dj, no your not coming over as a jerk.

Having some hands-on with this powder in the 308 case, I'll venture a guess that the charges listed by Alliant are all the powder they could fit in virgin Federal brass, and still seat the bullet to 2.80" without distorting the bullet tip.

I also noted that Alliant didn't provide any pressure data for the loads listed on their website.

Considering RL17 was developed for the WSM family, you will have to try pretty hard to get overpressure in a 308 case. I'd guess impossible with a 165gr projectile. I don't think you could enough powder in there to make it happen.

I'm cramming as much as possible in the cases, and that's under 200 gr bullets at 2.81" oal.

A few factors in my rifle/methods do reduce pressure and increase powder capacity:

- Using Win brass which is a bit roomier than most.
- Only neck-sizing to preserve a bit more case volume.
- moly. ( not on the SGKs, but my rifle bore is VERY seasoned in the stuff)
- I have a factory Rem chamber and throat. Which means a bigger combustion chamber, and a running start to the lands.