180 grain woodleigh .270 win load data: part 2

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Roadkill2228

New member
A while ago I posted that I'd be working up and posting load data for .270 Winchester with woodleighs 180 grain weldcore ppsn. I've settled on a combo I feel is a winner. Final load to go with is 57 grains of reloader 25 ignited by a cci large magnum rifle primer. Note: do not use with federal brass. Much less case capacity and is softer to boot. The best is Winchester brass, it's roomy and sturdy. Of course, work up to this load. Other brass I've been trying (Remington, Hornady, imperial, pmc) work fine, but I have Mostly Winchester and just a little of everything else. Just don't use federal. With a bullet this long case capacity is more important than with your standard 130-150 grain bullets. Again, the bullet stabilizes perfectly fine (people who don't know any better seem to think it won't because of its weight compared to other .270 bullets but woodleigh designed it explicitly for the .270 wcf and they know what they're doing) rl22 and imr7828 work too but rl25 works better. I'm afraid I'll need to order more bullets to complete my research and it's not in the budget right now. I have 17 loaded rounds left...should be good for trying to get groupings (at 100 and 300 yards ideally - I want to know how these things really do), getting some chrony data (seriously hoping for 2700 fps) and maybe even some terminal tests (just using wet pack or something and comparing it to other bullets). This is fun.
 
That should make things interesting for 270 owners. I think we sometimes overthink barrel twist and other minutia. There is a guy on another forum where I hangout experimenting with a 1:12 twist 308 shooting 215 gr Berger bullets. That combo isn't supposed to work, but he is getting good accuracy out to 1800 yards. That bullet with his load is still over 1500 ft lbs at 800 yards. From a 308!!!
 
Sounds pretty impressive! From what I understood shooting .308 beyond 1200 yards involved a lot of good luck because of transonic transitions. And to think I had wondered when I first bought 208s for my 10 twist .300 win mag if they would stabilize. Woodleigh also makes a 240 grain ppsn weldcore for .30 cal, designed with .30-06 impact velocities in mind. Too many bullets, not enough time (or money).
 
One more thing I should mention (not many people posting on this thread but I can see there are a few reading up on it and I need to make sure all details of the load are shared) is that the COAL for these rounds of mine is 3.318", which easily fits in my magazine with room to spare. These casings used were resized without an expander in the die, they were deprimed by hand separate the resizing operation. The effect of this is extreme neck tension holding the bullet. This neck tension, the magnum primer, and the long-ish oal of the round, and the great weight and bearing surface for caliber ensure a complete and clean burning of the RL25 powder, a powder which would normally be much too slow for the .270 case to bore ratio. Cant wait to get final results to share with you all. Rifle being used is a savage 111, 22" barrel length. We shall see.
 
Got the velocity

Hey I know this is a long time ago now, but I also know there is next to no load data out there for these bullets and people are interested in finding some. I got the chrono reading for 57 gr rl25 cci lrm primer Winchester brass. It's right at an even 2600 fps, which is less than I had hoped for but realistically as much as you'd expect, seeing as the .30-06 only does 2700 with this weight in this 22 inch barrel length and has a more efficient case to bore ratio. I may order more. I do want to get some more conclusive findings for rl22, imr 7828, imr 7977, and perhaps even some h870 I have tucked away.
 
Hey Roadkill, how is the recoil on that load? And a 180 grn bullet from .270 winchester @2600 is pretty impressive to me, should be a nice long range load for the winny...
 
Hey hooligan thanks for chiming in on this. The recoil is certainly more notable than with the conventional 130-150 grain loads but by no means unpleasant (recoil is subjective I know...I don't mind this load at all however in my sick way I suppose I kind of enjoy a good hit to the shoulder, a big fireball, and a loud boom - it's fun). As for long range...this bullet is pretty stout and I think the aspiring long range .270 shooter/hunter would be much better served by the excellent 150 grain boat tail bullets available. The 180s bc is a bit over .5, which is good but no better than the aforementioned 150s, which can be started out an a good 200-300 fps faster, which makes a difference when it comes to optimal expansion at longer range. My intention with this projectile is shoulder breaking ability on elk and moose with broad wounding through the chest at conventional hunting ranges (250 yards and less). Deep penetration with broad wounding is the hoped for result. This bullet could expand violently and even shed some weight and still weigh more than a tougher constructed 150. Some wet phone books will hopefully be tested in summer.
 
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