Actually, I never said 2800 was anything except perhaps possible, with some 200-grain bullets. It would depend on exactly the right powder as well, and perhaps even the lot of powder.

Lists 2688 fps for 200's in their manual with Reloder 22. This would be at the SAAMI maximum of 60,000 psi. If we up the pressure to 65,000 (SAAMI acceptable for certain cartridges in that class) the muzzle velocity would be somewhere in the 2750+ range.

Exactly how much velocity would increase isn't as easily computable with a double-based powder as it would be with a single-based powder, where velocity normally increases at the same rate as powder charge, with pressure increasing at twice the rate of velocity. With double-based powders everything isn't as predictable.

While the higher energy of double-based powders would probably be needed to get 2750+ at 65,000 from a 200-grain bullet in the .30-06, no double-based powder is quite as temperature resistant as the single-base Hodgdon Extremes. The Ramshot rifle powders are the most temp-resistant double-based powders I've worked with, but in with the exception of RL-15 the Reloder powders I've tested have been average. While it might be possible to get very close to 2800 with SOME 200-grain bullets in the .30-06 at 65,000 psi, my guess is that pressures would be a pretty touchy at warmer temperatures.

The other question, of course, is why bother? A .300 WSM or .338-06 will easily get 2800 out of 200-grain, without having to lean on it hard.


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