270AI !!

[quickdtoo]

As some may recollect,  my fluted 270 Ultra shooting last week resulted in terrible accuracy, I knew the chamber face wasn't true before I shot it, so I was just hoping it would shoot good, but my suspicions were confirmed when it was all over the paper at 130yds with both factory loads I tried. So I trued up the barrel face with a file and got it to fit good, but removed just enough that the chamber was now too shallow to chamber factory ammo. Since H&R no longer makes the 24" fluted 270 bull barrel, I didn't want to return it for a replacement and end up with a 22" barrel, so my easiest option was to run a reamer into it by hand to move the shoulder ahead just enough to make it work, I then had a brain storm(sometimes dangerous!! ) and decided since I was renting a reamer, I'd get my money's worth and rent an Ackley version!! My thoughts being that the small amount I removed from the chamber face may be just enough that I could make a true Ackley chamber out of it.

I started by doing a chamber cast to determine what size pilot I needed, then went to Elk Ridge and rented their 270 Ackely floating pilot reamer with a couple pilots, the smallest one they sent worked perfect, after about 30 nerve wracking minutes of turning the reamer and cleaning it often and applying generous amounts of cutting oil, the chamber looked like it was getting close, so I cleaned it up and dropped a factory 270 round into the chamber, it was just a little shallow, made a few more turns and checked again, did that two more times until the round was flush with the chamber face. Looked in the chamber with a small flashlight and there was no old metal surface showing. Did a chamber cast again and the chamber looks perfect, no evidence of the old chamber!! I'll take it with me on the next hunting trip which isn't until Saturday now since my son can't get tomorrow off, and fire some rounds to fire form and see how they look and perform.

More later,

Tim

[tykempster]

You have tooooo many barrels! 

[JerryKo]

GREAT JOB!  No such thing as a bad handi barrel at Tims house.  Hope it all turns out well.

Jerry

[dpe.ahoy]

My hero!   DP

[myarmor]

Thats a nice barrel , and VERY hard to find as well Great idea and getting your $$ worth, plus a 270 AI isn't ANYTHING to scoff at.
I look forward to your Report...



-Aaron

[quickdtoo]

Wow, I gotta consider myself lucky, I checked around for a full length sizing die, Midway had one on sale for $60, I bought it, musta been the last one they had cuz it's now $93 with a 90 day special order!! 

Thanks,

Tim

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=910195

[Cottonwood]

Awesome Tim, when you get to shoot her, would like to see pictures.

[Mitch in MI]

Interesting that they don't have that die in Lee, but they have this:
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=292583

I guess the 7mm is more popular with reloaders/wildcatters.

[petemi]

Good on you, Tim.  You deserve to hit a home run once in a while

Pete

[quickdtoo]

Well, the home run may have went south, my stopper for the chamber cast which is a cleaning rod and jag with a patch inserted from the muzzle to the throat area slipped a little before I poured the chamber cast so I ended up with a 4" section of bore casting, I miked the bore at .279"-.280", so that's the real cause of the inaccuracy, I dunno if .277" bullet will bump up enough to fill the bore or not, probably not, but I hope loading it hot and into the lands will work. I may be sending the barrel off to Wayne to have him rebore it to 30-06AI, 338-06 AI, maybe even a rechamber to 35 Brown-Whelen to salvage the nice barrel.

Tim

[petemi]

Oh crap   Best laid plans of mice and men.  Well, there still might be a smile face to it.

Pete

[Mitch in MI]

Is .280 too tight for a 7mm, or did you just invent the 7mm-06 Improved?

[quickdtoo]

Yeah, .284" jacketed thru a .280" bore would put the pressures up, I thought about that late last night, and did some checking, if I turn the .270 Win necks down  I could load .284" bullets in em, but I think it would push pressures way too high. I could always use 7mm cast bullets, Western makes a .285" gas checked bullet!!  I'll work with it and see how it does, those cast bullets with some of the carnauba red high speed smokeless lube might work!!  http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/

Tim

http://www.westernbullet.com/ly2gr1.html

[stimpylu32]

Tim

With the AI being a speed monster you may be able to make it work by backing it down to top level 270 loads and keeping the .284 bullets off the lands with out too much pressure .

If a .311 will swedge down to a .308 bore with out a major issue , this may work even better . 

stimpy

[quickdtoo]

Yes, that crossed my mind sometime this morning when I was loosing sleep over it!!   If I use 120gr .284" bullets, I may be able to get away with it since they have less bearing surface, I sure hate to invest in another rebored $600 Handi that I don't really need, and my poor range opportunities for load work sure doesn't help either, although maybe some winter time Sundays will work out, maybe there won't be so many shooters there, I usually don't shoot during the winter due to bad weather, but this may change things, shooting in the cold is better than not shooting at all!! 

Tim

[peternap]

Why don't you just size the bullets down before loading. Even jacketed, they'll drop .002 in one pass. You can have a custom sizing die made for twenty five bucks. I've got a fellow in California that makes them for me and does unbelievable work. $25.00 with ram and shipped.

[quickdtoo]

Hmmm, that's a great idea, I resized some .416" Speer bullets down to .412" for my .405 Winchester H&R using a Lee .410 die, jacket spring back made em .412" which is just about right for my bore, how to I make contact with this California fella?

Thanks,

Tim

[dpe.ahoy]

I sure hope so, hate it when something so looked forward to messes up.   DP

[peternap]

Hmmm, that's a great idea, I resized some .416" Speer bullets down to .412" for my .405 Winchester H&R using a Lee .410 die, jacket spring back made em .412" which is just about right for my bore, how to I make contact with this California fella?

Thanks,

Tim

Go to cast Boolits http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php?s=120e20398386f7530291168bdadd5364

Look for Buckshot.

[dk17hmr]

Did you by chance slug the muzzle also?  If it gets chocked down before it comes out a .277 would still work....in theory...I say shoot it fist with .277's and see what happens.

[quickdtoo]

Thanks peternap, appreciate it.



dk, unfortunately most H&R barrels are more open at the muzzle by ~.0005", this one is no exception. 


Tim

[quickdtoo]

I found his email, waiting for a reply since last night.

Tim

http://www.mountainmolds.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=146

[peternap]

Sometimes it takes him a while to respond, but he will.

[quickdtoo]

No real hurry, just anxious to have a resolution in process!! 

thanks,

Tim

[44 Man]

Ok Quick, so what do you call it?  It will now be a custom size bore.  You can't still call it a .270AI, if you are using around .280 size bullets.  But you can't call it a .280AI as those use .284 bullets even though that name represents your actual bore size.  How about calling it the .279 Quick Improved?  It's about time you had a cartridge named after you!  You must re-mark that barrel so the next person knows the name.  Boy, would that cause some discussions at a gun shop if took it there and no one knew the history! 
If this all didn't work, I think I would just set it in the closet and call it a loss before I would spend that much money for the rebore.  It would be fine if there was a caliber you wanted that you could go to, but as you said, you don't need another $600 Handi in a caliber you already have.  You could always talk to H&R and tell them the story behind the barrel and what you have done to save it, and replace it with the 22" barrel. 
But I know you like the challenge of making it work for you!  And I still really like the sound of the '.279 Quick Improved'!  I might want one of those!  44 Man

[Mac11700]

Tim:

If you do rebore it..think about the wildcat I talked to you about doing on my 270 if I needed to..A 338 or 358 or 375 bullet on a 348 improved case. You'll have the extra case capacity to keep the pressures down..and still be able to have excellent velocities..A 375-348 Improved might be a great round to have on a elk hunt ehh

BTW...the flats on mine now mike out at .270 and .277 for the grooves dirty..have to wait till after hunting season for the clean measurement..

Mac

[quickdtoo]

I shot it today after deer hunting with the 25-06, no bucks, just bald headed does. 

I used some max loaded 150gr Nosler partition handloads I had made for the 270 Ultracomp barrel that I sold to Doug, they shot pretty darn good considering the impromptu rest I used, my fanny pack on a wood round, pretty wobbly, but I was more than impressed with the results. I don't want to trade it for a standard 22" barrel, it's a 24" fluted bull barrel which they don't make any more,  I'd rebore it to something else before I did something like that, but at this point I'm not giving up on shooting it just as it is. Fred has an article on a .280 Ross on his website that has a .287" bore that shoots 160gr .284" bullets great, so not all is lost yet. http://www.angelfire.com/ma/ZERMEL/303brit.html Since the rounds I shot today were 270 fire forming rounds, I expect maybe they'll shoot just fine once I get full pressure loads down the tube. 

That's great Mac, good to hear that barrel turned out good after all the effort you put into it.  There's another member here working on a 35/348 Improved right now, I'll have to consider the .348 Win based wildcats too, thanks.

Tim

[Fred M]

Hi Tim.
Just forget about cleaning the bore let it build up with carbon and copper, it will shoot fine with hunting accuracy. It will take a few rounds to tighten up. Shoot 150gr bullets for big game

375-348AI yuk! Too much work for little return and split cases.
You already got a 38-55 and a 45-70.

[quickdtoo]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking about not cleaning thoroughly, just a little Eezox and leave it be!! 

thanks Fred.

Tim

[Mac11700]

Hi Tim.
Just forget about cleaning the bore let it build up with carbon and copper, it will shoot fine with hunting accuracy. It will take a few rounds to tighten up. Shoot 150gr bullets for big game

375-348AI yuk! Too much work for little return and split cases.
You already got a 38-55 and a 45-70.

Shouldn't be bad on splitting cases  when using a hydraulic forming die.. or even  doing the cream of wheat forming method, plus it should clean up the chamber nicely

Mac