.270 Squirrel load

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WhiteKnight

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I am considering working up some low-noise squirrel loads for my .270 just for fun. I would have to keep any serious shots on small game under about 75 yards, but these loads would also be fun for plinking in an area where full-house boomers wouldn't be appreciated.

What I've got in mind is some of the 90 grain Varminters that I've already purchased being pushed at about 900 fps (purposefully below the sound barrier).

How much powder would I need to make this work?

Would this work?
 
i guess you'd want to start with a rather fast burning powder to keep from blowing the gun up, since you wouldn't use much more than 25% of the case.

but 900fps with a 90gr .270??? minimum loads move at 3000fps...

i wouldn't even try it...
 
You'll have to be very careful with reduced loads... that's a relatively large case, and the possibility of detonation is very real. If you decide to go with reduced loads, I'd want a pretty sturdy filler above the powder and behind the bullet, so as to concentrate the load in front of the primer. Even then, I'm not sure that this is a good way to go...
 
Back when the mountains weren't as high, I loaded my '06 for squirrels. A round lead ball (00 Buck?) and five grains weight of shotgun smokeless. Probably, Bullseye would work just as well. Anyhow, the load made little noise; it didn't even expand the case neck. The load worked well on squirrels...

I dunno what size shot is .277. As soft as lead shot is, you could probably get away with using .30, although the accuracy might not be adequate. Dunno.

Art
 
Whats wrong with a .22 LR? Is it because of the Toxic waste has change the genetic make up of the squirrels that you need a .270?
 
In Vietnam we used to hunt rats, (ain't nothing but a squirrel without the bushy tail anyway) with a M16. I would pull the bullet off a round, pour out about half the powder, put in a soap filler, add five or so 00 shot from my 12ga, top it off with soap, load and it would bust a rat wide open to about 15 yds. I tried last year to load a 110g .30 bullet to a 30-30 and a 30.06 round, the 30-30 shot well but hit too high and I didn't want to readjust my scope for deer hunting, didn't work at all in a Garand, heads kept pulling off, was ok in my 03 and 03A3, worked best of all in my M1 Carbine though. I think I'd also go with a .22. My best rat killer in RVN was a high standard .22 pistol mounted in a old mauser stock firing through a 2' styrofoam packed 2" bamboo tube which was taped to the forearm. I made a front sight out of an antenna and a rear sight out of a M79 hull cut in half with wires as crosss hairs, had an Eveready flashlight duct taped to the bottom, once I got it sighted in it was silent and deadly. I got caught with it one night by an ??????? sergeant major, he thought it was a secret NVA silenced special ops weapon and kept it.

rk
 
Whats wrong with a .22 LR?
Click to expand...

I am considering working up some low-noise squirrel loads for my .270 just for fun
Click to expand...

Darn it! I have a bolt action .22LR that works perfectly out to about 75 yards. However, I simply enjoy the idea of a low-powered load and the then-granted ability to say "Yep, bagged my limit of bushytails with the ole .270 today." ;)
Imagine the looks one'd get from people. :eek:
 
In Vietnam we used to hunt rats, (ain't nothing but a squirrel without the bushy tail anyway) with a M16. I would pull the bullet off a round, pour out about half the powder, put in a soap filler, add five or so 00 shot from my 12ga, top it off with soap, load and it would bust a rat wide open to about 15 yds.
Click to expand...

Just curious, but how did that .33-caliber 00 pellet go down that .22-caliber bore? :confused:
 
In Vietnam we used to hunt rats, (ain't nothing but a squirrel without the bushy tail anyway) with a M16. I would pull the bullet off a round, pour out about half the powder, put in a soap filler, add five or so 00 shot from my 12ga, top it off with soap, load and it would bust a rat wide open to about 15 yds.
Click to expand...
:scrutiny: :uhoh:
Now I have heard everything.
You fit 1.65" of .33 lead pellets into your 5.56! :what: :eek:
 
Somewhat similar

I was trying to make up a low power K-Hornet load for squirrel. Ended up with 3.0-3.5 gr Bullseye and a 40 or 45 gr Hornet bullet. Put a small wad of toilet paper, 1 sq. in., tamped over the powder before seating the bullet. Very quiet, sub- inch at 50yd. Not done yet either.

I would second Art: find a lead round ball, use pistol or shotgun powder and cover with a wad. Don't use that brass ever again for regular loads; something weird happens to headspace.
 
There used to be a good deal of that type of loading done.
Mostly with cast bullets, there is a great risk of sticking a jacketed bullet in the barrel with a subsonic rifle load. I know there are some now made by contractors to spook agencies but I have not seen the load data.

Ed Harris quotes Mattern with a load of 5 grains of Bullseye and a 120 grain cast bullet in .30-06 for 900-1000 fps.

An old NRA article described loads with buckshot and light cast bullets and 2 (two!) to 5 grains of pistol or shotgun powder. Like 4 grains of Red Dot in 7x57.

I have shot 7 grains of 700X and a 160 grain cast bullet in .30-06 with excellent accuracy and little noise or recoil. Probably supersonic or transsonic, though.

There is a lot of discussion of Cat's Sneeze round ball loads by a Finnish writer. Search for his www site.

CAUTION: Check your game laws. Here in Alabama it is not legal to hunt small game with a centerfire rifle.
 
Ed Harris quotes Mattern with a load of 5 grains of Bullseye and a 120 grain cast bullet in .30-06 for 900-1000 fps.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that is interesting.
Beartooth Bullets offers .270 bullets in a 120 grain weight. I wonder if these could be put behind the same 5gr of Bullseye for the same effect.

I'm searching for a place with lighter weight .277 bullets to give a better trajectory as I speak..
 
There is tons of information on reduced loads. There have been numerous threads right here on this board about them.
Here is a website that got me started with reduced loads: http://guns.connect.fi/gow/gunwriters.html
Check out the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook
Check out the Lee manual.
Lee has software that will give you reduced load data.


The round balls are fun, but I don't know about 75 yards.
 
WhiteKnight, if you're thinking about lead-fouling of the bore, it's a velocity thing. Soft lead, stay low. Hard cast, you can get on toward 1,500 ft/sec or so. With gas checks, you can do okay to around 2,000.

All approximate, of course. :)

Art
 
Okay, I've been searching for some lightweight hard cast bullets (90 grains) since my last post, and can't seem to find anything.

Could someone point me in the right direction?
 
Why lightweight? Using heavier bullets would make it easier it to slow the loads down and keep adequate pressures, that's what the subsonic guys do. The heavier bullet would have the better BC and trajectory, although at these speeds and range the difference is minimal. Since you would be shooting at pistol velocities a 150 gr bullet would recoil like a 9 mm, only from full weight rifle. Hawk makes soft jacket bullets with a pure lead core in a large weight range. http://www.hawkbullets.com/maintest.htm
 
Re: subsonic .270

I wouldn't bother leading up my barrel trying to stay subsonic. What I've been using to repel dog???? from my yard are Aguila's super colibri .22 rounds. They're on a long case w/a 20 gr. bullet, and NO powder JUST A PRIMER! It's quieter than an airgun! The bullet hitting a popcan is actually quieter than the gun firing! (notto mention, it's safer than me trying to bowhunt squirrels!)
 
I wouldn't bother leading up my barrel trying to stay subsonic. What I've been using to repel dog???? from my yard are Aguila's super colibri .22 rounds. They're on a long case w/a 20 gr. bullet, and NO powder JUST A PRIMER! It's quieter than an airgun! The bullet hitting a popcan is actually quieter than the gun firing! (notto mention, it's safer than me trying to bowhunt squirrels!)
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Um, air rifle anyone???
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Gosh-freaking darn it!

I've already clarified once that I WANT TO UNDERTAKE THIS PROJECT PURELY FOR ENTERTAINMENT!

I could use my $500 S400e PCP airgun pushing 10.5 grain pellets at 997 fps were I to need an airgun.

I am not trying to repel dogs. I have a 105lb purebred German shepard, or my 870 for that. I also have 3,000 rounds of Super Colibri sitting on my ammo shelf already. I've also shot approximately another 2,000 of them in the past year. I know what Colibri (and Super Colibri) are.

If you can't contribute to this thread, please don't waste Oleg's bandwidth with useless reccomendations that I didn't ask for.




With that said, thanks for the link, Bigfoot. I'm looking into buying some of those loads this evening.

However, the reason that I was looking for lightweight bullets was that with the speeds I wished to expel them, a lighter bullet would yield a significantly flatter trajectory than a much heavier one. I guess pushing a 165gr .277 bullet would be similiar to one of the Whisper cartridges.

Also, thanks everyone for the lead on reduced loads. I'm researching those now, and I'll update once I find some new info.
 
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