Moving towards getting setup to reload. Got primers and powder and buddy is giving me a bunch of good reloading equipment. After looking at bullets I was a little surprised what some cost. I know what I want to load for my hunting rounds but at their cost I'm thinking I could maybe load something cheaper for shooting at the range. Looking for a bullet that I can load and have the potential for 1/2 moa or better accuracy out to say 800 yards out of a 270 Win and 7 RM. Any suggestions on a reasonably priced bullet for this. I know not every gun is going to like the same bullet. Just looking for suggestions that might shorten the learning.
Thanks

I think your expectations are way too high. 1/2 MOA at 800yrds is a 4" circle at almost 1/2 mile. There are premium bullets and then your cheaper everyday bullets. There aren't any 'cheap' bullets anymore. If you're wanting to play around at 300 yards plus you're going to need a premium bullet. Swift, Barnes etc.

If you want to go cheap, you could mold your own. That's what I do but them my stuff is .30 cal and 30s are relatively easy to get decent accuracy out of with cast. Even then, my lead bullets aren't as accurate nor can I get the velocity that I can from a jacketed bullet. They're just something to plink and practice with. I could deer hunt with them if I wanted to or couldn't find anything else but then my woods ranges are less than 100 yards.

Sierra bullet in Sedalia MO sells seconds that don’t meet their strict standards and Starline brass is nearby if you need brass.

speer

I go the other way a bullet that I can shoot deer and targets with

my go to is the speer 165 and 180 btsp in 30 cal

I can afford to shoot them at targets but they do decently well on deer

deer don't take much of a special bullet so heavy soft points work just fine in 30cal

Looking at for say most accurate bullets in the $0.30 to $ 0.50 range. The hunting bullets im looking at are double that. I've shot 4 to 5" groups at 750 with factory ammo with these guns before. Maybe my expectations are to high but I was hoping to find a bullet capable of that or better handloaded in the above mentioned price range.

You might try Shooters Pro Shop, which sells Nosler seconds.

Jim

Mighty tall order, imho ... it's not about just about a bullet, a particular powder, a certain primer, a given brand of brass and the case prep, the firearm, the reloading technique, the shooter or the weather conditions. It's about the total combination. I'm happy to achieve under a moa at under 400 yards, but then I'm not as good as I used to be.

I like these in my 270. I dont know about 1/2 MOA. They shoot good though. Have heard stories of bullet separation at close range. I never had any problems with them. Even at close range stuff is dead. I dont know the yardage but it was far. Put the cross hair on top of a bucks back. Dirt kicked up under it. Was far enough the deer ran around in a circle then stopped. I Knew how high to hold then and touched off another. Ran around in a tight circle and fell over.

https://www.powdervalley.com/produc...-6-8mm-130-grain-spire-point-box-of-100/

James your messages are over flowing.

even for just going bang at the range your rifle will tell you what bullet it wants to shoot.

I haven't tried them yet but have been looking at PRVI bullets at Grafs.


https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/910

The 130 gr Sierra Gameking Danny recommended shoots very well from my .270 win and is a fine choice for deer size game also. They run about 1/2 the cost of "premium" hunting bullets like Nosler Accubonds. They are also available in 140 and 150 gr.

GCP recommended Speer. They make a 130 gr BTSP that is about 30 cents each vs 50 for the Sierra GK. I don't have any experience with them but they look like an option worth trying.

If there is a factory load that will shoot 4 inch groups at 800 yards, I'd ride that pony till it drops. Then try to duplicate it........same bullet.......whatever it is......whatever it cost.

But once you leave the realm of the standard boxes of bullets you can find on the shelf......Hornady, Sierra, Speer, Nosler, Berger, etc........you are into a 2nd tier of quality....reflected in price and accuracy. Seconds of same, military pull downs, etc. There are some smaller bullet guys that are making very good blammo bullets, but their options are very limited. 9mm, 45, 223 and sometimes 308. But even then, the cost per bullet runs from 10 to 12 cents each, depending on how many thousand you buy at a time.

Two of the smaller guys that offer very good bullets for range fodder are:

https://www.rmrbullets.com/

https://www.precisiondelta.com/

These guys sell pull down stuff. They are located just down the road from Lake City, so that is likely the source of most of their components. Military pull down components.

https://americanreloading.com/

And then there is Midway.........

https://www.midwayusa.com/factory-second-bullets/b?bid=2998

Thanks Danny. I was looking at those. That deer had to be quite a ways out there for that hold over with a 270
Also thanks to everyone else for your suggestions.

Have loaded for years, in many calibers. Live close to Sierra Bullets, have shot alot of there seconds, most are blemished, shot well. I walk into buy, limited stock most times. Over the years , Hornady, Berger, are my go to long range bullets, Nosler works great also but costly. As stated above there's some shooters repling to your question, that have put some loads down range, and have experience and knowledge. . I have found over the years, the load of powder, type of powder, and muzzle velocity, and shooting will get the results you want.

Are you plinking targets at 800? Or are you looking for a hunting bullet to drop game at 800?

Any decent match bullet that groups well out of your gun(s) should be fine for plinking at the range you stated.

Hunting at that range gets tricky. You need a bullet with the right profile to slip through the air and shed as little velocity as possible... This ensures it retains enough energy to make a clean kill at extended range. Most hunting bullets have a profile based on their function of penetration and expansion. As a result they tend to not have a very sleek profile and shed velocity rather quickly. So at extended ranges they have shed enough velocity that they may not have enough energy left for the penetration or expansion needed for a clean DRT kill.

This gets complicated really quick and "cheap" doesn't enter into the conversation.

Mike

Near as I can tell at 800 yards those sierra boat tails are traveling about 1600FPS. (muzzle in my rifle is a little over 3100 with 55 grains of IMR 4350) So still supersonic. No wobble from dropping below the speed of sound. 130 grain bullet at 1600 fps is about 750 foot pounds of energy. Those cup and core bullets expand just fine. May come apart a bit at close range but the lead still goes in, ( out the other side on deer) doing plenty of damage. I have no clue why cup and core fell out of favor. I suspect magazine articles to sell more partition and a frame type bullets. They are great no question but those boat tails shoot flat. Accurate. Will put meat on your table.

Always been partial to the good ole Hornady interlock bullets. Been gettin the job done for alot of years. Can usually get great groups with them, they are still very affordable and still a Family owned business.

Bullet making and tech has come a good ways so you honestly don't need to spend a ton of money to get that kinda accuracy now days. LR shooting has become big and stuff has become more affordable. Not like how it used to be where you HAD to spend an arm and a leg. Especially with current prod gear. That being said you said 800 target practice that gives you way more options.
Personally for trying to go cheap I'd run some of the new designed Hornady's . NOT OLDER DESIGNS core locks and the like . Can they go to that distance ? Yes. But their just not made for it...why you don't see any serious about LR shooting nosler partitions....but anyhow .270 just isn't a cheap caliber as far as components go. You looking at $36 per hundred on average though you can go the factory second round and get them for less but....eh...

Now I would recommend looking at PPU components as their pretty cheap and good enough for plinking .

Gotta say though reloading isn't what it uses to be . You not gonna be able to to save tons of money in the sense you can load rounds for 1/10 the price gonna buy,just not how it is anymore. That being said you save on the quality/ specialty side of things like my .5.56 loads . For me to buy a load that works as well with the bullets I want I'd be drop like $110 of black hills M262 for 50rd after shipping and hazmat. I can tailor load mine for ...I think $50 per 100 if I remember my math right

I was concerned about Gamekings when I had one "fail" on a doe I had shot at 200 yds with my 6mm Rem. The deer didn't go more than 30 yds but there was no exit wound and all I found in the deer was the bullet jacket. Several months later I was fleshing the hide in preparation for tanning and found the bullet core in the fat layer. It was a perfect mushroom about twice the original diameter. That eliminated all my concerns about using Gamekings.