Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters RL 26 for 340wby?

Any one have any experience using RL 26 for the 340? I’m looking for a load for 225 Partitions or Accubonds. I haven’t been able to find any load data but I would venture RL 26 has real potential for this bullet weight.

Speer's 15th manual lists 86.3 grains as maximum for the 225 BTSP, for 3018 fps from a 24" barrel. That's the fastest load listed for the 225; the next fastest is 2959 fps with Power Pro 4000-MR.

Thanks MD, I hadn’t seen the 15th edition. I’m excited with what I’m experiencing with this powder. It should be a great match.

I reported this in another thread but please do not transfer loading data for the Speer 225gn .338 loads to another 225gn bullet. I know this is emphasized a lot on here, but this is a particular case, as that bullet has a very short bearing surface and velocities can be up 100fps over other bullets because of it. If you work up a load with the Speer and it works for you, great and stop there, but drop several grains and work up when changing to other bullets.

This is the down side of using reloading manuals that only use their products.

John

This is one cartridge that it would be nice to see up to date data on. A lot of data seems VERY conservative. I realize this is most likely due to the varying amounts of freebore that may be present in custom barrels, but I’d sure like to see some data for a modern Weatherby chamber/freebore.

I’ve always seen the 340 as a 270 on steroids. Just like the 270/150 Partition, it always seemed that 3000 FPS should be there with a 250 Partition, Here’s hoping that RL26 can do the same thing for the 340 that it did for the 270.

I have done a lot of work with the 340 Wby. I have found you can safely hit 3000 fps with 250 grain bullets using both MagPro and R17 if this helps.

I used R19 with the 225s

My .340 was a Browning A-Bolt SS (LH) in .338 Win Mag with a 26" barrel that I had rechambered to .340 with the Weatherby freebore. 3000 fps was consistent from one powder: RL22 shooting the 250 NP into 1.25 moa over a period of ten years. RL22 gave about 3085 fps from 225s.

I would think RL26 to be a bit slow for the 340 as RL22 was a slightly compressed load.

Bob

www.bigbores.ca