Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters RL26 in .30-06 and 200 gr bullets?

I saw in another thread on another caliber, someone mentioned RL26 working well in .30-06 with 200 gr bullets. My Alliant manual does not show RL26 data in .30-06 with 200 gr bullets, but its burning rate might be a good fit.

Looking for other experience and data for this.

No experience w/ RLs 25 or 26 in that cartridge, but I'd think that 22 & 23 would be better bets.

That would be my guess as well. It's hard enough to get enough H4831 or RL-22 in a .30-06 case underneath a 200-grain spitzer.

Alliant does list RL-25 with the 200-grain Speer Hot-Cor, which in my experience produces very similar velocities as the 200 Partition with the same loads, but the maximum 60-grain charge doesn't get quite as much velocity as 58 grains of RL-22. RL-17 gets more velocity than both, and 4000-MR is around 100 fps faster.

RL26 seems more dense to me. Running it in my 338 and 35 Newton with excellent speeds. I couldnt get enough 25 in either of those to get the same speeds and accuracy so far.

A few of the fellas in my group decided to try it in their 30-06's with 200 grain Accubonds. I thought the same at first, they'll never get enough in there. Sure enough, I was schooled. They got good loads in them and also very good speeds.

For me, at least in the 338 Win and 35 Newton, 26 really didn't tighten up till I was towards the top end of the loads. Once I was there it has acted very consistent. YMMV.

What sort of velocities with 200's in the .30-06?

Alliant is showing just shy of 2,500 fps for both R22 & R25
58grs. for R22 and 60 for R25. I would bet you could go up to or near 60 grs. with R26 with maybe a little more velocity.

I'm all ears on this one. Glad this thread came up, because it's something I've been hearing a little about as well. We now know RL26 is the magic powder in the 270 Winchester with 150gr. pills. Now the next best thing: 30-06 and 200gr. Nosler partitions....

I'm waiting for their load data and chronoed speeds but one is using a suppressed 20" barrel and getting just over 2700 and the other is a 22" tube and getting near or just over 2800. Don't wanna talk out of turn but both have shot multiple groups out to 300 that have been hovering around 1/2 MOA pretty consistently to 300 yards.

I was pretty impressed since the 200 AB is a pretty longish bullet. No real compression issues either. It is compressed but not so much you need a 3ft drop tube to get it in the case.

Both are M700's so they do have some length to seat the bullets out pretty decent.

WOW. Those wouldn't be a couple of those pesky +P loads would they???

Not sure to be totally honest.

We worked the loads using QL, adjusted the observed H20 capacity and Burn rate in the program and ran alongside the chrono under the estimated PSIs given in the program. I don't believe any are higher than about 62-63K PSI but with so little data available it is really just a guess to be totally honest. Just wanted to report what we are seeing. We are using Lapua cases and Fed 210Ms.

I think MD has seen fairly similar speeds with oldies like H4831 so maybe we aren't too far outta line.

Just texted me and said the 22" was 2740 with 63 grains. Right at 2700 with the 20" barrel.

Sorry, thought it was a touch higher for the 22" but still, 2740 is a whopper of a 200 grain load in my opinion. A lot of performance from a 30-06.

Well, that's the real question. Alliant's .270 data doesn't list any load over 60.8 grains for 150-grain bullets, but in my experiments 62.0 grains didn't show any "pressure signs". Despite that I'm not going to use more than 60.5 grains.

The .30-06 has a little more wiggle room than the .270, because the SAAMI maximum average pressure is only 60,000, compared to 65,000 in the .270. But even with Hodgdon's maximum load of 59.0 grains of H4831 (which is within SAAMI pressure specs) my New Ultra Light Arms .30-06 gets right around 2700 fps with 200-grain bullets from a 24" barrel. With H4831SC there's room for another couple of grains, which would bring the velocity to around 2775, and according to a basic ballistic rule from Homer Powley, pressure would still be under 65,000.

Makes sense to me John. I wasn't trying to say it was a miracle powder at all, but it does seem to work well in a fairly broad range of cartridges I would have never thought it would have in the past.

I've used it in the 243, 25-06, 6.5 Swede, 270 and 7mm WSM, 7 Mashburn Super, 338 Win and 35 Newton and with most of them it has performed pretty well.

Gains over normal powders isn't huge by any stretch but there is a little gain in most of the ones I've tried.

beretz,

Yep, I knew you weren't claiming 26 was a miracle! Just wanted to hear the details.

Would hope that Alliant will do some testing of .30-06 loads.

Amen, sounds great..

54.5 grains of rl17 used to do a shade over 2700 with a 200 accubond from my m70 fw's 22" barrel and seemed to not be pushing it too hard. Once again, wish I had quickload...

I've been working on 200 gr partitions in my 06' for a few months.
The "winner" load I settled on is RL17 at 53.0 grains. This is not a compressed load, but nicely fills the case, and is giving me an average of 2,650 fps (chono)

I won't be trying other powder now.

Cheers.

What are you guys shooting with the 30/06 that you need 200 gr bullets?

My rifles like 200gr. partitions. I figure I'll be shooting at a nice bull this season, if the stars align for me this year.... . My question is, what animal can you not shoot with a 200gr. partition????? Hell, I might even shoot a buck with one this year..

Bob,

I started using 200 Partitions back when they were semi-spitzers, mostly because I was then doing most of my elk hunting in the steep, thick Montana country near the Idaho Panhandle. Shots were NEVER over 100 yards, and the 200 Partition was the deepest-penetrating bullet I could load at the time. (I soon found out it also killed deer well, and didn't shoot up much meat while doing it.)

A few years later Nosler turned it into a real spitzer. I found it worked the same on elk (and deer, and even one pronghorn), but shot just about as flat as any 180. The muzzle velocity in the two .30-06's I've mostly used with the bullet has been 2675-2700 fps. (Recently Bryan Litz's range-tests found the BC is just about exactly what Nosler lists, very close to .500.)

Have killed more elk with the .30-caliber 200 Partition than any other bullet, not just from the .30-06 but a couple of .300 magnums.
It penetrates to well I wouldn't hesitate to use it on brown bear.

55 GR of RL 17 and 200 gr Nosler Accubond and Partition I see 2735 FPS in 2 30-06 22 " rifles around 1.25" in both.

I wanted to settle on one hunting bullet for my 06' for most everything I might hunt with it. Saves time in load workup and allows me to keep the rifle spot-on-target.
(and gives me more practice with one load and what it does at different yardages)
So, I'll stick with the 200 partition until it lets me down.

Many, many people shoot the 180 grain partition on everything, and adding just another 20 grains (11% weight) won't dramatically change things but does penetrate even a little better than the 180.

:-)

John I know you used it for your elk hunting there is Montana. Was wondering what some of the other people used it for and where they lived and hunted

I've used it in the 300 Win Mag and 300 Weatherby years past for elk. In the 30/06 I've mostly used 165. That's another partition I have yet to recover,along with a 200 gr..



Oops I take it back! I DO have one 165 Partition in the bullet collection.

Yeah, I've seen one 165 stopped. A number of years ago a friend and I were hunting mule deer on a DIY hunt in Colorado, and managed to get a couple of good bucks. I was using my NULA .30-06 with 165 Partitions at 2900+ fps. My buck didn't stop one, but the scope on my buddy's .308 went screwy so I loaned him the .30-06. On the last day he shot a beautiful, classic 4x4 about 27" wide. The bullet hit a shoulder going in on a quartering shot, and we found the bullet under the hide about halfway along the ribs on the far side.

Have also only seen one animal stop a 200 Partition. I shot a raghorn elk, by coincidence also in Colorado, maybe 10-12 years ago with a .300 Weatherby. The first shot landed in the heart at around 300 yards--but low in the heart, probably due to a wind coming downhill along the slope. (I held enough into the wind but not enough up!)

The bull hobbled very slowly away for several seconds, then stopped at around 375 yards, facing directly away, angling up the slope. I held at the base of the neck, knowing the bullet would land somewhere in the spine, and the bullet hit the tailbone. The bull dropped, apparently dead instantly, and during field-dressing the bullet's path was traced through the diaphragm into the chest. Since it hadn't exited it was in there somewhere, but we couldn't find it.

Mule Deer
Can you clarify RL-17 gets more velocity than both, and 4000-MR is around 100 fps faster.

Bob, I'm certainly not JB or any of the other ballistics experts here, but imho, the 200 gr 30 cal partition is the perfect blend of diameter, weight and velocity from 2700 fps on up, it is one of the truest flying hunting bullets out to 500 yards that I've ever fired.

And I believe we have all seen/read about it's effectiveness.

byd,

I referred to Alliant's published loading data for 200-grain bullets in the .30-06. You can look it up on their website.

Bob, I've had elk catch 180 gr. partitions from both the 30-06 and 300 WSM. I figured I'd give the 200gr. partition a try. When they were $15.45/bag at SPS, that gave me even more incentive to try them out. My new rifle loves them and my old 30-06 fwt likes them too, so it's a win win for me. My load is running kind of slow though and this thread really peaks my interest. A 200gr. partition at a muzzle velocity around 2700+fps is nothing to sneeze at. Hopefully I'll get a chance this elk season to test them out in one of the old 06's...

BSA, that is a wicked combo really.

I've seen a few 180's caught in elk, same for the 200 AB.

From what I've seen, the 200 PT launched at 2600-3100 should be wicked on just about anything.

My sons 300 WBY runs 3060 with the 200 Partition. It's one of those combos I wouldn't worry about hunting anything with.

I agree Scotty. Speaking of the devil. Looks like SPS has them on sale again:

Great deal on 200gr. partitions

If I didn't already have 4-500 of these, I'd be buying some more. I took my new to me rifle out the other day and fired off 3 shots to confirm zero:



I'm thinking this dog will hunt. Good enough for this year anyway. Funny, this is the load I worked up in my left hand remington 760. The m1917 deserves a load of its own. Maybe I'll find a sub moa loading with the new powder too. I'll try some RL26 in the old girl when I run across a good deal. Right now I have a line on about 5 pounds locally for $40.00/pound, but that price is too much. It will come around at a cheaper price eventually...

I don't imagine an elk or muley will escape that sorta accuracy. Very nice.

I'd think even at a modest 2500 it'll still hit pretty hard out to 400.

I know this is an old thread, but I shot some 200 grain Hornady ELDX bullets out of a 30-06 with RL26 today. Shot over a Magnetospeed. Beretz has got me shooting a range of powder over a chrono lately to identify flat velocity spots. Combined with playing with seating depth. Seems like a good logic based way to find something your rifle likes.

Can't get the image to post...
30-06, Bartlein barrel, chambered with 30-06 Serengeti reamer, .0337 neck
Nosler cases
200 Hornady ELDX, about 0.03 off lands
GM215M primer
RL26 powder

61.8 2821 fps
62.0 2802 fps
62.2 2816 fps
62.4 2813 fps
62.6 2823 fps
62.8 2837 fps, slight ejection mark

[img]https://i.imgur.com/qcjHagr.jpg?1[/img]

Curious was 61.8 2821 fps a typo?

What barrel length

Not a typo. Pretty consistent results from what I see using the Magnetospeed, there’s some up and down velocity variation as the charge goes up.

Good point, 24 inches.

Yes, 26 is the fastest I have tried so far with my Wife's 6.5 Creedmoor (RAP) with a 22" tube with 140's. I figured RL16 would be better for that little case but not for the heavies, 16 might be better for the 130 and under, will see.
I have a 30-06AI Win Model 70 Fwt, I had better try RL26 with 200's in it from what I am seeing here.

Thanks Joel, The 26 powder is doing great in the 30-06.

For the .30-06 Speer Manual #15 lists a maximum load of 57.8 gn of Reloder 26 with their 200 gn bullet.

Using The Rules (thanks JB) on data for the .270 Win I calculated that 190 gn bullets in the '06 could get 2740 fps (20 3/8" barrel) and 200 gn bullets could reach 2660 fps.

I do not recommend that any one else try this but I got the following:

190 Accu Bond LR - 62.0 gn R26 - Win cases - Win 120 primers = 2738 fps
200 Accu Bond - 61.0 gn R26 - Win cases - Fed 210 primers = 2656 fps
200 Partition - 60.0 gn R26 - Win cases - Fed 215 primers = 2615 fps

Five-shot groups at 100 yd were .75" or less for all three loads. The 215 primers gave a lower extreme spread with the 200 Partitions but I did not fire enough shots to call it statistically significant. None of the loads seemed excessive in any way. I bought the 120 primers at a garage sale around 1987 and they still work well.

Cheers,
Walt

Before the Barnes X bullet showed up, the 200 grain .30 caliber Partition was very popular here in Alaska for both the 30-06 and the .300 Win. We used it in our 30-06 for years with IMR 4831 and I believe we were getting a bit over 2,600 fps mv out of the 22" barrels. The .300 mag. users were landing between 2,800 and 2,900 fps mv. Both cartridge's killed every thing very well with the 200 grain Partition and the flatter trajectory of the 180 grain bullet was not missed. That told and showed me that 2,600 fps or more mv velocity with the 200 grain Partition was a real killer of Alaskan game.

The velocities reported in this thread with RL 26 make the grand old 30-06 more better in my opinion if one wishes to use a 200 grain bullet. We long ago went to the 180 grain Barnes X and with in the last year went to the 168 grain TTSX for the 30-06. After reading this thread I may try some 200 grain LRX bullets with the 30-06 and RL 26 see what they do. I feel this would be a real "rompin stomping" dedicated big bear load and penetrate like crazy for shots under 300 yards, which is almost always possible in Alaska.

My little 6.5 lb. Husqvarna 30-06 is easy to carry with out a scope when hiking and fishing up here and 5 of those big 200 grain bullets in the magazine makes me feel I am well armed when stepping in them big brown bear tracks that are all over the Kenai. Hanging on to the little rifle when firing one of those heavy loads should be a hoot!

For us, the lighter Barnes X bullets kill very well and have much less recoil then the old 200 grain Partition loads. But, that 200 grain Partition .30 caliber bullet is a great killing bullet and seemed to shoot well in every rifle we saw it loaded in.

Thanks for your post; I figured as soon as I pulled the trigger on the first round and saw 2821 on the screen that most of the loads were too hot. But with a 24-inch barrel maybe more reasonable than I assumed. If a 200-grain bullet can get 2660 with a 20 inch barrel a 24-inch barrel should yield a bit higher velocity, maybe 2725 or 2750.

Thanks for your post, good to hear about the 200 PT. I have 2 boxes on the reloading bench at home! I read that JB has never recovered one, I take that as good feedback.

According to the above mentioned Speer Manual the '06 will loose approximately 20 fps per inch of barrel less than 24".
If 2660 is good in 20 inches then, in theory, 2740 should be possible from 24 inches.

Cheer,
Walt

Thanks!

If you’re pointing at a B B, I suspect you will be focused on the bear more than the recoil.
Good Luck


Jerry

I discussed a long time ago, about where one could not get enough 4831SC in an 06 case
to exceed SAAMI specs... Nosler's Ballistician actually came on line and backed me up...

so that being true, one should be able to assume one can't get enough RL 26 into an 06
case to exceed SAAMI specs, if RL 26 is even a slower burn rate than 4831SC.

Reloder 26 is much more dense than H4831SC so I would not bet that a case full could not produce excessive pressures. The loads that I used did exceed SAAMI specs for the 30-06, though hopefully did not exceed 65,000 psi. Speer #15, which I assume contains pressure-tested data, listed a maximum load of 57.8 gn of R26 for 2667 fps in a 24" barrel. Anything beyond that and you are on your own. I arrived at the loads I did by using Speer's approximation of 20 fps variation per inch of barrel and a careful application of JB's Rules. I think the loads I worked up are reasonable but cannot know for certain without actual pressure testing. Was all of this worthwhile for an increase of ~80 fps over the book velocity? Only a looney could say for sure.

Powders are assigned their place in burn-rate charts by lab tests. In actual cartridges burn rates can vary depending on the cartridge. For instance I have loaded for a cartridge where IMR4350 seemed to have a faster burn rate than Win. 760. Burn-rate charts should be regarded as a vague guideline only.

I probably babbled on long enough to bore veteran handloaders into a coma, or at least a refreshing nap, but wanted to clarify for those less experienced.

Cheers,
Walt

WOW. Can’t see much reason for a 338-06, 35 Whelen, etc.

Just FINALLY scored a jug of RE26 so I have to bring back this 2018 thread to see who else might have some new 30-06 200 Partition/ RE26 data to add.
To RinB,
I have two 338-06 and a wildcat I made that might be equated to something like a 338 Gibbs (if there ever was such a thing), a 35 Whelen AI, and a 9.3x62, but I am still jazzed to get a real nice 30-06 load with the 200 Partition (which I have loaded up on from SPS) at around 2700 FPS. The reason for the former rifles? Because I can! I reckon the '06 with the 200PT would kill most anything in the USA that the others would, but I just want to play with them all.

Cheers,
Rex

Still a bit skeptical RL26 is a optimum powder for the 06 and 200 grainers.

I mean, if a guy wants to stay within max SAAMI pressures anyway.........

I really enjoy reading these old threads, love to see BobinNH's posts...

Thanks for bringing it back to life.

I have a big jug of RL-26. Think I'll save it for my 7RM and such. I have other powders I'd rather use in my '06.

DF

Word from the ballisticians is you just can't put enough H4831 or Re26 in an '06 case to exceed SAAMI, and still seat a 200 PT.
And figuring the '06 is 60K PSI and the .270 Win is 65K PSI in exactly the same rifle, there is a pretty significant "pad' there to protect us fools and drunks.
Not that I bank on that.

Cheers,
Rex

This is very interesting to me as i just picked up an used left hand Ruger 77 30-06 and am a fan of heavy for caliber bullets and ive only used a 30-06 on a few occasions. Ive got got 338RCM which has a better form factor in that its lighter and more handy with plenty of power but the heavy bullet 30-06 is up my ally and makes sense.

Rex,

If there was lots of room for the 30-06 to grow in the pressure department I would think we would see 180 and 200 gr +P loads for it.

I realize SAMMI set the limits a long time ago with older rifles in mind, but with other old time cartridges boasting +P loads why not any heavy bullet loads for the most popular cartridge in America?

I have a 30-06 AI that went with me to Alaska twice in the early 90's, the second time with 200g NPt's. A year later a couple friends and I had unlimited access to a Oehler M48 Ballistics Lab. That 06 AI spent the summer with a strain gauge glued to it. I tried most of the slow burning powders from H4350, H4831, IMR7828, VV N170, and several more. None of those powders could I fill to the point of compression without exceeding 60k according to the M48, and ejector marks/flattened primers.

I realize RL26 carries a lot of energy, but I'm skeptical one can't exceed 60k--by a fair margin--in a 06, especially with a heavy bullet.

In recent times it seems everybody wants their 30-06 based cartridge to run at 65K because the 270W does. As JB said somewhere in this thread, RL26 is kind've a specialty powder that works well in a few cartridges--very overbore, highish pressure, heavy bullets.

I see Alliant as providing pressure/load data for the appropriate cartridges, leaving out most other cartridges. This gave handloaders--being handloaders--free reign to tamp as much powder as they want into their favorite case. Some of the velocities being posted on the internet makes me cringe.

These days guys are sprinkling RL26 on their Wheaties and claiming their farts go 200fps faster One of those days they're gonna blow their azzhole off........

Also, I have seen a number of elk killed with the 30 cal 200g, the 7mm 175g, and this year two elk with the 270 cal 160 NPt's. Based on those two elk, each shot twice, they all performed similarly and the one recovered 160g looked just like the recovered 7mm and 30 cal NPt's I have seen. And my lightweight 270 with a 160g NPt is a lot more fun to shoot than my lightweight 30-06 AI with a 200g.

Alpinecrick,
Thanks for your very reasoned post.
I took a little 30-06 200 NPT velocity ladder to the range yesterday and have now fired a total of 8 (eight!) rounds in my entire life powered by RE-26 so of course I am now an internet expert on that powder. That said, I'll share what I found.
I have to preface this with the fact that this rifle, a Sears JC Higgins M50 FN Mauser, has a "fast" barrel, which of course means it develops higher pressures with lower charges than most other barrels. As a reference, in this 22" barrel, 56.3 grains of my batch of H4350 gives the 165 NBT a touch over 2900 fps. For the 165 NAB, I back of to 56.0 to get the same speed. That's a LOT more fps than most manuals show for this powder and bullet combination. So view the following through that lens.
In Lake City '67 Match brass, sorted for less than .001" neck wall runout, I loaded the 200 NPT .050" off the lands which resulted in an OAL of 3.245 (this rifle has a slightly short throat).
These cases were charged with 58, 59, 60, and 61 grains of RE-26 and lit by a CCI250 primer. I realize most folks have been having great results with the CCI200, but I already had these 8 cases primed with the 250's and decided to just go with that versus trashing the primers (blasphemy, these days). I should note the first shot with 58 gr was from a clean barrel and hit well below the rest of the rounds. These are 2-shot "groups" at 100 yards:
58gr - 1.46", 2600 fps, ES = 48 fps
59gr - 0.71", 2646 fps, ES = 5 fps
60gr - 0.65", 2685 fps, ES = 1 fps
61gr - 1.80", 2760 fps, ES = 3 fps

Note in my rifle there was a significant spike from the otherwise smooth ramp-up of powder increase to fps increase going from 60 to 61 grains, and a big increase in group size. There were no traditional pressure signs in any of these, but recent data tell us these old standard signs often don't show up until approaching 70K PSI, so I no longer rely at all on primers and bolt lift, except to know that they are DEFFINITE signs I've gone way to far.

It really looks like 60 grains is a very sweet spot in my rifle, but because I am so set on not being the only kid on my block NOT getting 2700 fps with 200 NPTs and RE-26 I plan to load up 8 each of 60 and 60.5 grains (with CCI200s, of which I have "lots") for the next trip and see how they do. Will report back.

Knowing this particular rifle, I expect the average 30-06 will take an extra grain or two to do the same velocities I am getting. Of probably 50 of them lying around the house (including about a dozen 30-06s), this is the ONLY rifle that consistently produces higher velocities per grain of powder than most manuals show. So I know that and always approach it with caution.

Best to all,
Rex

Tag

I'm late to this thread but - I just finished load development with my 30-06, 200 Accubonds, Re 26. 60 grains, lit by a WLR. Goes a bit over 2700 and groups MOA. I do not believe it exceeds 60k psi. I like it.

Looks like a nice load. Should work well with most critters.

Mine loves 58.5 R26 Fed 210 Nosler brass

Just shot these today to see where to start with load development. I could add more powder.

That’s a pretty good thumper. The 3 shots together look good. Gives you a little window to work with. Edk

They certainly did. :-)

Always knew the 06 was inaccurate. Didn’t hit the middle. LOL. That will do. Edk

Finally tried Reloader-26 in my 28" PacNor barreled 30-06 with a 200gr Accubond.
Winchester Brass
WLRM Primer
61.0grs Reloader-26
200gr Accubond
2815fps on my Magnetospeed

Nice group. If it’s gonna keep them near that close you have a winner. Edk

GLAD I READ THIS WHOLE THREAD. VERY INTERESTING !

Dirty Harry

Now to look for some RL-26