Well I finally got out to the range and fired some of the shells I loaded for the 270. I will post the pictures here for those who are curious to see how things are going. However, I am shooting 3 shots per target.

I fired one of the shells I loaded with 49 gr Imr 4350. It hit way low about 5 inches and maybe an inch right. Too far off to shoot at targets and since it was the first shot out of a cleaned barrel I was not sure I wanted to adjust based on that shot. I had some factory shells that I use for deer and used one to see if the scope was still sighted in. It was and it hit pretty close to bullseye. I fired one more shell loaded with 49 and it hit close to the first shot. So 20 clicks up and 2 clicks to the right and hope it is close.

Shoot 49 gr shells and both are close enough. I only had two left but the two at the beginning were pretty close so I think if I shot all four at the same aim point they would have been a nice group. However, it is the minimum charge so accurate or not does not matter all that much.

49.5 had me worried as it was not that great a group. I was trying to line up the cross hairs but it was mostly a guess where the real cross was. After I shot this group I put a black dot on the target so when the cross hairs covered the black dot I knew I was on the center.

50 and 50.5 were pretty decent groups. I was very relieved to see some decent results. I fired all these shots off the same rest I used for the 250.

This gun kicks a quite a bit more than the 250 and after today's trip my shoulder knew I was shooting a gun. Since I think there are 6 more increments when I go back to shoot I am going to use my shooting stand that absorbs all the kick.

I think today left me relieved that I can still shoot half decent groups and some of those atrocious targets were not my fault alone. At least no my shooting alone. Now I can't wait to get it back.

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Nice groups! What weight of bullet & type are you shooting? Also what brand of rifle?? I reload my own .270 Ruger Model 77 MKII using 53.5 grains of IMR-4350 or 53.0 grs of H-4350 using 130 grainers.

I notice your powder charges are going up in at least .5 grain increments. This may or may not work out for you, as it can skip right over an optimum charge weight.

With that being said, most of the larger rifles I've loaded for don't show their best accuracy until you're within a grain or two of max. If 54 grains is max you will probably see the best accuracy around 53 grains, like Davers is saying. My rifle prefers the 140gr Accubond bullet with a near-max load of H4831. As you get closer to the maximum charge consider going up in .3 of a grain increments, so you don't miss the sweet spot.

Your rifle is showing real potential in these groups, that's for sure. You might find one load that delivers a solid 1/2 MOA, if you're careful, but you're already doing better than most rifles with the groups you shot in these pictures.

It is a Ruger stainless barrel. Not sure what model because when you are left handed you look for the models that come in left handed. I got it maybe two or three years ago.

I am shooting Hornady 140 gr SST.

Even at .5 grain increments There are 10 increments to get to .5 less than max. I really was hoping to find a range where it shoots nice groups a bit under max. I would then shoot using the .3 grain increments. I really did not want to get to carried away with this gun because it is used to hunt deer and I might use it on feral pigs down in Texas later this year. So at this point 1 inch groups at 100 is more than adequate and I am almost tempted to pick one of those groups and load up a batch and be done with it.

I am not going to do that but I do think that once I find some good results closer to max I will do some testing but not so sure that I will bother with testing what moving closer to the lands will do. Who knows but sub 1 inch is fine when you consider that it is rare that I ever get a shot at a deer that is even 100 yards away. I think I will have enough time to fine tune a load for this gun before I get my 250 back given that it already seems like the gun shoots pretty good.

Now that it is warmer out and I do not have all that much clothes on at the range this gun is not all that much fun to shoot. I think I might pull out a shoulder pad I bought a while back. The rest of my testing is going to be done from a shooting stand but I want to be holding the gun when I get down to fine tuning the load and making sure it is sighted in as I want it to be.

I expect these groups to open up and move around some as I go up in powder charge. The loads with the higher charge have their cases filled up pretty good, not full but up pretty high in the case. So I am hoping I see something like the last two targets as I get up closer to max. I think the highest charge I loaded is 53.5. So 53 would make me very happy.

Kind of looking forward to shooting the other loads with the hope that the groups act as OCW says they should. Maybe tonight I will go shoot some more but definitely in the AM.

Well the adventure continues. I finally got out to the range and shot the rest of the loads built for my 270. I stopped at 1/2 grain less than max. The results are both good and surprising.

The target for 51 grain makes me smile and wonder. It actually is a 4 shot target. I initially fired 3 and had two shots touching and that one off to the left. I decided to fire one more to figure out what was reality. Well it kind of went into the same hole as the other two. Kind of hard to see on the paper target but I put cardboard behind the target to give me another chance to see what happened. One the cardboard you can clearly see the three holes.

51,5 also was pretty good but not as good as 51. But two shots through one hole again on that target not so easy to see but clear on the cardboard. The target is a mess because while it was very calm by my house the wind was kind of ridiculous at the range. I dd not have any flags and tried to fire when the wind was steady. The range is kind of protected but the wind was quartering from my right left and sometimes it was really strong.

Then the bullet really began to rise and spread out. I guess you can only post 5 photos but the highest charge was pretty much like the previous one. Very high and very scattered.

I do think we have a winner. The highest charge from the previous set of targets which is listed with the wrong load also is in about the same area as the 51.0 load. Also the charges on either side were all pretty good and in the same area.

The part that makes me wonder is how crazy the groups opens up outside of this range. Far more than what could be explained by wind. Also the last target that is not show here but it was on a net target and hit next to the upper right small target. These upper loads hit at about the same area on the target that the factory loads would have hit.

I was thinking that maybe the barrel might have gotten warm and might have been a factor but the target not shown looks almost the same as the highest charge target here. I went down range to take the other target off and then put the other target up. There was a guy there shooting an assault gun and was practicing for some kind of competition that asked if he could go down close to his target to shoot some rounds so I had to wait a while longer while he shot his close in targets. It was pretty cool out and the wind was blowing so the barrel definitely cooled down a good bit in the 10 minutes or so that I was down range or waiting.

I have a shell of every charge except for that one that I fired off on the first target of this set. I probably will load one of that charge. I plan on shooting each one off over my chrono to see what kind of velocities I am getting I will shoot them at the 200 yard range just to see what results I might get.

My conclusion is to use 51 and go shoot it some more to see if it is as good as this attempt seems to say conclusively at least to me.

Any other conclusions out there.

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Your results with this gun are very similar to what you should be seeing and confirm that you are doing your job behind the trigger. Charge weights 50.5, 51.0 and 51.5 are all good enough, but 51.0 not only showed the tightest group, it is the one most likely to still shoot to the same POI, if your loads are not as precise as these handloads.

Some guys go straight to middling charge weights and load in 3 tenths increments because of what you're seeing, right here. If you'd started at 50 grains and gone up .3 at a time, you'd probably have stopped at 50.9 or 51.2 and you might even go back and test those, using the OCW method. If not, 51.0 grains is certainly a very good grouping.

Personally, I would load up about 12 of those and shoot them in either 3 or 4 shot groups, taking at least 10 minutes between sets. If those showed consistently tight groups, then I would chronograph 10 of them to determine ES and SD. Those numbers should both be fairly low and then you would be done with load development for this rifle/powder/bullet combo.

This set of loads/targets shows you are up to the challenge of shooting well so when your 22-250 gets back from Savage, you should be ready to find a suitable load for it, as well. Good job!

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Thanks. I will be calling savage on Monday to see if the 250 is on the way or should be shipped shortly. If I am still looking at a while to go I might try .3 increments in that range. Since I pretty much will only use the 270 for deer at 100 yards well I might just test that charge as you said and hope it continues to be as good these groupings look. Any POI in those three charge groups would mean a dead deer so I am hoping that the next step proves that this range is where it is at with this gun and I am pretty much set to go slay a deer.

I still have a 7mm Rem Mag to do a load build up in which is the deer gun my son uses.

I am sure that my next go around with the 250 will be much more successful than the first. Even with them replacing the barrel I still have a few other things that potentially could have had a hand in what a disaster that was. I have eliminated them from the equation and I am sure that Savage has eliminated any causes that might have been related to the gun. Hopefully I see that gun again soon and with luck I will start seeing a positive outcome.