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Charles Brabham

Last year I purchased a Winchester 1885 single-shot rifle chambered in 270WSM to serve in the high desert and mountains of West Texas.

After some difficulty with the 28 inch barrel, I reduced the barrel length to 24 inches and have since been happy with the rifle's handling qualities.

I enjoy shooting the rifle so much though, that I began to be concerned about developing heat-cracking in the difficult and expensive to replace 1885 barrel, so I decided to look into reduced loads for 100 yard shooting at the local sportsman's club.

My knowledge at this point concerning reduced loads, especially in magnum cartridges, was severely limited. I expected to obtain poor accuracy and to experience ignition problems. - But I was wrong.

I tried the reduced loads using AA5744 powder listed in the Speer handbook. Using Hornady 130 gran softpoints, Winchester magnum primers and 25.5 grains of AA5744, I was pleased to obtain stellar accuracy with these loads that equate well to a 125 grain 30-30 load at 2100 fps.

Besides breaking my long-standing 'best 100 yard group' size of 3/8" obtained thirty years ago with a benchrest rifle, ( Best group is .310" for five rounds now) I have found these loads to be inexpensive and very pleasurable to shoot.

After 500 rounds of these, the borescope shows no discernible wear or heat damage to the barrel.

From a technical perspective, I must wonder if the WSM cases might be better suited to reduced loads than the full-length magnums like the 7mm Remington magnum, for example. The horror stories that I had heard about reduced loads in magnums originated before the WSM cases were available.

In any case, I have discovered that starting loads for the 270WSM closely emulate maximum 270 Winchester loads, and these also shoot very well. I intend to use these 'starter' loads in all hunting situations that do not involve very long shots or very heavy animals. - And rather than shoot dozens of full-powered rounds through my barrel for load development, I will simply use factory loads for the rare occasions where maximum velocity is called-for.

I have been so happy shooting the 2100 fps 130 grain loads for my weekly shoots at the sportsman's club that I thought that I would mention these to the shooters here. They are very pleasant and inexpensive to shoot. - The brass holds up very well with five or six neck-sized loadings before full-length sizing is indicated by difficulty in shoving loaded rounds into the single-shot's barrel.

Kind regards,
Charles Brabham
Alpine, Texas