270 & 30-06 (Not Trolling!)

[ExAgoradzo]

This is not a 'which is better' post!

I read some time ago (I think in Chuck Hawkes) that you ought to plan for your rifles. A 270 you could load one weight and a 30-06 another load and keep them the same so that you're always shooting consistently from that rifle. In other words, you're not shooting a 140 grain 270 sometimes sometimes different, then a 140 grain 30-06 then sometimes a 180 grain 30-06.

I'm almost out of 270 rounds and I have a bunch of speer 130 gr to load up with. I'd like to use the 270 so that my youngest son can move up to the 270 next year and I'd like to use the 270 myself as a middle between the 223 (coyote) and the 30-06 (deer, elk? ) possibly using it (the 270) for both coyote and deer.

So, I wanted to buy the Barnes Vortex 130 or 140 but kinda feel I ought to use what I got first.

BTW: I'm brand new at reloading!!!

Questions:
Will moving from the Speer I got for free to the Barnes later mess up the plan on making the gun 'a one weight' shooter?
Is this whole plan silly?
Is that 130 grain going to be enough for the deer when my son shoots at his first?
What 130 or 140 grain 270 would you buy?
What 180 grain 30-06 would you buy?

Thanks,
ExAgoradzo

 

[H&Hhunter]

I shoot 140's in my .270 Bee I shoot 180's in my 06 I see no reason to complicate my life by having to re-zero with new weights unless I am switching to that load weight for a good long while.

To answer your question though the 130 gr load in a .270 Win is plenty of bullet for any deer that lived. As is a 150 in an 06 the ONLY reason that I use 180's in mine is that I do a lot of elk and hog hunting and prefer a heavier bullet for both.

 

[bobnob]

The Speer 130 is a fine bullet and excellent on pigs even covered with dried mud.

 

[dprice3844444]

in shooting,as well as life,remember the kiss principle

 

[wolfe6]

I used 130's in my .270. It was the only thing it liked. I no longer have for that reason. I shoot 150's in deer season in my remington pump 06 and 180's in my ruger bolt. No reason to change, just have two guns!

 

[courtgreene]

part of your question was about switching to barnes down the road. they won't be the same as another bullet of the same weight. you'll have to rezero. that doesn't mean not to do it, but because they are made differently they should be loaded differently and will have different points of impact. this is true to a lesser extent even with very similar bullets (take a noslter bt vs a hornady interbond). they both weigh 150 grains and are shaped similarly, but they impacted about three inches away from one another and my .308 liked different powders for the two different bullets. Given that a barnes bullet that is all copper is going to be MUCH different in shape and composition, that enhances the situation I just described.

 

[Art Eatman]

I've never seen any problem in messing around with 150, 165 or 180 bullets in my '06. I regularly check sight-in before a hunt, so I don't see any problem with a change in weight.

A lazy man's alternative might be to sight in with the pet load, and then check for any different POI with a different bullet. I never bothered to do that, but I found that with Sierras the trajectories weren't all that much different, and they were pretty much vertically centered. All you'd need to worry about would be a little bit of holdover beyond 200 yards or so...

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Yep...what Art said.

I play around with all sorts of loads and bullets...but it stays sighted for my load (the load I worked up for it)

In some guns different bullets don't make a big difference in POI...in others, the difference is HUGE.

In my 30-06, the difference is pretty much nothing...the groups vary from bullet to bullet but with bullets of similar weight the trajectory and windage change very, very little.

I have not tried Barnes bullets in it though....or any other "solid", that may change things, or maybe not.

 

[sage5907]

You'll have a hard time finding a better bullet for hunting than the Speer 130 grain 270. You can spend more but you won't find a better bullet. I also agree with what Chuck Hawks is saying. The only load I shoot out of my 270's is the Speer 130 grain at about 3,000 fps. I like a 120 grain bullet from my 25-06's at about 2,900 fps. I like a 150 grain bullet out of my 30-06's at about 2,900 fps. The reason for this discertation is that all the rifles have about the same trajectory which makes it easy for me to switch rifles and hit at long range and on moving animals. The simpler you make the game the better it works! BW

 

[jmr40]

I think that there are several different trains of thought, and none are really wrong. It depands on the rifle. Using a 30-06 as an example many will shoot 150's, 165's and 180's to the exact point of aim at 100 yards and only require slighty different aiming points at longer ranges. Many guns however will not do this. Giving very different impact points with different bullets at all ranges. Not only vertical, but left to right as well.

For years I've used primarliy 165 gr bullets in my 30-06 and 150's in my 308 just to keep things simple. But within the last year I've started trying the Barnes bullets and am starting to lean toward one lighter weight.

part of your question was about switching to barnes down the road. they won't be the same as another bullet of the same weight. you'll have to rezero.

Maybe, maybe not.

I've found that I can shoot 150 gr Hornady SST's or Barnes 150 gr TTSX bullets to about 3050 fps from my 22" 30-06 and get well under 1 MOA with both. Both bullets have almost identical BC's and shoot to almost exactly the same trajectory. I can shoot 130 gr TTSX's in my 22" 308 to the same velocity, actually I've been able to exceed 3100 fps with that bullet, but have not found a cheaper alternative that gives me the same point of impact and trajectory.

The much cheaper Hornady's are for practice, and deer hunting. The more expensive TTSX bullets are for larger, tougher game. The TTSX 150's @ 3050 fps give me almost exactly the same trajectory as a 300 mag with 180's @3000 fps muzzle velocity. And with about the same results on game out to around 500 yards or so. The 300 mag starts to have an advantage at longer ranges, but 500 is farther than I'm willing to shoot. 400 is about my personal limit.

Another school of thought is to just use a good heavyweight bullet such as a Nosler partition (150 gr in 270 or 180 in a 30-06), learn the trajectories and use them for everything.

 

[elrowe]

I'm new at reloading too, but am on the simplicity train. .257 Roberts gets fed 100 grain, and .30-06 gets 180s. I'll probably only vary if I use the .257 for anything other than whitetails and '06 for anything other than elk, but there's not much else around Kentucky worth using bullets that big.

 

[Kachok]

130-140gr 270 for deer, ballistic tips without a doubt, though SSTs and SGKs earn honorable mention.
180gr 30-06 If I am shooting 180gr in my 06 I am shooting a high penetration controlled expansion bullet so Accubond TSX or Partition top that list. My deer load for my 06 is a 168gr Ballistic Tip.
The best "do it all" bullets are heavier high penetration bullets. Too much penetration is vastly better then not enough for a variety of game. The Barnes TSX is a good choice, they drive deep for a given SD though they often do not come in as heavy weights as lead bullets. Their remote damage is less, because of their lack of fragmentation, but they blow up less meat too.