Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles some more RL 17 chrono results

With one of the first nice days of the winter.....in the upper thirties and a lack of howling winds, I was able to get out and fire a few shots over the pro-chrono . FWIW to anyone.......

The gun is a M-70 classic stainless 300 wsm, once fired W-W cases and regular strength WW primers . 180 gr. Nosler ballistics seated to 2.9 inch OAL . None of the shots showed primer flattening or heavy bolt lift .


62.5 gr. 2890 fps

64.0 gr. 3003 fps

65.0 gr . 3062 fps

sorry about that ....just edited to show it's a 300 WSM......just a senoir moment, ya know ?(grin)

Thanks for the info. Do you have any other data from that rifle using other powders for comparison's sake?

I've been watching what people are posting and cross referencing with Quick load. QL doesn't have RE17 in it's inventory. BUT QL has always overstated what I4350 can do. Every time I put the charge posted into quickload but use I4350 as the powder I come out crazy close to the velocity achieved. In the above case QL thinks with a 24" barrel you would do 3044 at 67k pressure. NOW, if this new powder doesn't make that much pressure or we aren't seeing it with that tough of a case I don't know but the velocity is stunningly close. I used quickload to forecast a ladder with my '06 and re17 and think it's possible I might approach 3050-3100 with 150 tsx's. Hope to get out within a week to give it a try. Been too cold in central wis to play much....last 30 days we've probably had 25 with lows well below 0!!

Oucha 67 K...

Dober

Don't have much to compare with yet on this particular rifle as I just got it in Sept. I did load up enough to hunt with using 66 gr of Hybrid 100v under the same bullet and that load kicked up right at 3000 fps .

I'm not too concerned what Quickload might show for H4350 as I'm sure a powder like RL 17 is not even in the programming , and it's only a computer simulation , not real pressure data .


Alliant shows a max of 66 gr of RL17 for 3080 with a Speer bullet . They don't quote the pressure , but I'm pretty confident they are not into publishing loads running near 70000 psi .


I think the 65 gr load might be close to a good safe max with the components used in my rifle , but at any rate it appears to me like RL 17 can get you around 3000 fps with 180s in the 30 wsm pretty easy .

Agreed that a constant diet of 67k pressure isn't what you want to feed a gun but in all honesty by watching primer flatness, (almost useless)primer pocket expansion, or extractor marks....you might not see any of these at 67k pressure. ESPECIALLY on the new wsm cases.
With my experiment I'm starting with virgin federal cases. This is a batch of brass that has given me feedback on hotter loads and I feel confident I'm not treading into deep space on what I'm doing. Apparently there are a bunch of new powders about to hit the market in slower and faster burn rates than re17 that are promising more vel at less pressure. It will be fun to gather info from reloaders, cross reference with QL, and see what they do.
FWIW my goal is to actually find a really good 30-06 load with the 150 nos e tip at about 3000 fps. I don't think this would be impossible or dangerous at all with the current powders we have. If re17 is worth a "lick of salt" and delivers just a bit of what it promises this will be a piece of cake.

sd---Using QL with the 66 gain load and "mirroring" I4350 in a 300 wsm the prediction is 3053 fps with a 24" barrel and 180 bullet @67k pressure. One poster I took info from said he had heavier bolt lift and almost exactly the same vel as this in his 300 wsm at this load. Each gun is different but I think most would agree this could be consider near max or plus max in most guns. This is just an FYI----I agree that you are thinking very correctly on the idea that re17 will most likely provide a 3000 fps safely in most wsm's.

kraky,

How does QL compare to the actual pressure testing done in the article posted on 6mmbr?

http://www.6mmbr.com/reloder17.html

I admire a constructive set of posts. Well done gentlemen.

Kyreloader...I went in there and played with my QL and found that prediction on the 308 and 6.5-284 were really close. However I cannot explain how much vel the 284 rifle #1 with the 180 bergers is so fast. According to my program he'd be running 80-85K pressure. One thing to remember is that QL is very sensitive to how deep you seat bullets and that 180 is really long. If he has a really long throat in that gun (something we can't know) and is hanging that bullet way out he could reduce that pressure alot. (And if he built the gun to run a 180/7mm bullet I would bet it has been set up that way) If I take his load down to the velocity he got I get a pressure reading of about 74K and the only way I can do it is to change the seating depth showing he is really hanging the bullet out. It is possible that with good brass he could run that pressure in a really tight chamber and not see the pressure signs we would see in a factory rifle.
I'll continue to play with data as others post it but I feel I'm really close with what I'm doing. At this point I don't believe that RE17 is terrifically magic in all cartridges but seems to be doing better in some than others.

QL has RL17 listed since ShotShow 2008, also since one year. Please contact NECO for details.

H Broemel---Wow--how the heck can they have it so fast when it's just hitting the shelves in the past weeks?? Anyhow...do you have it on your computer and if so....could you give me a couple of predictions?? Like I said above...I4350 has not been accurate in my program.....yet it matches what people are getting with re17 really really close.....now I'd like to see if RE 17 is correct about itself.

kraky, not that this helps, but the velocities that are listed in the article on 6mmbr are really consistent with what I am finding in my 6.5x284.

So far so good.

FYI--Just ordered the lastest version update for my QL. Ithink mine was the 3rd version and this will be two versions newer. It will be interesting seeing how it "reads" re17....and if they adjusted I4350.

SD, I'm interested to try RL17 in my 300 WSM... I've never been comfortable running any of the five 300 WSM's I've owned at much over 2,950-ish with a 180 and any powder I've tried.

I'm going to make it part of my mission tomorrow to find some RL17 and give it a try with 180's and 200's to see for myself if the hype is remotely true.

Thanks for the post and sharing your results.

Brad

Speed freaks.


Brad, let me know when you want to get rid of your H4350...grin

NOt just "speed freaks" but "wishy washy speed freaks"!! One minute I KNOW that 100 fps less speed means nothing.....the next I want to see what the magical powder can do. It's kinda like in the movie "animal house" when the devil pops up on one shoulder and the angel on the other. "NOw Kraky you know you don't need that extra 100 fps.....just shoot for accuracy" Then comes "Come on you weak tit....you know you want heavy bolt lift and red numbers on the chrono...be a man"!!

I'm just teasing.

I do kinda wonder how throat/barrel life will be with the new hotrod powder?

Sam-I haven't got my paws on the R17 yet although I have a 14K grains coming. But I'd be willing to bet that when all the dust settles, we'll find that with intelligent pressure levels it'll have a bit more gas than most other powders. To my way of thinking just like some of the R powders have over other (22 vs H4831 and 4350's).

But, I could be wrong as I have been b4 and will most likely be so again...grin

Dober