Hunting Rifle Excalibur...

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Mine barely held 3" at 100yds, and the few shots I took at the 300yd box were feet off. Only gun I've seen toss bullets that randomly was the 30-06/.270 screw up.....oh and my buddies "smooth" bore nagant.
I can't remember who I gave my box of ABLRs to, but hopefully they had better luck.
 
Litz has also done testing on them and found that they and other ablrs, don't properly stabilize in "standard" twist barrels........which would have been awesome to have found out before I bought a pile of .277s and .284s on the assumption they were good to go.
 
Litz has also done testing on them and found that they and other ablrs, don't properly stabilize in "standard" twist barrels........which would have been awesome to have found out before I bought a pile of .277s and .284s on the assumption they were good to go.

Did that w/ some 5mm Benjamin rifle pellets on clearance.

Fishing weights.




GR
 
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The good news is:

With a 2950 fps MV using ~ 60 grns of RL-26 (if that unicorn is ever spotted):

The 150 gr. NP does fine out to 450 yds.

W/ a 200 yd zero:
450yds. 2109fps. 1481ft-lbs. -29.1in.

Or, w/ a MPBR(+/-3") of 300 yds..

... and add 14" of "Kentucky Elevation" to 400.

About the outside of my hunting envelope.

...and just a hair over the 20 ft-lbs of recoil threshold.




GR
 
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The good news is:

With a 2950 fps MV using ~ 60 grns of RL-26 (if that unicorn is ever spotted):

The 150 gr. NP does fine out to 450 yds.

W/ a 200 yd zero:
450yds. 2109fps. 1481ft-lbs. -29.1in.

Or, w/ a MPBR(+/-3") of 300 yds..

... and add 14" of "Kentucky Elevation" to 400.

About the outside of my hunting envelope.

...and just a hair over the 20 ft-lbs of recoil threshold.




GR
Ya know, I had some 25 when i had my .270 and it didn't even occur to me to try it.
I did try some Rl-23, but my buddy's son expressed a real interest in the rifle and I gave it to him before doing any chrono work.
I ran imr4350, 4831, and 7828 for both the ABLRs and the EldXs, and they worked well and 7828 got the closest to 2900 ive managed with a 150 and the .270.
I should have tried h1000 and retumbo also, that might have been ideal. The Wby/Howa have long magazines, so the long pointys can be loaded out a ways, the slower powders might have been awesome......just didn't think about it...
 
I use the 270 Winchester centerfire to hunt kansas bean and wheat fields and find it to be my favorite with 30-06 as the close second. 150s shoot decently out of my thompson center venture and serve me well in deer season. But for anyone to be a religious fanatic for any caliber there should be some value that it provides that others do not and the 270 doesn't possess that other than .277 is a bit rarer than some diameters. The 30-06 is more versatile, the 25-06 can run flatter in normal hunting distances and the 7mm-08 can do basically the same job with less recoil and a more efficient cartridge. However it sure works great for me and its worked great for hundreds of thousands of people out there and ammo is readily available and relatively inexpensive. Perspective, confidence and practice play a bigger role than anything in a successful caliber for a person and going out to pick up a box of medium recoiling 130 grain soft points for 17 bucks to get some extra practice in without beating up the wallet or shoulder sure makes a deadly system during hunting season.
 
Ya know, I had some 25 when i had my .270 and it didn't even occur to me to try it.
I did try some Rl-23, but my buddy's son expressed a real interest in the rifle and I gave it to him before doing any chrono work.
I ran imr4350, 4831, and 7828 for both the ABLRs and the EldXs, and they worked well and 7828 got the closest to 2900 ive managed with a 150 and the .270.
I should have tried h1000 and retumbo also, that might have been ideal. The Wby/Howa have long magazines, so the long pointys can be loaded out a ways, the slower powders might have been awesome......just didn't think about it...

Been very happy w/ the 150 gr. Speer GS at ~ 2800 fps. using IMR 4831/CCI 200.

Groups tight, shoots soft, hits hard, penetrates really well, gives me a 250 yd. MPBR(+/-3") sighted at 200, and 1500 ft-lbs at 300 yards.

All w/ a $0.25 bullet. (delivered/rebate)

95% of my hunting needs.




GR
 
I use the 270 Winchester centerfire to hunt kansas bean and wheat fields and find it to be my favorite with 30-06 as the close second. 150s shoot decently out of my thompson center venture and serve me well in deer season. But for anyone to be a religious fanatic for any caliber there should be some value that it provides that others do not and the 270 doesn't possess that other than .277 is a bit rarer than some diameters. The 30-06 is more versatile, the 25-06 can run flatter in normal hunting distances and the 7mm-08 can do basically the same job with less recoil and a more efficient cartridge. However it sure works great for me and its worked great for hundreds of thousands of people out there and ammo is readily available and relatively inexpensive. Perspective, confidence and practice play a bigger role than anything in a successful caliber for a person and going out to pick up a box of medium recoiling 130 grain soft points for 17 bucks to get some extra practice in without beating up the wallet or shoulder sure makes a deadly system during hunting season.

Like the Yugo Blue Box (PPU) 150 gr. at $14/20 box delivered for range work.

Shoots MOA ~ into the same hole as the GS handloads.

And a fresh supply of reloadable brass - so I have enough to cull, and don't have to run up the reload count too high.




GR
 
So I've been reading "The Game Rifle" By Bob Hagel and my opinion on the "Hunting Rifle Excalibur" is swaying towards the 7mm Mashburn Super Magnum.

7mm Wby, same as makes no nevermind.

:D


Thinkin' a .270 AI, w/ a 1:8 twist Bbl. would be the ticket.

Should push a 165 gr. at 150 speeds.

'Course, just a .270 WCF/165 gr. at 2850 would be a sweet spot for me.




GR
 
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True. But an ai 270 is a LOT more interesting to me than a standard 270. With a 280, a few 30-06's, and a 35 whelen in the safe I have my long action cartridges covered pretty well.
270 offers a small advantage in bc for the same bullet weight. To me if a fast twist .277 and you want to shoot 165 or lighter then a .270ais pretty ideal.

I'm happy with my .280ai but still wanted to try a fast twist .270.


Or Gibbs, the necks a little long on the .270, might as well get a bit of capacity back.
 
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Season opens here Saturday morning. So I took the propane heater up to the shooting house and cleaned out the leaves and the wasp nests. Spooked a nice doe on the drive in. So that part is good.

I also shot the M77 RL .270 Winchester. 130 grain Winchester Ballistic Silvertip. One shot, cold barrel 100 yards from a rest, 1.5" high dead center windage. Have I ever said it really is boring to always be that good?

Edit: I've got a lifetime supply of those Ballistic Silvertips. Just shy of three boxes.:)
 
Season opens here Saturday morning. So I took the propane heater up to the shooting house and cleaned out the leaves and the wasp nests. Spooked a nice doe on the drive in. So that part is good.

I also shot the M77 RL .270 Winchester. 130 grain Winchester Ballistic Silvertip. One shot, cold barrel 100 yards from a rest, 1.5" high dead center windage. Have I ever said it really is boring to always be that good?
Dead is dead right?

ya know....bordom is a perfect excuse for another rifle:p:D


Edit: I've got a lifetime supply of those Ballistic Silvertips. Just shy of three boxes.:)
That wouldn't last me single range trip, and I probably wouldnt even get to shoot any of it LOL :D
 
Have settled on Four(4) basic loads:
1. 150 gr. Speer GS handload/(factory NP) at 2800 fps.
2. 160 gr. Nosler Partition handload at 2900 fps.
3. 140 gr. Barnes TSX factory at 2870 fps.
4. 130 gr. Federal Trophy-copper factory at 2990 fps.

300-400 yards...




GR
I shot a lot of deer with Sierra Game King 130 grain BTSP over 54.9 of IMR 4350. Don't have a chrono but it was published to be 3100. I figured more like 2900 out of the M77 RL's 20" barrel. They always worked well for me.
 
About 30 years ago, I found a used Remington 700 for a reasonable price. After trying Remington, Federal, and Winchester 100 gr. factory loads and being severely disappointed in the accuracy, I started looking in to reloading.
After contacting several powder makers (manuals only talked about 100 gr. bullets & I was looking at 60 gr. as well) and not getting much info from them, one gave some very usable information. I have run with that info ever since.
For the 100 gr. loads, the Accurate 2230 powder was listed at 33.5 gr. MAX and I was going to use Sierra 100 gr. pointed (spitzer) boat-tail bullets.
NOTE: In the most recent manuals I have read, the 2230 is no longer listed for a .243 load. That being said, I worked up loads using mixed brass (RP, Win., Fed., SS., etc.) starting at 31 gr. and going up by 0.5 gr. until MAX (33.5). With no signs of over-pressure at 33.5 gr., the best accuracy was 33-33.5 gr. so I retested at 0.25 gr. increments from 32.5-33.5. Results still showed the best were 33-33.5. Then I went by 0.1 gr. from 33-33.5 with the best accuracy about 33.3 gr. Using a Lee Auto-Powder measure, I put 2 of those plastic discs together that look like a "top hat" in cross-section and that gives me 33.2-33.3 gr. loads. Shooting that mixed brass at 200 yds., I was able to achieve a 1.5" wide (horizontal) x 2.5" tall (vertical) 7 shot string while shooting single rounds off of sandbags and laying the rifle down between shots. This was also done with a 3-9x scope set at 9x. I was satisfied.
Then I went to reload the 60 gr. HP loads, but these were can or flat-based bullets. For them, the MAX load was 38 gr. and, oddly enough, the best accuracy was again near the MAX load (37.7). When shot at the same 200 yds. at 9x on sandbags, there was (happily) only about 1-1.5" difference in the POI. Being lighter, these bullets hit about 1" higher and 1" to the left of the 100 gr. loads. The 75 gr. HPs performed about the same as the 60 gr. HPs.
 
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