Reloading suppressed rifles with a 20 inch barrel

Reloading
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I have a 270 wsm with a 20 inch barrel that I hunt with suppressed.
I’m looking for a good starting point for reloading. Just in efficiency, should you start with faster burning powers? Will they do better in short barrels than slower powers? Also, will lighter bullets be more efficient? (I understand the benefits of a heavy for caliber bullets but what I am asking is about efficiency with a short barrel) So what combo should I use between fast and slow, light and heavy???

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Getting ready to celebrate my 2-year anniversary of reloading so I’m by no means an expert.

I’ve tried the use a faster powder for a shorter Barrel thing on two or three rifles now and found that it really made no difference. Sometimes the slower burning powders just do well for a specific bullet in a specific rifle.

Maybe someone with more experience will have a different data set. But I would just pick the bullet that you want to use and then look up the standard Reloading Data for that and choose what powder is available that gives you the velocities that you need. The availability thing is actually more of a hassle these days than anything else.

1 Like
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Brent, I would use whatever combination provides you with: Don’t own a 270 WSM, so would recommend you go “a googling” your question to see what others owners/shooters talk about when it comes to large cases and powder burn rates.

  1. Consistent, repeatable groups
  2. Consistent velocities

The things that come up as negatives with slower powders is lack of full burn, but in a given barrel length, pressure curve for faster powders, etc, flash from unburnt powder (not sure if that will occur with a suppressor?), I have never shot a deer and been “blinded” or unable to see downrange afterwards.
If a load does 1 and 2, that is what I would shoot. In my 308s, 20 inch to 26 inch, I load and shoot what that rifle likes, without regard to the powder as long as it produces the velocity and accuracy desired.
Good luck

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Heavier bullets will be more efficient out of a shorter barrel. Faster burning powders should theoretically be better, and will heat up your suppressor a bit less because you’re not dumping burning powder out the muzzle. I’d take published reloading data for various powders and model it in GRT or quickload to find something with that gives you the best performance, but that doesn’t always correlate with what’s the most accurate out of a given rifle.

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I haven’t watched all of this yet, but it found that interesting that it shows up on my YouTube recommendations on the same day of this thread

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Good video. Sounds like a 20’’ barrel in multiple magnums will give you good powder burn and velocity.

Thanks

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I had a 270wsm that was extremely picky about Ammo. Now the Ammo I used is near impossible to get and outside my budget. I traded it off. It was difficult to do that too. It was an extremely nice rifle.
With that being said. I have about 4 or 5 boxes worth of 1 shot brass I saved that I have zero use for. If you need some let me know.

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Thanks for the advice. I got real good results shooting 122 grain hammer HHT using 72.5 grains of Mag Pro powder. My velocities are averaging 3203 with an SD of 9.5. It’s consistently shooting Under .4 inches. It is also shooting a 140 Berger well, 1/2 groups at 3040 fps but the SD the bit higher at 18. I think I’m gonna go with the hammers!