270 win 130 gr E-tip loads

[trailrider121]

Well I've gone through about 40- 130 gr. e-tips so far and cant get them to group. I'm shooting a marlin XL7 270 cal. using current load of 58 grs. of H4831 which was the best charge. I'm still a rookie at reloading and have been reloading for about 6 months. Very fun stuff by the way..

My max COAL with e-tips is 3.397" touching the lands. I started my loads with them at .010" off the lands with poor grouping around 3".Shooting all loads using three shot groups. So far I have pushed them back .067" and its getting better with around 1 1/4" grouping, and at the same time i get some fliers. I'll post some pics if I can.

My question is should I keep pushing them back and see if it gets better?

 

[jmad_81]

I would. Nosler reccomends seating them .0100 off the lands. I would try going back in .0015 or .0020" incerments from your last load. load three or four different loads getting deeper each time and see what one shoots the best. If you get a good one and then they atart to get worse as you get deeper, go back to your good shooting one and work up loads on each side of it and see how they shoot. I know guys that shoot the ETs .0035 off the lands and JD338 shoots them .0100" off I believe in his 280 AI and had great luck.

 

[Richracer1]

His measurments are off, it should be .100" off the lands, not .0100.

Also, did you buy Nosler firsts or seconds? Nosler includes a slip of paper in the BOXES which instructs you for seating depths (.050 to .100 off the lands) and NOT to exceed the middle recipe for your specific cartridge and powder as listed in the Nosler #6 manual.

 

[DrMike]

You do want to give a jump to the lands to get the most accuracy out of the monolithic bullets.

 

[trailrider121]

The bullets are seconds. I called Nosler for some info. They said to back off two grains of any load and it should be your max. I did however work up to 58 gr. starting from 55 gr. Nosler did not mention any seating depths. i did call today and they said .050" to .100" off the lands. So I will do some more loads and see what happens. Also should I do fouling shots or not?

 

[DrMike]

hould I do fouling shots or not?

Depends on your rifle. Does it hit to the same point of impact with a clean barrel? If so, then a fouling shot is not necessary. If you are not still breaking in the barrel, then you can delay cleaning until you have finished a set of loads. Therefore, no more than the first round would be off in any case.

 

[trailrider121]

Well I have played with some more loads with e-tips, No luck. I just cannot get a good group. I have seated the bullets from .010" to .130". I come to conclusion that the gun just doesn't like the e-tips. The best group was 1" 3-shot group at 100 yards. Shot the same load at 200 yds and it was 3". Looking for a good hunting load out to 300-400 yds.

Anyone interested in some e-tips?

 

[Guest]

Maybe. How many, and how much?

 

[corbin9191]

Maybe. How many, and how much?

+1

 

[C.Smith]

Does your Marlin group other bullets better than the etips?

Corey

 

[trailrider121]

Well the e-tips are SPF. I can group 130gr lead at just under 1/2" at 100yds. I think the gun just does not like them.

 

[corbin9191]

Well the e-tips are SPF. I can group 130gr lead at just under 1/2" at 100yds. I think the gun just does not like them.

I would stick with the 130 grain lead then. That is some good shooting

 

[trailrider121]

Can't shoot lead in our lovely California condor range while big game hunting, oh and on top of that you can not have any lead bullets in your possession what so ever,even including your pistol for protection, you must be lead free while in the condor range hunting. You can target shoot with lead by the way.

I might try barnes tsx or the hornady GMX type bulltes next.

 

[DrMike]

If you positively cannot get the E-Tip to group, then you are compelled to try the TSX and/or the GMX bullets in order to satisfy the dictates of the CA legislature. I've only loaded a few loads for E-Tips, but they all work quite well. I have loaded TSXs for a number of years now, and they tend to shoot very well for me. I've only received my first lot of GMX bullets, so I am only now beginning to gain experience.

Any of these bullets will work. However, I tend to think that if the E-Tip will not group for you, you will likely have difficulties with the others. I would definitely focus on a large jump to the lands. You really don't want to be closer than 0.050 inches off the lands. Many people are having excellent results with long (0.100 inches or more) jumps to the lands with monolithic bullets.