Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting RL33?

Has anyone tested the RL33 for temp stability in at least 50* temp change? What were your results?

Planned on it this past weekend. Grass was too high in the pasture and we couldn't see the targets. Plans are to run the shredder (bush hog/mower attachment to the tractor) in the next week or so and try it again. Will be testing it in my 264 WM from 100 - 600 yards. Ran it last summer but only at 100 yards. POI changed about 1/2" higher but the groups were still tight.

I look forward to that, I have several cans for my .264.

Nomo, what's your load on the 264? I'm pushing a 142 NABLR to 3250 or so with 76 gr. in Nosler brass and Rem mag primers.

Alliant says RL-33 is temp stable, go figure that...

Research on the subject yields mixed signals. RL-17, RL-33 and RL-50 are made by NitroChemie in Switzerland.

Some claim that RL-17 isn't that temp stable, RL-33 may be better than '17.

JB wrote some time ago that hi energy, niche type powders tend to be less temp stable, H100V is an example.

The new RL powders, reportedly, are more temp stable than the older ones. Reports show that Canadian Enduron powders are almost as temp stable as Austrailan Extreme powders. It's a competitive market. I haven't seen a comparison of Enduron. Extreme and newer RL powders. And, temp stability varies with each application; specific rounds often yield different results. With all these variables, definitive data can be difficult, hard to make generalized statements.

What a great world we live in. Look at the powder and bullet choices we now have. I started reloading in the '60's. Wow, what a difference now vs. then.

"The good ole days" are now, not back then...

DF

You got that right!

The good old days were when I could walk into a local shop and use a flour scoop to dump fresh powder out of a 55 gallon drum into a paper lunch bag for $1 a pound...

Now bullets and LRFs... that's a whole 'nother story...

I just recently bought the powder, no load development yet, that's one of the reasons why I am looking forward to the report.

Ok, went out to a friend's place but only had time to shoot at 100 yards and do some chronographing. Results are, 5 shots over the chrono (magnetospeed) averaged 3287 fps (3250 at 50 degrees). Temp when I shot was between 92-95 degrees.

POI was about .4" higher than original sight in. Group size was a touch larger, went from a nice pretty .4" group to a .9" group.

Works out to about .8 fps per degree.