be the 117 HH or 116 AH. Something of note is that Barnes are harder, need jump. The Hammers could then conceivably be loaded hotter as you can go mag length.

 

[Buckbrush]

May not be a premium bullet, but Hornady 140 BTSP interlock is available several places, performs well, and has a decent BC for a 270 cal bullet. And it’s pretty darn cheap

Love the 140 btsp cheap good bc and they hold together out of a 270 wsm hitting mule deer and elk at 150 yrds. Complete pass throughs. In Hornady s reloading manual they list a fraction more bc than their 140 gr sst bullets. Don't know if that's true or not as it don't really matter to me as I won't shoot passed 400 on game anyway. And very seldom past 600 on Targets.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

140 Sierra Gamechanger is my next choice to fling down range.

 

[WVgoodguy22]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I definitely need to load up some more rounds if I’m going to make this Wyoming mule deer and pronghorn hunt happen in 2023. Needs lots of practice especially at longer distances than just sighting in at 100 yards.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

Here’s the initial report on those Sierra 140 tipped Game King. These have a .508BC, sweet. Loaded to 3.3”, 6.5 Staball (same as H-100V). The accuracy nodes appeared between 50gr (2,700fps) and 54gr (2,900fps). I call the 54gr load accurate because four shots grouped <1.5” and this group shows shots of two touching. That’s likely due to me changing point of aim on the orange paint dot. 50gr lobbed 5 shots in a terrific group, but chrony showed that to be too weak to matter over our standard 130 loads.

Take away here is that the 140 tipped Game King loaded up to 2,900fps is accurate and the Federal ballistic calculator shows that load to be carrying 1,900ft lbs at 300yds.

 

[MT_Chad]

I might have 3+ boxes, around 170 or so, Barnes lrx in .277 for sale. I think a buddy of mine is going to buy them, but if he doesn't you're welcome to them.

 

[Don Fischer]

So it’s a bit of a trade off. Since copper is harder than lead, generally copper bullets need more velocity to fully expand. Going lighter helps with higher velocity and because most copper bullets maintain nearly all their weight they penetrate as far/farther than heavier cup and core bullets. A side benifit of the lighter/higher velocity is a flatter trajectory at “normal” hunting ranges (inside 400yds)

So in your 06 sat you’re using either 180gr Partitions(maintain roughly 60%) or Accubonds (maintain 70-80%) vs 150gr Barnes TTSX. In both cases the partition and accubond are going to start loosing mass as they penetrate. The shank of the partition is going to end up somewhere around 108grs and on the accubond it will be about 135grs (75%weight retention). In most cases the only weight the TTSX will lose is the plastic tip so it will weigh somewhere around 148grs. If they all going the same velocity at impact the barnes will penetrate further.

The down side is as you go down in weight the BC drops and therefore you loose velocity quicker and as i mentioned earlier is that the all copper needs more velocity at impact to get full expansion. Pretty much all the all mono bullets are advertise the min impact velocity as 1800fps (same as most cup and core). You can google pictures and they look like a “+” on the end of the bullet. To get the advertisement level expansion you really should keep your impact velocity above 2000-2100fps.

-Matt

Now that seem's to be pretty good. I might add that I talked to Nosler on the phone a couple years ago and they said to me about bonded bullet weight retention: " they are designed to retain the same as our partition, 70%".

 

[grizzly63]

I've loaded up 95 gr ttsx and they are accurate. Moving right along too. Have not harvested anything with them yet. Copper bullets are longer and that adds to the lighter is better thing. Typically. because of the grooves on the sides the BC is not quite as good.