Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Tried RL-33 in a few rifles this weekend

Alliant has very limited load data. Very hard to find it mentioned on their data page. I e-mailed them they sent loads for the following:

7 Rem mag, 7 STW , 300 Weatherby, 300 win mag, 338 lapua

Compared their data with other sources then tried it in three rifles. It is definitely slower than Retumbo.

Two rifles were using Retumbo so I just started close to the Retumbo loads and worked up. Third rifle used RL-25.

Here are the finalized results of two days of testing:

7 Rem mag
24" Rem barrel, moly coated 162 A-max seated .010" into rifling.

Original load: moly 162 A-max 72 gr of Retumbo 2975 fps

RL-33:
starting load 76 gr vel 2837
Unfortunately the chrono had to be adjusted, shot without it till they had a ceasefire.
worked up to 79 gr for vel of 3000 for very small gain over Retumbo
80 grs showed a hint of lift and a small shiny spot on casehead.

I used a bullet seating comparitor and noticed that even with the use of a drop tube the powder was filling the case. 79 gr and up caused the OAL to lengthen due to over compression of powder making the OAL longer so it wouldn't fit into magazine.

I can see why Alliant only mentioned a load for the 175 gr bullet.
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257 Weatherby 28" SS 3 groove Lilja, moly 110 accubond:

Original load 75.5 gr of RL-25 vel 3614 fps



83 3625 which slightly faster than old load with RL-25
83.5 3674 fps shot well two shots were same velocity
84 gr 3704 fps shot well two shots were same velocity
84.5 gr 3735 slight signs of pressure on one case of four this is max case capacity with drop tube

This makes a 91 fps gain over a max load of RL-25

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6mm-284



6mm-284 105 gr non moly Berger target hybrid

Worked up to 64.5 gr which showed slight lift with very tiny shiny spot on case head from Rem 700's ejector hole. (This is with 8 times fired lapua brass)

62.5 gr 3376
63 gr 3414
63.5 gr 3453
64 gr 3485 fps excellent accuracy
64.5 gr 3535 a bit warm max case capacity using drop tube


Old velocity with Retumbo was 3307 which was the highest charge of powder without pressure issues. RL-33 yielded a 178 fps increase!


Thought I'd share this. Looking forward to reading the findings of others.

Good report Azshooter .
What bullet weight in the 6mm-284?

Pale Rider,

It is the 105 gr Berger target hybrid. I corrected the original post. Thanks for pointing that out.

For a 105gr that is fast!
Looks like that powder shows promise .
Keep us posted.

Thanks for response in LRH forum. So its (RE#33) not available in stores yet ?( I have the 3 big gun stores here in town)I'll check it out. Hey that Berger 105 hybrid,is only .20 BC more then Sierra 107 MK for the difference in price I wonder if its worth it ?

The increased BC may not seem like much but for longer shots why not use all the BC you can get? That hybrid is also seating depth friendly. Heck it beats Berger's 115 VLD for BC.

I used those 107 sierra MK till the hybrid came along. Your choice.

In the 7mag, this powder would be most efficient with a longer 26" barrel and bullets heavier than 180 grain to see it's maximum effectiveness.

Thanks for the write up AZ. I can see R33 being an option in my 6-06 and 257 Wbys.

Powder valley is out of stock,for how long I wonder ?

Just checked Graff and Sons has both 1 lb and 8 lb in stock:

https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/3512/page/3?

Anyone try this in a 300 RUM yet

Yes just tried the 300 RUM this week. will make a new thread about it.

What kind of data did you get for the .300 Win Mag?

This is what Alliant sent me on the 300 win mag:

300 win mag 220 sierra mk, OAL 3.510" Fed 215 fed brass 79.6 gr RL 33 @ 2780 fps pressure 63,415 (PSI)

RL-33? Boy it seems like everytime I turn around there's some new wonder powder out. How many guy's change loads everytime this happens? Geez, the loads in most my rifles are older than a lot of the members on here. Just curious.

Hi Don,

I'll admit that I usually don't change pet loads. After reading about RL-17 a few years back I was so impressed I decided to try it. The big difference with this powder is the longer burning curve and high load density that yields much faster velocities. Two well known shooters did some pressure testing with several rifles and scientifically proved it is different. Read of their tests here: http://www.6mmbr.com/reloder17.html

I am very pleased with the performance of RL-17 in a 284, 6mm-rem, 338 RCM and 300 WSM. I read that Alliant was going to import RL-33 which is a magnum version with characteristics shared with RL-17, so I was determined to get some as soon as it showed. I'll admit it is very slow powder but it will boost velocities in a few cartridges just like RL-17 does.

Not sure you read the entire thread. The 6mm-284 and 300 RUM showed the most velocity increases, and the 257 weatherby showed a bit less. All three rifles pet loads have been switched which entailed pulling bullets, resizing and reloading. For me the change is worth doing.

AZshooter - thanks for the .300 Win info - did they mention what the load density was with that load? It looks as though it may be a touch slow for the .300 WM and 7mm RM.

The load data from Alliant is very limited. No mention of load density. Based on my 7 Rem mag test with a 162 A-max you cannot get enough powder in the case to max it out, even with a drop tube.

I think if you were to run a 220-240 gr bullet in the 300 win mag you could see some good results. Forget trying lighter bullets.

FYI there is a guy on LRH who hunted withhis 300 win mag the 230 gr Berger OTM hybrid last year. The OTM and the target hybrid are the only available bullets to date. No hunting versions yet. However both are very similar in performance to the heavy VLD hunting bullets except the bearing surface is a few thousandths thinker. I will be using the 230 gr target version with its higher BC for cow elk this year. I have no doubts on what it will do. Here is the link:

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f19/berger-230-300-otm-hybrid-terminal-results-80283/

Thanks for the link.