Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 30-06 180g & rl22 loads

Gents, let me rephrase...

If you use rl22 w/180g bullets in your 30-06 what is your best chronoed fps?

Up to 61g at 2725, which seemed a bit slow against the book and this is my 24" tube.

Checked chrono against known loads & OK--made sure it wasn't rl25...scale...seating etc

Here's an interesting place for info. Tester pushed load pretty good in an '06. Granted it's "his" gun but I would say his gun is not out of ordinary.
http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2511043/m/316101735

BTW...alot of newer guns have a ton of freebore. I have a 2 yr old rem 308 that has so much it's almost like a weatherby...can never get close to the rifling with clip length bullets. It easily digests another 1.5-2 grains of powder more than alot of data I find from reloaders to do good 308 speeds.
Also worked with 2 friends 300wsms this summer. One had alot of freebore and was 100 fps slower than the other with the same ammo. Gonna have to work up on that one a bit.

Hey Kraky--thanks. I figured there had to be someone out there that actually has shot rl22...:)

Have a long throat but have mag to match...

I tried it and IMR 4064 the same day and the 06
I was testing did better with the 4064 @ 2800+

thanks TC-just checking my rl22 data with the herd.

appears to me being bowlegged with that nut sack will be the end of squirrel...

I think my most accurate was 60 grains, might be 61. I don't have my notes with me. I recall only getting about 2650 with partitions from my 22 inch Ruger tang safety. Kills everything and shoots less than 3/4 inch. But a little slower than the books say. As I recall, the 4350's gave more velocity, but were slightly less accurate in that rifle.
Bfly

tomk: 61 grains of RL-22 / 180 E-tips gets me 2,760 avg. fps out of my pre-64 M70 with 22-inch barrel.

61 grains RL-22 / 180 Partitions gets me only 2,620 avg. fps out of my Rem 700.

Just shows how every barrel/bullet/chamber nets different results. H4350 and IMR4350 have replaced RL-22 for me in the 30/06, both for accuracy and velocity. YMMV!

Why all the fuss over an extra 100 FPS..The 30-06 with a 180 gr. bullet at 2700 FPS is where it made its reputation..2800 FPS does not change one thing.

I shoot my 06 with 180 and 200 gr. Partitions at 2700 FPS and I have killed everything including Eland, Blue Wildebeest, and Cape Buffalo..I have seen it kill Lions, Leopards, bison, Moose, and the big Alaskan bears.

The only reason to load the 06 to hot loads is if the accuracy is better, but brass won't last long.

Why all the fuss over an extra 100 FPS..The 30-06 with a 180 gr. bullet at 2700 FPS is where it made its reputation..2800 FPS does not change one thing.

I shoot my 06 with 180 and 200 gr. Partitions at 2700 FPS and I have killed everything including Eland, Blue Wildebeest, and Cape Buffalo..I have seen it kill Lions, Leopards, bison, Moose, and the big Alaskan bears.

The only reason to load the 06 to hot loads is if the accuracy is better, but brass won't last long.

Pick the powder and bullets that give you the best accuracy..I like several powders, H414, RL-22, IMR-4831, IMR-4064 to name a few..They all give an easy 2700 FPS with 180s and they all seem to produce good accuracy..The 06 is not a picky eater.

Ray, allow to to help you a bit with the context. It is not a post about the highest velocity for an 06, nor was I looking for other loads.

I was trying to find out from other users if my results fell within the normal distribution. They apparently do.

The loading manual's velocity results are considerably higher for the same load and those velocities appear to be the exception.

I can live with a 100fps spread and call it the barrel/chamber dimensions--200fps makes me wonder...

I had good luck with RL-22 in a 24" barrel. When I cut that barrel to 22", velocity dropped off much more than I expected.

Also, I got great velocity with RL-22 in a 220-grain bullet.

Go figure...


Okie John

I got great accuracy in an '06 with 180's. One rifle got 2825 fps with 58.5g of RL22. Another with a sloppy chamber was right at 2800, but I had to stuff 62g in there and if left too long without firing, the shoulders would bulge out from the compressed load, so I had to go to a faster powder, or shoot the reloads quickly! I believe both factory rifles, one a Winchester, the other a 721, had stock barrels, whatever that was, probably 24".