One Load, Three Rifles: The 1.5-MOA Secret That Feeds My Whole Hunting Family

Every fall three .270 Winchesters ride in the gun rack of my Wyoming pickup: a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight that belongs to my wife, a Remington 700 BDL my daughter bags antelope with, and the Browning X-Bolt Hells Canyon I carry for elk. Ten years ago I set out to build a "perfect" hand-load for each of them—sub-MOA groups, chrono-tuned velocities, the whole nine yards. Instead, I discovered something more valuable in the field: a single, dead-reliable "family load" that shoots 1½-inch groups from every rifle and has put more meat in the freezer than any bench-rest masterpiece I ever concocted.

From Bench to Back-country: Why I Stopped Chasing Half-MOA

Reloading forums are full of photos of ragged one-hole groups, and I chased that dragon as hard as anyone. I neck-sized, weighed flash-holes, segregated bullets by ogive and even bribed my neighbor's Lab to leave the scale alone. The payoff was predictable: half-inch five-shot clusters on calm range days. Problem was, once hunting season opened magazines got mixed, cold-bore zeros shifted, and the "magic" load for one rifle printed three-inch patterns in another.

After watching my wife drill a 180-yard cow elk with ammo I'd meant for the Browning, it hit me: consistency across multiple guns beats ultimate precision in a single rifle—especially when Dad forgets whose ammo is whose at 5 a.m. in grizzly country.

The Recipe That Works in Every Bolt-Action

I started with a factory baseline—Remington's 130-grain Core-Lokt. All three guns averaged 1¼–1¾ inches, good enough to minute-of-elk to 300 yards. Duplicating that accuracy with hand-loads while trimming cost and recoil became the new goal. Five pounds of powder, three primer brands and endless evenings later, the keeper emerged:

1. Case: Remington-Peters .270 Win, full-length sized, necks turned 0.002"
2. Primer: Winchester Large Rifle (non-magnum)
3. Powder: 55.0 gr Hodgdon Reloder 22, 0.5 gr below book max
4. Bullet: 130 gr Sierra GameKing, 0.030" jump to lands
5. COL: 3.250" (fits all magazines with 0.050" clearance)

Average five-shot group at 100 yards: 1.47" (1.42 MOA). Standard deviation over 50 rounds: 7 fps. Point of impact shift between rifles: never more than 2" at 100 yards—close enough that a single 200-yard zero works for everyone when we dial 1.5" high at 100.

Field Proof: Antelope to Elk on One Box of Shells

In the past decade that load has:

1. Dropped a 5×5 bull elk at 212 laser-measured yards (daughter, Rem 700)
2. Anchored two mule deer bucks inside 150 yards (wife, M70)
3. Spilled a speed-goat at 312 paces (me, X-Bolt)
4. Accounted for six cow elk, four whitetails and enough coyotes to stock a fur shed

Exit holes average 1¼" on broadside shots; recovered bullets retain 65–70 percent weight and expand to 0.48". Blood trails are short, usually under 60 yards, because—surprise—shot placement trumps half-MOA when you know exactly where the bullet goes.

Why 1.5 MOA Is "Good Enough" Math

The vitals on a mature cow elk measure roughly 14×16 inches. At 300 yards a 1.5-MOA rifle places 95 percent of shots inside a 4½-inch circle—still dead-center lung tissue. Stretch to 400 and the cone opens to 6 inches, but we practice self-imposed 350-yard limits unless conditions are perfect. In short, the rifle/load/hunter system is the weak link long before the ammo becomes a factor.

Lessons Learned from the Forum Tribe

When I posted our story on The Firing Line, veteran hunters echoed the sentiment. Paul B., who's slung lead since the '60s, reminded readers that "a 2-inch rifle used to be something special," while Alaska guide RC20 noted he quit reloading for his 7 mm when factory fodder printed the same 1.5-inch groups—"Good enough," he wrote, "when the nearest bench is 200 miles away." Even varminter StagPanther confessed factory ammo occasionally outruns his tuned hand-loads.

Handloading for Hunting Versus Handloading for Pride

Don't misunderstand—I'll still tinker with a .220 Swift that drills 0.5-MOA prairie-dog loads. But when meat, memories and minus-10° mornings ride on the first cold-bore shot, reliability across multiple firearms beats bragging rights every time. My family now spends range days practicing positions we actually use—kneeling on ridgelines, leaning against aspens, breathing through a pounding heart—instead of chasing the last 0.2 inch off a sandbag.

How to Build Your Own "Family Load"

1. Pick a common factory load your rifles already like.
2. Fire five, five-shot groups from each gun; record average group, velocity and POI.
3. Duplicate velocity first—bullet jump and group size will follow.
4. Work up in 0.5-grain increments, watching for pressure on the hottest day you'll hunt.
5. Stop when all guns average 1¾ inches or better; call it done and go hunt.
6. Label one box "family ammo," hide the rest, and you'll never second-guess whose cartridge is whose.
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Bottom Line: Accuracy You Can Repeat Beats Perfection You Can't

Hunting isn't a bench-rest match; it's cold fingers, swirling wind and a window that opens for three seconds. A load that prints 1½ inches in every rifle you own, cycles flawlessly and puts game on the ground inside 200 yards is worth more than the quarter-MOA wonder that only shoots from one finicky platform. My freezer—and my sanity—prove it every season.

So, fellow hand-loaders, stop apologizing for "only" 1.5 MOA. If it works in three guns, kills clean out to 400 steps and lets the family hunt together instead of babysitting brass, you've already found the sweetest load on the mountain.