Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles RL17 and the 325 WSM

Been giving some thought to trying RL17 in my 325 WSM. I am currently using IMR 4007SSC and Sierra's 220 gr. GK. The groups are good just thought I might try it for a velocity increase!

Anybody try it???

I've not used 4007 in the .325 WSM that I load for(not my gun, but I'm doing the loading), but I have used RL 17. I got the highest velocities of any of the powders I tried(while staying below the pressure warning levels), but that was with 150 gr Speers. I'll be getting some 220 A-Frames later this week for a better comparison.
For another comparison, I've used both 4007SSC and RL17 in my .358 Norma and certainly get better velocities with RL17, and it fills the case a little better.
Also consider Big Game. That's been my top accuracy powder.
If I could ever find Hunter, I'd try that too.

Please keep me posted on the velocities you get with the 220's and RL17. Is the rifle you are using these on have a 22 or 24 inch tube?


My velocities are not all the good with the 220's and 4007 but the accuracy is stellar!

It's a 24" barreled M70 coyote lite. I'm getting 3340 with 71.5 gr of RL17, and 73 gr of Big Game get me 3320. I'll post those 220 loads probably Saturday, assuming the 220s arrive by then.
Oh hey, just checked my reloading notes, I did try 4007.and got 3240 with 70.5 gr.
I was planning on trying 4007 with the 220s also, Plus RL19 and 22. Maybe some N160 or N165 also.
Of all the powders I've tried in my .358 Norma, which uses the same range of powders that the .325 seems to like, I've got the highest velocities with Accurate 3100, like 2875 with 81 gr and 250 gr bullet. That's not a .325, but you may also try it.
What kind of velocity did you get with that 4007? I was planning on going up to 62 gr. I think that's the load on Hodgdon's website.

Running with a 22" tube out of my BLR I averaged 2616 FPS with 61.0 grs. of 4007. Accuracy is great. Maybe the slow velocity is because of it having a 22" barrel. Or maybe the barrel is slow!

Rich, for what it's worth, 2600-ish is what the factory 220's clocked from my BLR.

I'm very interested in what you guys get from RL17, can't wait to try that myself sometime! That said, I did go velocity huntin' with my .325's and the best performer for my two rifles with bullets up to 200 grns is good ol' H4350. It gives me 29xx fps with 200's, and close to 3100 fps with the 180 TSX.

That's at MAX.

One final thought. Especially if you desire velocity, I can't see any reason to run 220's in the lower 48. Even the relatively "soft" 200-gn Accubond gave me plenty of penetration on elk- exit wound on one, under the hide on the other after hitting major bone. Gotta think the 180 or 200 TSX or the 200 Partition would, on average, penetrate even more.

So I'd just load 200's at 2900+ and rock it unless I was going brown bear hunting.

I clocked 220 power points in this gun averaging 2775, spread from 2801 to 2745 or so, but mostly in the 2770s. At least with the loads I wrote down it averaged 2778. I'm sure you're right about a 200 grn Accubond or TSX being more than enough for anything, but this is what we're gonna roll with for now on elk. If they don't shoot, it's a different story.

The reason I went with the 220's is that I have enough difles running the 150 to 200 gr. range..............just thought I'd try something heavier.

exbiologist, was that with handloads or factory? I was shooting the factory fodder from a 22" barrel when I clocked them. I have never shot them from my 24" Kimber; I still have half a box so I'll do that sometime.

Rich, whatever floats your boat!! I'm just happy that other guys are running .325's. In case you didn't know, that deer I shot in the butt last year, that smashed the hip joint and went the whole length of the deer from only 40 yards or so away (so impact speed was high), was with my .325 and 200 Accubonds.... they penetrate. The cow elk I shot, the bullet hit the elbow joint first, on the way through the top of the heart, and that's a very large, solid bone mass on an elk. It still made it to the offside hide.

I know what you mean about slotting things into a mental "scale" like that. For me, it goes like this:

120-140 gn, 7mm-08
150-180-gn, 30-06
200-220, .325 WSM
225-250 gn, .338 WM

As you can see I'm not much for light-for-caliber bullets myself.

Jeff, that was with factory loads shot on Saturday, it was a little warm probably in the high 80s. I'm waiting on the 220 A-Frames to arrive before I try a 220 handload. I have little doubt about getting sufficient penetration with those. That said, I'm sure the 200 Accubond would be good, but not gonna try those till we see what the A-Frames want to do. Hoping for 2800 fps, but we'll see.
The only Manual I've seen so far with 220 loads for the .325 WSM is Lyman #49. It looks like RL 22 and IMR 4831 give the top velocities for them with the Sierra 220.

Wow, I'll have to clock them in my Kimber! Maybe my BLR barrel is slow. It does foul something fierce.

I ran the Accubond as much to piss off the TSX guys as anything. I think you will be stylin' with ANY of the bullets mentioned on this thread.

Back on topic... Is RL17 well-behaved? Meter good, no craziness at temperature extremes, etc?

How do you think a 200gr TSX would gel in the 325WSM? What would one get(fps) approx. 2900-3000fps?
If I could get 2900+fps it would see me buy a FN Model 70 FW & give my 338WM a rest for a session

There is very little data on RL17 but if you want to know where to start go to the alliant powder website and order there pamplet it does not go into very much detail but it does give some max loads and velocities. Basically it gives you a good place to start.

I also changed to RL17 in my .270 winchester I was useing IMR 4830 had a very accurate load that was at 2925fps. I changed to RL17 this year and the load is just as accurate and i am getting 3110fps!!!

RL17 meters well, it's fairly short grained, but I don't know about temperature sensitivity. All I know so far is it's easy to get good velocities and decent accuracy. Haven't shot enough to tell you whether it's clean burning or not. That said, it does seem a little fast for a 220 grain bullet. I think I'm gonna try some slower stuff first.
As for 340 Wby, the Barnes manual suggests that 2950 with a 200 gr TSX is possible with 760, Nosler has 200 gr loads with RL 19 and Hunter going over 2950 also.

There was not much of a change at different temperatures. We took 10 rounds and put them in the frezer and shot them through the cornygraph and also shot 10 rounds at room temperature. The differance was about 30fps average between the 2.

I've got emails in to accurate/ramshot, alliant, swift and sierra for additional load data for the .325, especially with 220s. Maybe if you guys bug them too, we'll get some more ideas.

I just got off the horn with Sierra, they said they got top accuracy with 65.4 gr of RL22 with the 220 gr bullet. That was also their max load in the high 26 something range. He seemed to think anything from the 4350s to as slow as 7828 would be the optimum range for a .325 shooting 220s.

If you've got a loose chamber, you might go up to 67 gr of RL22 which is in the Lyman #49

I shot several boxes of 200-TSX through my .325's. Nice load. I get 2940 fps with them, at 67.5 grains of H4350 WHICH IS A BOOK OVERLOAD SO BE CAREFUL!!

I also have run the 180 TSX quite a bit. Another very interesting load. STA (Randy) gets 3100 fps with that bullet and one of the RL powders (not RL17); the best I could do was 3060 or so with good ol' H4350.

Both the 200 and 180 TSX are very accurate in my .325's.

FWIW, I posted a thread on the Gunwriter's forum a couple months ago seeking advice on maximum penetration from a .325 WSM. I was wondering what folks thought about the 220 A-frame in particular. It wasn't much of a thread, it got mobbed by the usual band of disruptive a-holes, but the general feeling was that if a guy seeks MAX penetration from a .325, the 200-gn TSX was the best bet.

Again, though, the "measly" 200-gn Accubond penetrates like a big dog, so that leaves me feeling that penetration isn't an issue worth losing sleep over. I like how the Accubond kills fast, has a good BC, is relatively cheap and easy to get, etc.

But there probably isn't a "wrong" choice, just many flavors of "right".