thanks for that Walt. When you say RL17 was not temp sensitive, how much of a spread were you seeing?
I should have been more clear. I did no formal testing for temp sensitivity but was mostly going by the claims on the powder can.
With Reloder 17 loads were worked up with 55 and 60 gn bullets that seemed OK at around 60 degrees were excessive at 90 degrees. Then Speer Manual #15 came along and showed that my loads were 1.5 gn over maximum. The 55 gn loads were shot in different rifles so the velocity difference is irrelevant. The 60 gn loads showed only 50 fps difference between cool and hot temps but, as noted, were probably excessive to begin with.
By the way, despite being listed in manuals, 60 gn bullets would not stabilize in a 1:14 twist at any reasonable velocity. In my wild and extravagant youth I pushed the 60 gn Nosler Solid Base to 3600 fps, got good groups and found them to work well on pronghorn. Do not try this.
Speer lists maximum loads of 43.1 gn of R17 for 50 gn bullets, 42.1 for 52 gn and 41.6 gn for 55 gn. If you don't exceed those limits I suspect you will be happy with R17. With the exceptions of R16 and 760 I found standard primers to be best. Beware of Winchester cases. Over decades of using them I have found the necks to too thick. Even after the first firing a new bullet would not fit into the neck of a fired case. Either turn the necks of new cases down enough to remove most of the high spots or avoid the trouble by using Norma brass.
Cheers,
Walt
