I've been having pretty good results with the 130 grain Sierra Gamekings, but I hear a lot of folks claiming that the Hornady soft points (I can't remember the official name of these) are better/more accurate.

I've got to purchase another box of 270 bullets soon, and was wondering if I should try the Hornady's.

green 788

Take your pick green. The Interlock or the SST in 130 gr. I've not tried the Sierras much but the Hornadys have been superb for me in 277 and 264.

Dave

Green: I like the 130 or 140 Hornady spire point boattales They are a devistating round on deer. This year I tried Speer 130 sp flat base with the same results. I have loaded and used 130 remington coreloc also with good results. The only bullet I tried that I did not like was the 130 Nosler ballistic tip only because of the meat damage. the 130gr Sierra were the same as the remington coreloc. I load for affect. on this round about 2800f/s using IMR 4064,.
Tried some H414 130gr speer bullet and loaded them to avg. 3100f/s 24 1/2" barrel
This is one deer killin cartrage works with about any combination loads..
Dave

Both are great deer bullets, they have accuracy potential in most rifles and most importantly they expand reliably. I have used the Sierras in my 270 since day 1 and have no complaints as the wound channel is impressive. Do not expect to see perfectly mushroomed bullets if you recover them. You will see some core separations butlots of internal damage ie results. I consider this combo about the ideal unit for wtail hunting.

BR

Thanks for the replies.

I picked up a box of the Hornady Interlocks (130 grains) and loaded some up, using my standard charge of 55 grains of IMR 4350.

I note that the Interlocks have a cannelure, but I don't seat them near that deep, and I don't crimp. Would this cause any sort of problem?

Thanks again,

green 788

I just ignore the cannelure. Doesn't seem to matter a twit.

Dave

Thanks, Rifleman. I'm going to test the loads tomorrow, and I'll mention here how things go.

green 788

I tried the Hornady bullets today, and was very pleased with the results. I seated them, ignoring the cannelure as suggested above, to an OAL of 3.300". I used the same recipe as usual, and groups were sub MOA. The Sierra Gamekings also printed sub MOA groups, but it's looking like my rifle might like the flat base of the Hornady just a tad better than the Sierra boattail, as groups did seem somewhat smaller.

green 788

green788,

I've pretty much settled on Hornady for the 260 and 270. My 223 seems to like Sierra Blitz and Nosler BTs though. I might try the VMax 40 grainers just to see if it's the 40 gr that it prefers. Check out my post on the reloading side of the board on 10 shot groups.

Dave

I suppose I should have given you the standard caution about the cannelure. If reloading for semiautos you may have to use the cannelure to crimp. I'm guessing that you are using a bolt action though.

Later!

One other thing about the Hornadys. I plan on trying their SSTs soon - their answer to the Nosler BT, but supposed to hang together a bit better on deer sized game.

[This message has been edited by rifleman (edited 05-01-2002).]

I'm gonna suggest you stay with the Sierras for 2 reasons:
1) My family has decades of experience loading them for .270 Win and .30-06...as a deer bullet they are nearly perfect. We have has trouble with them blowing up on elk but on deer, it's been a while since we've seen one move out of their tracks. They've all been very accurate as well. Which brings us to our second point..
2) These are days of racey super-accurate magnums with scopes high magnification scopes. I often hear people complaining about 1/4 in on their hunting rifles. I like accurate guns as well, and confidence is a good thing. But lets face it, sub-MOA is sub-MOA, which is probably more accurate than you will ever need. There comes a point you have to stand back and realize hunting big game does not require as much accuracy as it does killing power--energy, and trajectory. Therefore I feel that the higher BC of the Sierra GameKing and the fact you have already built confidence and experience with it in the field will do you more good on game than a fraction of an inch on paper.

Far Right,

Good points, all... I haven't tested the Hornady's at 200 yards as of yet. I do know that the Sierras do well at that range. I've been using the Gamekings in 30 caliber (308 and 30-06) for quite some time and have been happy.

I find that the 55 grain IMR 4350 load will put just about any 130 grain bullet in the same 1.5 MOA zone at 100 yards. So I guess I could use just about any bullet as far as accuarcy goes, and as you suggest look for the best terminal performer.

Thanks for the post,

green 788

In general Sierra bullets are the most accurate. But for heavier game there are tougher bullets. Also a 150 gr bullet will stay together better due to it's slower impact.

I would shoot the Hornady's at long range and see how they do there. That's where the Sierras may win.

But this is game shooting and not target shooting. I know that Corelokts are a little tougher than Sierra's.

For target shooting I would not touch Hornadys with a eleven foot pole unless there were no Sierra's.

For deer I've had good luck with Hornady, and Seirra in .270, 7mm mag, and 8x57, in the .308win nothing works, it's just a pathetic cartridge.

Green: A point about the 140 gr SP hornady.
i have shot deer around 50 60 yards with these bullets and at first the deer didnt look like it was hit. they would run 20 or 30 yards and go down like a rock. they were dead on thier feet.
Also I have shot deer out to about 250 yds and they would drop in thier tracks.
These loads were around 2900F/s. i think they perform better out at 150 yards and beyond. the 130gr speer flat base sp. was good at all ranges. i killed 3 deer last fall with them, 2 at about 100 120 yds the 3rd at 160 or so and all three went down in thier tracks.
Dave

Thanks for the additional info. As I posted elsewhere, I'm going with 60 grains of H4831 instead of the IMR 4350 (though I do have some of the IMR 4350/Sierra 130's loaded up, and will probably use them).

My uncle used to load about 58 grains of the old surplus H4831 for a velocity of 2900 fps. He didn't like to get the 130's going too fast, probably for the reasons you mention above.

Take care, and thanks for the post...

green 788

stay with your Sierra's, if it aint froken do fix it

In my experience, Sierra bullets tend to be a tad more accurate than Hornady ones, while the Hornady bullets tend to be a bit tougher. But you'll need to try them in your rifle to see what works best for you. Either will be totally adequate for deer-sized game.

[ 06-02-2002, 05:06: Message edited by: LE270 ]