Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 308, RL17, 200 gr bullet

No problem Brad.

The more people that spend some time with RL17 and share their results the better, regardless of chambering. All the result I've read about from hands-on load development show similar results. I was a doubter myself, until I gave it a try.

It's a powder with a whole different character, and It seems to defy the regular rules. I beleive this technology will be applied to a whole series of powders to suit most rifle applications and it will be a fairly big leap in performance accross the board.

I haven't tried to tweak QL. What I have noted though, is that QL pressure/velocity correlation around 70-75K lbs psi gives great velocity in the 308, without pressure indicators typically evident at 65K or so with RL15, W748, and W760.

Shane,

Do you think a similar approach would work using 155grn bullets over RL-17 in the .308win?

Regards,

Peter

Pete,

I haven't tried that. My gut feeling is that RL17 would be too slow to build good pressure behind a 155.

In the 30-06, RL17/155 would probably be spectacular.

I pushed 155 Scenars to 3030 fps via RL15 with room left in the case (22.5" bbl, moly). RL17 might get 3150-3200, just a guess though.

Loading data from Alliant.

308 Winchester Speer 180 gr BTSP Federal 2.8 22 Fed 210 Reloder 17 48.7 2,641

Alliant Alliant site

I'm a believer in there being no free lunch when it comes to performance.

Where RL17 will probably make us pay the price will be in longer segments of the bore being ate up as it wears. Setbacks will be further.

I'm basing that theory on the longer flatter top of the pressure curve. More length of the bore is going to be exposed to the highest part of the pressure/heat mix.

Bore wear is not a concern.

Are your pressure indicators "just a hint of bolt resistance after firing, no ejector imprint or primer flattening"

Have you made any other observations or measurements of pressure?

If you have some pressure estimates to provide, I'm interested in them, and how you calc'd them.

I know my rifle. I've put several thousand rounds through it, and developed a number of loads up to visible ejector flow, then back off a bit. I always see some of this flow before primers are showing abnormal flattening (see pic of brass posted earlier here).

Having 20+ reloads in the same brass gives me a good indication that pressure is fine with my working loads.

I only have up to five reloads on some test brass with this RL17, but so far no loose pockets.

On one hand I am all for significant improvements and I hope that you have found it.

On the other hand I wait for Denton to get back.

I'm thinking more along the lines of the 168 AMax/TTSX and/or the 208 AMax, RL-17, '06......................

Crunching some numbers on QL, I think RL17 will do pretty well in the 30-06 with most anything 150+ grains.

Damned shame I have 20 pounds of '15, and not '17 or '22..................

I wouldn't fret 20 lbs of RL15. It's a great all around powder.

Shane,

I still think you need a strain gage............might be that several here might be willing to share investing in the equipment & have you keep possession of it & run the tests.

Loads/pressures, even tho done in your guns would still have relative meaning to others.

Here's some info on the equipment.

RSI Equipment

MM

It wouldn't matter.

The naysayers don't believe in the accuracy of pressure testing equipment when the results don't fit their position anyway. I'm really not bothered. I'm just sharing some results. Not on a crusade to change anyones religion.

My methods of reading pressure have essentially been used by reloaders since the introduction of smokeless powder. They are not precise, but seem to have served us fairly well for many decades. Having chronographs and software doesn't hurt either.

Some clearly think I'm reckless. Fine.

I'm actually a lot less worried about your rifle blowing up than someone with a tight chambered, tight throated rifle trying the same loads.

I have a good freind who used to think several of his rifles had "fast barrels" until one of them blew up. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, thank god he was wearing glasses. I've seen a couple bad things happen when people who thought they were "advanced reloaders" and could somehow acheive a couple hundred fps faster than the labs could.........................DJ

MM

Have you done any work with the 208 AMAX or 210 moly'd berger in a 300 Win Mag?

I have one of those and 400+ 210 bergers waiting my return from Iraq, along with 300 208 AMAX's. I intend to use it as my primary hunting rifle, although your data makes a strong case for my Savage heavy barreled 308 with a great scope.

Thanks for that...I'm not after super high velocity but would like an accurate load that gives me 2900fps, but I don't think is unreasonable.

Upto now, the loads I have tried with Varget and RL-15 show good accuracy at 2650fps -2700fps, but then fall off as the velocity increases.

I have a batch of 155grns loaded over some TAC to try next, and if that doesn't work I may switch to VV N140 or N150...

Acutally their N5XX powders sound like they are meant to perform with similar pressure curves to Rl-17, so N540 or N550 maybe worth a try as well..

Regards,

Peter

The Berger 190 Hunting VLD, with a BC of .570 would perform well in this I'm sure. Don't know what the length of the bullet is though.

David,

Im not MM, but your gonna be around 72.0 of RL 22 with those bullets, I can just about gaurantee.

JimD.