Barnes bullets & Vihtavuori powders

[Hoot]

Its been quite a long time ago but I used N110 as a substitute for Lil Gun back when I first got going in this caliber. I have used with good results, Lil Gun with Barnes 275 XPB which are almost identical to the 275 TSX. If you have some N110, consider trying 34gr with your 275 TSX's.

Hoot

[LeaderOfThePack]

Maybe I'll try to get max load with max COL out of it with N120 because accuracy of first test was so good. Will brass deform if I fill case with powder and just crunch bullet down? I have read that done with 338 Lapua, but there is quite different size of bullet compared to case capasity.
In the other hand, I have only one box of those bullets.. So have to think if I go to N110 directly.

[Hoot]

Maybe I'll try to get max load with max COL out of it with N120 because accuracy of first test was so good. Will brass deform if I fill case with powder and just crunch bullet down? I have read that done with 338 Lapua, but there is quite different size of bullet compared to case capacity.
In the other hand, I have only one box of those bullets.. So have to think if I go to N110 directly.

I guess it all depends upon how much over capacity, you're trying to press it down. Remember, neck tension is not all that good. If you try to compress it too far, the bullet will back out when you relax the press. If you own an electro-pencil engraver, you can vibrate the powder column down before seating the bullet. Depending upon how fluffy the powder is, the vibration can drop the powder level down as much as .2 inches in a straight wall case. Link Here

Hoot

[LeaderOfThePack]

I did some more testing. COL (61mm) 2.40". Got room for about one grain more.
2 shots for each just to get speeds...
N120
40gr 1872, 1874 avg 1873
41gr 1944, 1907 avg 1926
N110
34gr 2032, 2041 avg 2037

Accuracy is really good @100m, with N120 (holes of 2 shot ripping paper between them), but with that load of N110 there was one racetrack shaped hole. And other point I want to mention, is that N110 was much softer to shoot. No going back for N120 for me. Logically thinking it would take about 43gr of N120 to get same speed (and probably accuracy), but everything over 41gr would be compression load.

Some day, when I get more bullets, I will try if I can reach other accuracy node with N110 and higher speeds. Now I'm happy with that and will load rest of box for hunting. Bear hunting in here starts tomorrow morning and I keep Hornady factory loads ready until I have loaded rest of Barnes. Barnes hits about 6" right from where Hornady is sighted. Thank you Hoot again for advises.

[Bmt85]

The nice thing about the 275 TSX, is that it has a minimum expansion velocity of 1200 fps. So you don't need to run hard to get good results. With that said, the can be driven pretty fast. They also work great on bears! I took one in Maine a couple years back and it left an exit hole the size of a cueball!

[LeaderOfThePack]

Only thing I need more speed is to be able to shoot moose with (almost) same point of sight at 200m distance.

In other hand I have Tikka M65 30-06 which shoots best when loaded little over maximums of recommended loads With 100gr HP best speed for accuracy is little over 3600fps...