130gr Barnes TTSX for .270 Win

[jameson2]

I started working up a load for my .270 Win using 130gr Barnes TTSX today and thought I'd post my findings here, having not found too much info on here for Barnes bullets in Savage/Stevens rifles.

Rifle: Stevens 200, .270 Win
Case: Winchester
Primer: CCI
Powder: 58.5gr RL-19
Bullet: 130gr Barnes TTSX
Seating Depth: 0.010, 0.020, 0.030, 0.040, 0.050 from lands

Barnes lists starting/never exceed charge weights of 56.0 and 59.5gr, respectively. I started on the high side, staying 1gr back from max. Most of my most accurate loads in the past have been near max, maybe 0.5 to 1.0 gr below max. Seating depth, from what I gathered online is critical for accuracy in the Barnes solid copper lines.

I made 5 sets of loads using the same powder charge but varying the seating depth as listed above. In testing the loads, I fired my groups in pseudo-random order. Otherwise, who knows if groups degrade due to a dirty barrel, shooter fatigue, changing temps, etc. The were shot in the order: 0.030, 0.040, 0.020, 0.050, 0.010.

I found that the longer loads (closer to the lands) worked best, with my best group from the load seated 0.010 from the lands. It measured 0.38". Not bad, probably the best I've managed from this old Stevens with a sport weight barrel.

One question/comment though: I managed to pop a primer out on the last round of my group firing the loads seated 0.050 from the lands. I suppose seating the bullet further into the case would compress the powder and cause increasing pressures. The question is, how much? This is super critical in e.g. 9mm Luger, I'm just not sure how many of you have encountered it in your reloading of large rifles.

Also, I was considering backing my powder charge down maybe 0.5 gr and sticking with the seating depth 0.010 from the lands. Is this enough or is it even necessary to back down?

I appreciate your input!

[Knappy]

Well buddy, I don't have any suggestions to your question posted above. Sorry. Would this be a load you would use on elk? I'm looking around for info on using the .270 for elk and I'm curious if you have any experience with this caliber/load/bullet on elk?

Thanks,

Knappy

[Captain Finlander]

The primer popping out sounds like a oversized primer pocket to me. you would see pressure signs long before a primer is blown. Did this happen once with a single round or is it happening with all the rounds loaded to that spec?

[tammons]

Do you see any more pressure signs, brass, cratered primers, or a hard bolt lift ??

The data I see on the Barnes site is for the TSX, not the TTSX so maybe that is it.
The TTSX is a longer bullet so you have to be careful when transposing data.

In one of my rifles I loaded up some TTSX bullets based on TSX data by mistake and the bolt locked
and I got a 100 fps jump at max. After that I was more cautious and I have found questionable
data on the barnes site before.

Freebore, brass type, primer type, barrel twist, temps, all affect initial pressure.
Are you using new brass ?? What I am saying is I look at data in manuals and programs as more generic data
that will never be 100% correct for your rifle but it will give you a starting point.

Personally if it were me I would try some RL17 or just back off a bit with RL19.
RL17 seems to handle pressure spikes better.

I ran your 58.5gr load through quickload and it returned 66K at 3.34" COL, but QL can be conservative.
Decreasing the COL from 3.34 to 3.33 increases the pressure about +- 400psi according to QL.