270 Winchester
32.0 grains H-4895
WLR Primer
Hornady 140 grain BTSP

A friend has a screwed up neck and I loaded these up for him today. I was wondering their velocity @ 40 degrees F.
Also how far is point blank range for 3" up and 3" down from bore line, and how high to zero at 100 yards. Thanks for the help.

JCN

Geez John, over my head, but... if you chronographed one could you put it into your ballistics program and figure it? My pact chrono has some deep software, I just don't know about the input for the temperature variable. Oh well, not much help, but good luck.
Don

Your a little to technical IMO as weather is really a imagined problem in velocity from a practical standpoint...but I will tell you that the .270 Win. should be loaded with 4831 (O'Connor said so and he was correct ) and all big game rifles should be sighted in 1.5 to 2" high at 100...The old 3" high at 100, thus 4" high at 200 yds. works for some but most folks that miss game will envaribly shoot high in the field, in my experience..

Thanks guys,

My friend can't handle much recoil at all until he gets his neck fixed next spring. There is a program called Quickload that can figure a pretty close estimated velocity from the load data. I'm going over to his house now, and will just tell him to zero 2" high at 100 yards and assume a 150 yard point blank zero. I'm guessing this will give ~2,100-2,200 fps.

Don't worry Ray,
For my own shooting I'll continue to scoop H-4831 in until it gets up into the neck, cram in a 150 grain partition and go have some fun.

Hodgdon puts out a 60% rule for reduced loads. You take their max load for a given cartridge and bullet weight with H-4895, multiply by 60%, and that gives a safe reduced load for kids, spouses, and people with screwed up necks that can't take any recoil. Max listed for the 270 Win with a 140grain bullet is 42.6 grains of H-4895. 60% of that is 25.6 grains. I figured 32 grains was a reasonable compromise.

JCN

Quickload is often in error by 100fps or more and in some cases 200fps due to the fact that it can't account for variances in barrels,chambers and components.The only way to accurately determine the velocity of a given load in a certain rifle is with a chronograph.

This could be a very dangerous load. Since you are using a largely reduced load. 49gr would be a full load. If you want to make squibb loads this is not the powder to use. You could get a detonation and blow up your gun. Sorry, I don't have any light loads for the 270 Win. Fred M

Hodgdon condones and recommends the practice, but only with H-4895. It would obviously be a very bad idea to try a reduced load with a slower burning powder.



Here is some information about reduced loads by Hodgdon from their website:

Quote:

---

INTRODUCTION TO YOUTH HUNTING, INFORMAL TARGET AND PLINKING LOADS

Hodgdon Powder Company has developed the following reduced loads for youth and beginning shooters for use on deer and similarly sized game animals. The bullets chosen were originally designed for single shot pistols and their lower velocities. These loads have been developed to closely approximate those pistol velocities in rifles, and therefore, similar performance on game animals. This provides our young and beginning shooters with loads effective to 200 yards with minimal recoil.



For all cartridges we chose H4895 because it is the slowest burning propellant that ignites uniformly at reduced charges. For years, H4895 has been the top choice by cast bullet shooters. For this type shooting, loads are reduced even more than the hunting loads listed herein. To create loads of this type for target and plinking, we recommend our 60% rule with H4895. By taking the maximum charges listed in our Annual Manual with any given cartridge and multiplying it by 60%, the shooter can create a 1500 to 2100 fps load, depending on the bullet weight shown. This works only where H4895 is listed. Do not use H4895 in a cartridge where it has not been shown.



Call Hodgdon Powder Company if additional information is needed. Loads may be adjusted up or down to achieve best accuracy. Do not reduce by more than an additional 10%.



WARNING!

For all brands of powders use only the components shown. If you make any changes in components or get new lot numbers, you should begin again with the starting loads and work up to maximum cautiously.



For those loads listed where a starting load is not shown, start 10% below the suggested maximum load and then approach maximums carefully, watching for any sign of pressure (difficult extraction, cratered and flattened or blown primers, and unusual recoil).



NEVER Exceed the Loads Listed in This Publication.

---

JCN



Edited to add data swiped from another website.

Loadtech shows 32 grs of 4895 giving 1980fps at 36250psi.

Thanks very much. That is in the ball park of what I was hoping to do.

My buddy Ed had a big pout mouth thing going at the prospect of not shooting a deer this year. This should put a smile back on his mug.

PS How do you like the Loadtech program?

JCN

Try some IMR SR4759 it is excellent for reduced loads.I have loaded my 270 down to 1600fps. with a 130gr. bullet and have used it with great results on turkey.The gun just goes POP.As far as using H4895 goes 45.0gr. and a 135 Sierra Matching King is superb out to 500 meters with moderate recoil and very little BOOM It is my silhouette load.

Thanks,

I have these loaded up and am dropping them off in an hour.

I will try that silhouette load. I have a Sendero in 270. Don't know why. Guns just follow me home some days.

What brand of brass do you favor in the 270 for target shooting?

JCN

I use the Federal nickel plated cases with Fed. 210 primers. They are very uniform and absolutely glide through the dies.

Later this season, or next year, try 36 grs of AA's XMP5744 behind that 140 grainer in the 270. That gets 2621 fps in a 24 inch bbl with uncanny consistency and accuracy. Pretty much a dead ringer for the 140 gr 6.5X55 with less recoil.

Also, have your friend practice holding the stock high on his shoulder and use tall rings to keep his head up.

I agree re. IMR SR4759 after my experience of today (1st time). "Worked up" a 100gr HP reduced load and a 140gr SilverTip reduced load. 100gr HP takes 20 gr of propellant and the Speer manual says this leads to a velocity of 1915fps. The 140 gr. propellant load of 26 gr is taken from the Speer 150 gr. data (which gives a velocity of 1957fps).



NOTE: IMR lists the max loads for SR4759 as 30.5 grains for a 100gr HP and 26 grains for a 150 gr bullet. Therefore the 2nd load is running at near max pressure though the recoil is still very very light and the velocity is likely only around 2000.



Accuracy is OK in 1.5" in range today, but weather was awful, well actually pretty normal here in Newfoundland, with 35mph, gusting to 50mph, winds quartering across range. Will test speed and accuracy later. Both were _EXTREMELY_ comfortable to shoot. The recoil of the 100 gr load was scarcely more than a 222. Gun stayed very cool for entire shot strings. --this _alone_ makes me like shooting with reduced loads.



I'll be working with these loads some more.

Sabot, jgnfld,
I'll try both of those powders in some 270 ground squirrel loads in the spring. Go for the kinetic kill. Kind of like dropping a 500# concrete practice bomb on a Volkswagen. All you have left is headlight, tailights and a big hole.

Spent a little time at Gander in Newfoundland picking up an F-4 that had to divert in there. Had a bit of trouble getting the right engine to start. I told the crew chief to throw in a cup of that Navy Rum you have up there. He said it would sure start the engine, but it would also eat away the fan blades. We used to fly over Newfoundland or Labrador coming back from Europe. Pretty country on those occasions that it wasn't covered by clouds (there's the rub, eh).

JCN

As noted above, this is an extremely reduced load, but since it is a medium burning powder, I do not believe it is dangerous. However, since it occupies only about half the powder space in a .270 Win. case, don't look for it to produce much in the way of uniformity of ignition or velocity (accuracy). This powder charge is about what I'd use in a .270 with a cast bullet for plinking and short-range target practice.



If this bullet has a BC of .485 and a MV of 2200 FPS, it should be +2.8" @ 100 yards, and about -3" @ around 210 yards; dead-on at about 170 yards.



There's a good ballistics calculator on-line at: http://www.biggameinfo.com/index.aspx?page=%2fbalcalc.ascx



if you want to run a bunch of "what if" problems like this one.



IF this load only produces +- 1900 FPS MV, I would still expect it to kill as well as the original .30/30 Win. load, a 165-grain bullet at around the same vel. Plus this load has a pointed bullet, so will retain its' velocity better.

Yes, Newfoundland really is God's country--it's just that he's out saving the _rest_ of the world a lot and forgets to look at the weather back home.

Case in point from last 24 hours: was driving west out to range yesterday (which is situated on a plateau 50 km/32mi from St. John's on the tundra). Sky suddenly turned tornado-like black and then a sleet storm like you've never seen opened up. Left about an inch of ice on the road. Behind the front was a broken sky with snow falling out of many of the clouds in beautiful white gossamer sheets lit up by sun (which at this time of the year is fairly low in the south). None of the snow was reaching the ground, and if it was even reaching as rain, certainly none passed my location. Had a wonderful time. Besides wind, it was stunningly beautiful and temp was about 10C/50F. Today the weather has closed in again and between clouds and low Nov sun angle, it's so dark you need headlights during the daylight hours.

Re. reloading: Noted that cases with these reduced loads still needed trimming (normal amounts, nothing excessive, but I was expecting maybe less). More so for the ones shooting the 140 gr bullets. I suspect that IMR7659 has a very spiky pressure curve in this application.

Well,
My friend got his buck at 150 yards, but it wasn't pretty. Oh, the bullet worked great, and the deer fell over dead, when he finally connected on the 5th! shot. I had told him that he needed to re-zero his rifle, and that the new loading would probably hit about 5" lower. Re-zero at 2" high at 100 says I. He said "but its already zeroed at 2" high." He rated the recoil at zero on a scale of 1 to 10, but he was shooting at a buck at the time.
Anyway, I will work up a 2300 fps load for him next spring, and then I will re-zero his rifle. I very much appreciate every one helping me figure that load out on short notice.
JCN