Reloading question 130 grain vs. 150 grain

I would go with the 150 for knockdown. Your not losing that much velocity with the 150 . Are the 150 grains noslers also?

Not so

I got into reloading for a while a decade ago and gave it up as I cant shoot as much and theres really no savings with reloading any more. With my experimenting I eventually steered toward a heavier bullet and away from ballistic tips. The ballistic tips performed well on paper, not so much on actual game.

That being said, my primary guns are a 257 WBY and 300 WBY so I'm pushing plenty of velocity and pretty darn flat anyway. I'm a fan of the Barnes X bullets and have taken whitetail, mulie, black bear, hog, and moose with them. The devastation from the X bullet has to be seen to appreciate. The only common complaint about the X is the amount of copper fouling left in the barrel.

Blood trailing from the 300 WBY has been measured in inches not yards and I'm not taking head shots. Several shots have been in excess of 200 yards.

The Ruger #1 is one of the strongest actions available. You can readily surpass SAAMI specs and build real screamers for that gun.

On a target the size of a La whitetail chest, the 130 is superior.

It will expend more of its potential energy in the target. The 150 will not perform as well.

Both will exit.

The 150's exit wound will be smaller because of the lesser energy expended in target.

Now if you're shooting at ranges not normally seen in La. Then yeah. 150. It retains more energy farther out thus causing more damage if it's mushrooming correctly.

Just tune it to what you are trying to kill. If it's something small like a whitetail, hot and light can completely annihilate them out to 250 yards or so. Very flat. Very deadly with an astonishing shock wave.

The .270 bullet is the 130 gr bullet. There is a reason that history smiles upon it the way it does. That being said, I don't know much more then shite about it. I know that in my limited reloading experience with the 270 the 130's have performed much better in my rifle, and it hasn't been close. Hope this helps.

Go big or Go Home. Nah id stick with the 130 grain. But its really personal preference

I have killed over 100 deer with Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets and lost exactly 1. I have used them in 243, 6.5 mm, 270, 7mm Mag and 30/06. They work very well indeed for deer.

regarding the 130 vs 150, if you look at the external ballistics , ie trajectory, you will notice very little difference to 300 yards.

The real key is which one will your rifle shoot the best. Experiment with both, pick the one that your rifle likes the best, and then stick with it. The deer will not care either way.

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Chip, I handloaded the 270 exclusively for five years, I was shooting a factory 700 adl with a little trigger work. I found that in THAT gun the 150 ballistic tips were FAR better at killing and in accuracy than the 130! I actually all kept my targets and a quite a few pics of the physical damage done by the 150s! I never lost a deer with the 150, I lost three in that time frame shot through the ribs with 130. I also shot Sierra pro hunter, game king, nosler partition, lost river and a few others. The 150 bt was the most accurate for me! Now with that being said, the 130 partition will flat kill there arse!! It's not as accurate, but accurate enough, it MOST of the time it'll leave there arse right there. It'll have a small entry and exit but everything inside will be jello And even after all that you still HAVE test things and see what works for YOU and what you like! That's the joy of handloading

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Very well put. I only shoot partitions also