OT rifle/reloading questions

[txfireguy2003]

Hey guys, I'm bored at work today, so I've been browsing TBH and other websites. Got to looking into reloading data for my .270 and was wondering what bullets everyone uses. I'm pretty committed on a 130gr bullet, but don't know really which ones I want to use. Obviously, it's going to boil down to what's accurate in my rifle, but somebody give me some starting points please. I want one bullet/load for everything out of this rifle. The animals I may kill with it include everything from bobcats (not likely though), coyotes, pigs (large and small) up to whitetails and Rams (looking into Rambola or Merino rams which can weigh in the 250+ range).

One additional rifle question for those more experienced than me. I've never killed anything with a rifle other than squirrels and the like with .22's and .17's. So, with a .270 winchester, how much meat damage should I expect to see on the average whitetail or pig? I read somewhere today, a reference to a "basketball sized" chunk of bloodshot meat! Heck, with the deer where I hunt, a shoulder shot deer with a basketball sized hunk of blood shot meat would be nearly half of the meat on the deer! If that's what I can expect, I'll stick to bow hunting if I plan to eat the meat. In other words, if I'm hunting an animal like rams where the meat isn't really good to eat, just hunting for the trophy (which will be a first for me soon), then the rifle would be an option, but if it blows up that much meat, I'll just stay with sticks and strings unless on a trophy only hunt.

[Johnny Dangerr]

1st Question - Stay away from ballistic tips. If you can find hollow point boat tails that would be perfect.

2nd You do not tear up much meat on normal heart shots.
If you take the time to learn what your gun will do at different distances - shoot them in the neck or ear. My wife is a neck shooter.

[canny]

High shoulder shot is what I use and never destroy that much meat. Shot them there with a 308, 7mm, and 6mm and never had a problem with torn up meat, plus it gives you a larger margin for error when compared to a neck shot.

[Geezy Rider]

I use the Sierra Game King spitzer boat tail 150 grn. Great ballistic coefficient. I generally take a spine shot just behind the shoulder blade and I don't have that much meat damage, maybe fist size.

[Tuffbroadhead]

I use the Sierra Game King spitzer boat tail 150 grn. Great ballistic coefficient. I generally take a spine shot just behind the shoulder blade and I don't have that much meat damage, maybe fist size.

What calibers do ya reload...

[Geezy Rider]

Right now just .454 casull and .45 colt.

My old gunsmith was loading for my .270 but he past on and I never got his recipe.

Thinking about some .380. Don't have one but I was given a bunch of primered brass so I might need to buy one so I can shoot it up. Kinda backwards, load the ammo buy the gun.

[BOHTR]

Every .270 cal. rifle I have ever owned has loved the Nosler bullets. I shot the Ballistic Tips for a long time and the were deadly on deer. I had some performance issues on larger pigs, so I switched to the Accubond bullet........problem solved. The load data is interchangable between the Ballistic Tip and the Accubonds of the same weight. My favorite powder is H4831SC......It meters great and is very consistant. Here's a pic from my load book.........130 Nosler Accubond....54.5 gr. H4831SC......from my Browning A-Bolt. 5 shots at 100 yds...... This group measured .560

[txfireguy2003]

Wow, BOHTR! That's a heck of a 5 shot group! Save for that one flyer, which I think is the reason so many use 3 shot groups, they just can't get 5 shots that consistant, that would be a 1/4 MOA group, or darn close!

[Johnny Dangerr]

Hey Fire Guy

You mentioned MOA. You know more than your original post would suggest.

There are two kinds of rifle folks out there. One says well it was on last year - and the other actually shoots their gun numerous times a year.

I have always been a fan of accurate rifles. Most guns shoot way better than the person holding them.

For the last couple of years I have had a 360 yard feeder set up for pigs. My members and friends did not even try the shot. This year I moved it to 190 yards.

Winchester has come up with a ballistics program that you could use with a smart phone. Temp - wind - taken into account for to the moment ballistics.

Simmons makes a mild-dot scope that is reasonably priced. Whith a little practice anybody should be able to take ear shots out to 300 yards.

The chase to get there is all the fun. Enjoy.....

[MUZZYSLINGR]

I loaded the 130gn Hornady SST for my .270 Winchester. Alwasy left whatever i shot with it D.R.T.I can't comment on meat loss though, i shoot them in the head.I can't eat horns. If your intrested in my load recipie shoot me a P.M.

[Tommyh]

Thinking about the ability to eat the meat with bullet damage, neck shots will do a lot more damage to burger/sausage meat, and i never understand why people whine and moan about losing rib meat. the proper placement in a bullet just like and arrow ruins the same amount of meat as an arrow when shot in the ribs, so think about that. When you clean the animal, do you go in between each rib, deboning that little amount of meat out? do you go up into the neck to get all that meat for burger and sausage?

The longer the ogive and OAL of the projectile will give you a more accurate bullet. If you want to learn more about reloading, get "ABCs of Reloading" and learn. Read stuff on www.thehighroad.org which is a REALLY good reloading site, along with www.accuratereloading.com and ask questions there. Youre going to learn a LOT from the people over there who have been doing it for decades.

[scotty]

Nosler Accubond.

[txfireguy2003]

Thor, I've been shooting guns all my life. I'm an accuracy freak. In fact I just started reloading about a year ago, mainly because of the price of ammo right after the last election, but also because I was ready to take the next step in accuracy. The only reason I've never killed any large game with a rifle is because growing up, Dad didn't hunt, at all. He just couldn't see spending the money on a lease, and he didn't own enough land to hunt anything but birds and squirrels/rabbits on. I had a bunch of friends that hunted, and they all would say they were going to take me hunting with them, but when it came down to time, it just never worked out. Either the timing was off, or their lease didn't allow guests, or whatever. Now that I'm grown, I get to hunt anything I want, as long as I can afford it. It's always been easier to find places to bowhunt than to rifle hunt within my price range. I can usually find a small plot of land owned by a friend who will let me bowhunt for free or in exchange for some labor, but a rifle wouldn't be safe. I'm just now getting some offers of places to hunt where a rifle is feasible. One of which is a place where the land owner isn't much on bowhunting, I can only assume because of a bad experience with it. The only thing I can do is respect his wishes since he's letting me hunt his property for free.
Anyway, I know about accurate rifles and what not, just not which bullets I want to use for hunting. If I was just punching paper, I'd just figure out which bullet shot the tightest groups and move on, but when hunting, it has to make tight groups AND have good terminal performance. The only way to know about terminal performance is to talk to experienced people and see what their experiences have been, or to do ballistic gel tests, and even then you don't know for sure what it will do in real flesh.
As far as scopes, I have already chosen a Vortex scope with mildots, and I know how to use them, although I'm not very fast at using them yet. My plan is to find a load that groups well and stick with it. Then I'll take it to one of my shooting places that has LARGE pastures and shoot it to see what the drop is at various ranges. Once I know the drop at a given range, when I have a target animal at that range, I know how many clicks to put into the scope so that I can put the crosshairs where I want the bullet to go, rather than trying to estimate holdover. For ranging animals, I'll either have to use a rangefinder, or get a lot faster at figuring with the mildots.

Hope this gives a little more insight into my knowledge and experience with firearms. The last time I was training with our PD (I'm a fireman, but also have LEO credentials for arson investigations) we did some shooting. Some of the SWAT guys were watching very intently when I shot, most were impressed that a fireman shot so well in a tactical situation. I'm no sniper by any stretch, but I do understand the physics of shooting, I'm just not great with a lot of wind, or ranging targets with the mildots.

[Johnny Dangerr]

You are on track to out shoot me when you get my age.

Today on {i think} outdoor tv they had a 84 year old guy holding a 5 inch pattern at a 1000 yards. The technology is getting better every year. Savage has come out with a 338 Lapua style gun for ONLY 2000.00. This is a no big deal 1000 yard gun.

As I get older the opportunity to set up hundreds of yards away from the game and drink coffee - watch the football game - and blow my nose without spoiling the hunt appeals to me......

[txfireguy2003]

Hahaha, agreed, it would be nice to be able to relax and MOVE on stand. Ground blinds do a pretty good job of concealment though. I do still enjoy the rush of being able to hear them breathe just before I deflate their lungs though. I'm going on a Ram hunt at Thompson Temple in a few weeks and taking the rifle with me just in case I can't get a good one within bow range by the end of the weekend.