I have been trying to get some decent loads worked up in my 270 wsm using the discontinued 130 gr xlc bullets, between ebay and a local sporting goods store I was able to purchase 4 boxes at a decent price. Barnes sent me some loading data and I settled on RL-19 powder. Starting load is listed as 64gr with a velocity of 3163fps,max load is 68.5 gr with a velocity of 3381fps. I worked up to 67 gr and for some reason I backed off to 66.5 gr, new cases expand .0005 which is under what Barnes recomends, I fired a couple of 3 shot groups that measure 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 "I did not have a chronograph at the time so I purchased one. I fired a 10 shot string and ended up with average velocity of 3166fps, extreme spread was 32 and standard deviation was 8.60, six of the ten rounds were between 3162fps and 3168 fps. I should be content but I am not, I am dissapointed with the low average velocity I was hoping for at least 3200 fps. Can I get better performance with a differnt powder? I have a pound of IMR 4831, Barnes loading data shows a starting load of 62.5gr with 3132 velocity and a max load of 67gr with 3376 fps, they are almost identical in performance. Should I try to improve the performance and maybe even get a more accurate load or am I wasting my time. Any advice or help is appreciated.

Remember that your barrel has to have the same length and bore and chamber dimensions as the Barnes test barrel to get to the same velocity. Also keep in mind that not all chronometers are equally accurate and yours could disagree with theirs reading the same bullet.

Believe me, your actual 3166 IS 3200. You cannot even measure any difference, in trajectory, energy or anything else with less than 100 fps gap. In fact, a load that gives ES and SD numbers that low is a stunner!

Disappointed? You oughta be jumping up and down and clicking your heels! If anyone asks, you can look 'em straight in the eye and say, "Yup, great load, and it gives me 3200 fps." You won't be lying, either.

To be honest....I was never impressed with the XLC's. I got horrible accuracy but I will say they did hold up well. If you're getting that close to 3200 fps, I'd call it good if you're getting good accuracy. I was bored at the range one time and tossed some rocks over my chrony to see if it'd measure the speed. It did and I was getting 60 fps. Now try and picture the that little of a difference of an object going 3166 fps and you see how insignificant it really is in the bigger scheme of things.

I wouldn't put to much stock in the published velocities for the WSM's. I have yet to chrono any factory loads that lived up to published velocities. I'd say your doing fine.

Can you do better? Maybe. Do you need to do better? NO.
If it were me I would put this load down as a done deal and leave it alone. Then I would find a new (Not Discontinued) bullet and play some more. Try some different powders like MagPro, Magnum or VV 160, VV 165. If you find a better faster load great, if not no big deal. If you like this bullet save it for your Hunting rounds and don't waste what's left on load searching.

Fastfreddy,

I believe the SAMMI standard test barrel length for this round is 24". With that bullet and powder, QuickLOAD says a 22" barrel would lose 75 ft/s and a 26" barrel would gain 66 ft/s over the test barrel velocity. If you had a load that ran 3200 ft/s exactly from a 24" barrel, it should run 3625 ft/s from a 22" barrel and 3266 ft/s from a 26" barrel. We don't know what barrel length you have?

Weigh one of your fired cases before you decap it. Fill it with water just level to the case mouth (no meniscus) and weigh it again. Give me those two weights plus the length of the fired case measured using a caliper. Also give me the length of your barrel (close bolt on empty chamber, put a cleaning rod in through the muzzle until it touches the boltface, mark the rod with a pencil, withdraw it and measure the length of the rod from the tip that touched the boltface to the pencil mark). I will run you a table of powders in QuickLOAD to see if any have more velocity potential?

I should mention you that not all chronographs are created equal. I had my old Oehler 35P out one day and my dad had his Chrony (old model, which may or may not reflect on current production units). His test load for his Savage .308 with 26" barrel was reading about 2700 ft/s over his Chrony, and about 2500 ft/s over the Oehler. You could easily get measuring error of the magnitude you are talking about, depending what chronograph you have and what the lighting conditions were? If you have friends with chronographs, do a side-by-side to check their agreement. Even if the accuracy of a chronograph is not absolute, it is still very useful for spotting changes and relative performance, and that is worth having it for.

Your 3166 ft/s reading is only 1.0625% below 3200 ft/s. You'll get that much change from one lot of powder to the next, or in going from a cool day to a hot day. As the others have said, Ignore it.

Fastfreddy,

I believe the SAMMI standard test barrel length for this round is 24". With that bullet and powder, QuickLOAD says a 22" barrel would lose 75 ft/s and a 26" barrel would gain 66 ft/s over the test barrel velocity. If you had a load that ran 3200 ft/s exactly from a 24" barrel, it should run 3625 ft/s from a 22" barrel and 3266 ft/s from a 26" barrel. We don't know what barrel length you have?

Weigh one of your fired cases before you decap it. Fill it with water just level to the case mouth (no meniscus) and weigh it again. Give me those two weights plus the length of the fired case measured using a caliper. Also give me the length of your barrel (close bolt on empty chamber, put a cleaning rod in through the muzzle until it touches the boltface, mark the rod with a pencil, withdraw it and measure the length of the rod from the tip that touched the boltface to the pencil mark). I will run you a table of powders in QuickLOAD to see if any have more velocity potential?

I should mention you that not all chronographs are created equal. I had my old Oehler 35P out one day and my dad had his Chrony (old model, which may or may not reflect on current production units). His test load for his Savage .308 with 26" barrel was reading about 2700 ft/s over his Chrony, and about 2500 ft/s over the Oehler. You could easily get measuring error of the magnitude you are talking about, depending what chronograph you have and what the lighting conditions were? If you have friends with chronographs, do a side-by-side to check their agreement. Even if the accuracy of a chronograph is not absolute, it is still very useful for spotting changes and relative performance, and that is worth having it for.

Your 3166 ft/s reading is only 1.0625% below 3200 ft/s. You'll get that much change from one lot of powder to the next, or in going from a cool day to a hot day. As the others have said, Ignore it.


Thanks Uncle Nick, my caliper broke last week, have a new one on order and it should be here in a day or two, will send you the information when I get a chance.