270 Win load with SST

laylandad

January 10, 2010 07:34

I recently purchased a 270 Win and my father gave me some of his hand loads to try. They shoot sub MOA and have moderate recoil. The load is 52.5 gr of H4831 with 130gr SST and WLR mag primer. I have cross referenced this load in all my manuals and on Hodgdon's website. To my surprise it seems to be underloaded. Is this load too unsafe, or should I take in consideration the mag primer?[?]

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  JustC

  January 10, 2010 07:43

  underloaded cases can be very dangerous. Not saying yours will be,..just saying....
  
  when there is too little powder to cover the flash hole when layed down horizontaly (such as, in the chamber) the flash from the primer can jump across the entire charge, which in turn spikes the pressure very quickly and can destroy the gun and possibly the shooter

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  babun

  January 10, 2010 08:37

  You have a load that is just under by about 2 grs of the 'normal' load
  for h4831. That is not in my opinion a underloaded round. It's safe and probably WILL give you better accuracy depending on the gun. Use it, then adjust slowly to tailor it to your gun. The Mag primer brings that lower loading right into the ballpark of listed loads. Sub moa and lite recoil......Isn't that a good reason to reload??? Bob

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  nononsense

  January 10, 2010 09:19

  laylandad,
  
  I don't think your load is 'unsafe' just underachieving.
  
  The situations laid out by JustC is correct. Heed the warning.
  
  In your situation though, your case is approximately 90% full with the H-4831 powder with the bullet seated to specified length, so the low level powder is not a problem. It is not a fast load nor will it create any great amount of energy which will limit its use to relatively close shots. This may be well and good for your situation, I don't know.
  
  Reloaders who practice the proper mantra of 'start low and work up slowly' often stop at the first sign of accuracy, not wanting to proceed to faster, higher energy loads. This is because they don't want to jeopardized the first accurate load they achieve even if it is at the low end of the scale. Low velocity loads are often accurate but not up to the level of what can be achieved by further testing. But, being lazy and not wanting to waste time and components on the unknown, most of us stop at the first accurate load and declare victory.
  
  I think that the H-4831 is a little too slow for this bullet combination anyway. I prefer the 4350-type powders for this range. I'm sure that the others who achieve success with this powder will disagree as is their right but for all intent and purpose, a slightly faster powder will be a better choice.
  
  Best.

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