Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles RL 15.5 in 35 Whelen, 250's

Kinda depends on how much temp sensitivity you're willing to deal with. I'm leaning toward Big Game or RL15.5 for 310 woodleighs. PP 2000-MR is sick for speed and accuracy for 250's and is basically equivalent to Big Game under 310's (Big Game had less ES).

But for me under 250's if I work up a 2000-MR load in summer here and hunt in winter in a mountain state (100 degree temp swing) MR-2000 changes speed enough to drop out of the node and act funky (and very radically change my POI at 300 yards). It all still went bang, no hangfires etc, no change in recoil, but I'm changing powders. Earlier this week I ran the Labradar on last year's 2000-MR loads...they were 2560 fps last fall (mild temps) and earlier this week (hot temps) they were 2650fps (90 fps increase)

All of which to is to say...I keep collecting data that 2000-MR is very temp sensitive. Plenty of people love it and I did too until the above mentioned issues and it might not be an issue for you in the PNW or anywhere else with moderate temp swings. CFE I have but haven't used...but I have possibly heard that it has the same temp sensitivity as PP 2000-MR.

As far as yer 280 A-frames...I used both Big Game and RL-15.5 (new stuff) under a 310 Woodleigh...

With them 310's, RL-15.5 got to 2240 before it started showing pressure (20" rifle) and Big Game got to 2260 or so (same as 2000-MR). Didn't work up carefully in my 26" Whelen, just fired a few extra rounds, they showed less pressure than in the 20" and were getting 2375 fps with round primers. Again, that's a 26".

310gr at 2375...should be a great load for the 75 lb deer we have here.

Managed to find a load under 250gr bullets that works well. 59.5gr RL 15.5 in once fired Nosler brass, CCI 250 mag primer, 3.34 COAL (3.33 also worked but crunched powder), 250gr partitions.

2500 fps in a 20" barrel (shorter than SAAMI throat) ES of 18. I could not get any better than 3/4 MOA but it always gave nice round groups. I tried swapping in CCI std primers, no change in either velocity or ES or group size. Tried WLRs and the groups got slightly bigger, velocity was basically unchanged.

Worth noting that 59.5grains won't fit in unfired nosler/norma brass: it comes almost to the top of the case. But it will fit in once-fired Nosler/Norma and once you settle it (electric toothbrush) a 250 partition (or Speer) will seat at 3.34-3.335 COAL with no powder crunching (or minimal).

3/4 moa is plenty accurate for what I plan to shoot with a 250gr partition, but it's not a particularly accurate load for this rifle. With either 250 speers or 250 partitions, RL-15 gets 1/4-1/3 moa, so does IMR-4895, and so does PP 2000-MR. The RL-15 and PP 2000-MR groups are also going about 50 fps faster so it's possible there is just a higher accuracy node for this rifle that I can't hit with this powder.

But for the (still unproven) temperature stability, I'll take it.

Is this better than Varget? Probably not, but I've been stingy with my Varget supply as I've got other things I need it for. In some very quick and dirty testing, 57 grains of Varget in this rifle did more or less the same thing.

For what it's worth, here is 63 grains of RL-15.5 in once-fired R-P 35 Whelen (AI) brass, trickled through an 18" drop tube. It is very bulky.

I loaded test charges of 61, 62, and 63 under the 225 NAB at 3.375" for a test this week. Will report after shooting on Wednesday.

Rex

That's about how full my standard necks are if I slow trickle them with 59-59.5 grains. Looking forward to your results. Varget is the powder I use for the 225 NAB...I also seat them at 3.375.

TX35W,
Varget is very accurate in my rifle with the 225 NAB over 60 grains for a little over 2700 FPS. 2000-MR is a good 120 FPS faster and just as accurate but lacks Varget's outstanding temp stability.
I did a pretty extensive comparison of all available data for Varget, and RL-15.5 using the same bullets in the same chamberings, and the max published charges for RL-15.5 are consistently 1-3 grains higher than Varget.
With their respective 225 gr bullets, Nosler lists 60.5/Varget at 2800' as max, and Sierra lists 63.3/Varget for 2750'. So I am very comfortable with 61, 62, 63 as my first three steps on the ladder, will be targeting 2750-2800 FPS and expect I'll need another grain or so to reach that. Which, as we've found, might not fit.

Cheers,
Rex

Verbal portion of the report: It looks exactly as I wrote above. 2750-2800 FPS is going to take a grain or two more than 63 in my 35 WAI, and that probably won't fit. Going to have to take what I can get with 63 or maybe just a few tenths more. Looks like 2725-ish for 63/RL-15.5 at 72-82F ambient during the shooting session. Accuracy potential looks outstanding - for the next trip to the range I will load a few more at 63 and see what kind of a real group I can get. Pressures appeared to be very low. Quite rounded primers (yeah - I know. But I shot nothing but CCI200s today in four different rifles and it is easy to make relative judgements about primer appearance in that case). My assessment so far is that RL-15.5 is not too slow to optimize the 225 grain in the Whelen, just too bulky. But it is very accurate, it appears. More to follow with a better sample.

Pictorial portion of the report: All the measurements and speeds and load data is on this page. [EDIT: I left off the OAL. It's 3.375", which is still far off the lands in my long throated chamber.]


Cheers,
Rex

Great 35 Whelen info fellas. Thank you!

I'm excited to take 9 rounds of the 63/RL-15.5 load to the range on Thursday to do a final sight-in as my backup rifle for my AZ elk hunt at the end of Sep. I'd be happy to make it the primary, but I have already killed two bulls with this Whelen, and it is my "new" 90 year-old 9.3x62's turn.
That rifle will also be fueled with RL-15.5.
I have high hopes for the Whelen on Thursday based on how good the 6-round work-up ladder looked with the 225 AB two posts above. Will report.

Short version is I did not cut the one-hole groups that the initial ladder pictures above indicated I might...
I had some scope adjustments between each group to get to the POI I needed for my hunting sight-in, but those should not have had that great of an impact on my groups.
So I shot three 3-shot groups at 100 yards with the 63/RL-15.5 charge under the 225 AB. 3.38" OAL (still a big jump to the lands) and CCI200. Rifle is a 35 Whelen AI. Temps were 66-79 F.
I missed three chrono readings, so with n=6 the speed was 2716 FPS with an SD of 5.
Groups were 2.11, 1.11, and 2.01"
I may have been shooting a bit poorly, but it didn't really feel that way. I'll take this as the back-up to my 9.3x62 on my upcoming elk hunt.

I'm really looking forward to trying more of the RL-15.5 with the 155 Scenar in the 30-06. That is showing a lot of promise in the one trial I made with it so far.

Cheers,
Rex

Posted to another thread. This powder may be the chidt for lighter bullets in the 30-06.
RL 15.5 initial 30-06 results