Reloading questions on 280AI and 270WSM

[anethema]

Hey everyone.

Got a few quesitons. My dad shoots a Cooper excalibur M52 (24" barrel 1:9 twist I believe) in 280AI and I shoot a Tikka T3 lite stainless 270WSM.

He is heading up my way to visit for a couple weeks and we wanted to learn to reload together.

We currently both shoot Hornady Precision Hunter factory ammo with the ELD-X and they group really well in both guns. (Half to 3/4 MOA at 400 yards on a calm day). So factory ammo works well but for cost and fun we want to reload basically.

Anyways the questions are:

1. Research seems to show that there is a whole whack of powders people shoot for each one, but one that both seem to say allow higher muzzle velocity and still gets recommendations for both calibers is RL-19. Just want to confirm this would be an ok choice for both of our guns?

2. The .277 bullet for me is the 145gr ELD-X and for him it is the 162Gr ELD-X. My barrel is 10" twist and his 9". Would these be ok within 500 yards for stabilization?

3. For my gun, I tried to measure the lands but they are WAY fuckin out there on the Tikka. As in I couldn't even properly crimp the bullet in the shell if I did 0.050 off the lands, never mind fit it in the magazine. So the jump is going to be huge. Now the factory ammo seems to shoot under an MOA but I've heard that large jumps are less good on secant ogive bullets like the ELD-X and it is better to use tangent ogive (like say a Barnes LRX) when there is a big jump. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for your help everyonne. I'm not quite a long range hunter (most of my shots are in the 300-400 range) but this is a great forum so figured you guys would know your ****.

 

[L.Sherm]

Get you some RL23.
Why are you crimping?

 

[anethema]

Get you some RL23.
Why are you crimping?

Not crimping, I just mean like the bullet is barely in the cartridge on the Tikka, the lands are just so far out there. 0.05 off the lands and the bullet would be like 1/18th inch into the brass.

Can you recommend why RL23 would be better than RL19 for our guns? None of the manuals I have even lists it as a recommendation?

 

[therifleman556]

Your Tikka has an exceptionally long throat. Mine isn't long enough to get the bullets out of the powder space before jamming the rifling.

 

[Highvoltage]

If the precision hunter ammo shoots that well, maybe measure the overall length on the factory ammo and try to duplicate the factory load. magpro and reloder 26 works well for a 270wsm. The 10 twist will be fine. I'm working on loads now with the 145 eldx in a 270 win. I have no experience with a 280ai but it sounds like you are on the right path as the eldx bullets I have shot are accurate. I'm sure someone will chime in as there are many good folks on the forum with lots of experience. Good luck to you.

 

[anethema]

So ya just checked where the lands are again:

This is a Barnes TSX (the only bullet I have lying around) that I gently put in the shell then closed the bolt and took it out, so that is right against the lands.

The shell next to it is a factory precision hunter. As you can see the bullet against the lands would not fit in the magazine.

 

[anethema]

See this is my problem in the research haha. Everyone seems to have a different powder recommendation. I guess I was just hoping to find a fairly temp stable powder that would work for both guns. I noticed a lot of RL-19 recommendations in quite a few threads for both guns is why I asked about that but am of course open for suggestions.

If the precision hunter ammo shoots that well, maybe measure the overall length on the factory ammo and try to duplicate the factory load. magpro and reloder 26 works well for a 270wsm. The 10 twist will be fine. I'm working on loads now with the 145 eldx in a 270 win. I have no experience with a 280ai but it sounds like you are on the right path as the eldx bullets I have shot are accurate. I'm sure someone will chime in as there are many good folks on the forum with lots of experience. Good luck to you.

 

[Highvoltage]

Unless you swap the bolt stop and get a long action magazine you are going to be jumping bullets in the short action tikka rifles, maybe try both the factory overall length of the precision hunter and magazine length and see which one shoots the best. I've tried the 1 powder for multiple rifle thing and was never satisfied because 1 rifle shot the bullet I wanted well with the powder but the other would not. I'm not knocking 19 I've never tried it, it's definitely worth a shot before purchasing anything else, again good luck

 

[anethema]

Unless you swap the bolt stop and get a long action magazine you are going to be jumping bullets in the short action tikka rifles, maybe try both the factory overall length of the precision hunter and magazine length and see which one shoots the best

For sure I will try that out and see how it goes.

Ya seating isn't as bad as I thought, but ya way long for the magazine.

 

[Highvoltage]

Good thing about a Barnes bullet is they like jump, and they are really accurate once you find their sweet spot, never the highest bc but in the 400-500 yd range they are great especially when pushed fast. I've had great luck loading the ttsx 150 in my 300 win mag and it's velocity runs 3350. My friend has killed a pile of elk with a 130 ttsx from his wsm. They perform well and they are laser flat, I believe his velocity is in the 3300 range as well. I know what you have is the tsx but it may be worth a look also

 

[L.Sherm]

RL 23 is very stable and great powder for the 280AI. RL26 is pretty non existent right now.
In my opinion the new Alliant powders are alot better stable than the older ones like 17,17,22 and 25

 

[anethema]

RL 23 is very stable and great powder for the 280AI. RL26 is pretty non existent right now.
In my opinion the new Alliant powders are alot better stable than the older ones like 17,17,22 and 25

For sure but that's why I'm specifically asking about the RL19. Any opinion there? Seems to be one of the most common recommendations for both 270wsm and 280ai. How would you rate it compared to the 23?

 

[L.Sherm]

RL23 definitely better.

 

[anethema]

RL23 definitely better.

Ok thanks I'll look for it.