When I was working up a load for my 23" bbld african, I settled on 75 gr of RL 15, Fed 215 mag primer, and 235 tsx's. A weird thing happened when I got to 76 gr, the max load in the barnes book. I loaded 3 each from 70 gr to 76 and chrono'd them. As expected, each increase brought slightly more velocity, each grain gaining approx 30-50 fps, w/ accuracy improving as I went up. 75 grains seemed to be the sweet spot, avg 2932 fps w/ good accuracy and no visible pressure signs. Here's where it got weird, at 76 gr, I lost 130 fps over the 75, accuracy opened up to 3", and the bullets in the magazine were starting to push into the case from recoil. still no visible pressure signs, but I didn't want to crimp, so I quit at 75 gr, and called it good. Anyone else ever LOSE velocity w/ more powder? I'm leaving in 12 days to try mine out on PG in Namibia!
