Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Anyone experience odd inconsistencies with RL-17

I have tried RL-17 in a .338 Win Mag, .338-06, 2 different .300 Win Mags, and 2 .243 Winchesters. In each case it developed impressive velocities and USUALLY decent accuracy. However in all rifles I've used it in it seems to have the bizarre tendency to suddenly produce a group that was absolute crap.

Now, I'm far from some kind of benchrest competitor but I'm good enough I don't expect to see what I've been seeing here. Literally let's just say the rifle is a 1" shooter. I might get a group of .9", 1.1", .9", 1", then out of the blue a 2.5"+ group. Every rifle I've used it in does this and with the exception of the .338 (which has been rebarreled) none of these other guns have every experienced this type of behavior with other powders with many many groups.

I've moved away from using it but had quite a quantity of it I bought not long after it came out. Just curious if anyone else has experienced odd behavior like this with RL-17?

No. I've shot about 4 pounds of it through my 7mm-08 with 3 different bullets and its been a solid performer for me.

David

Several years ago I was experimenting with it in .25-06, 6mm-284, and .220 Swift. I can't recall which rifle I was shooting, but "out of the blue," I had a single round blow the primer pocket open. I was weighing every charge and don't believe I made that error but I can't be certain. All I know is it spooked me, and I haven't used it since. I've never had this happen with any other powder.

I have had he same issue many times and not just with RL 17, sometimes the way you hold your rifle or shooting position can have that effect.

RL17 needs a nearly full case or even better, a slightly compressed charge to be absolutely consistent. Anything less can introduce erratic pressures. Ask the long range .308 competition shooters who brought their rifles from out of retirement because of this specific powder..............using it with 205 A-Max's at 2600fps++. If it wasn't reliable enough for them, they wouldn't use it.

Well, that's an interesting thought. None of the loads I used were even close to compressed as it reaches top loading data well becoming compressed. Perhaps that is partially the reason because the velocities would occasionally go erratic as well especially when I approached max loads and the rifle became hot.

My 7mm-08 loads are compressed...

David

Oh, and try magnum primers........many times where I've had erratic pressure spikes, they were easily cured by using magnum primers. Especially when using ball powders. Which I know RL17 isn't, but it's something worth trying at least........before giving up.

I was getting some of those 'out of the blue' groups in my 270, switched to H4831SC and things stayed consistent. That said, I've been using the remaining Reloder 17 in my son's 30-06 and have had no problems.

Just one of those gun/powder/bullet thingies I guess.

FWIW,

Dale

Maybe it's worth noting that Re17 is double-based, like all (as far as I know) spherical powders are.