I actually found a couple pounds of RL16 and have done a little testing but am curious what others have found to be promising loads. Especially with the 130-140gr bullets.
I'm running Alpha brass which is considerably thicker than Hornady brass. Load is 40.6 gr behind a Hornady 140 ELD. Gives me 2710 fps out of a 26" barrel.
In Alpha Brass, all you can fit under a 120 BT works great. It works very well with the 140 ELDM and 143 ELDX as well, but RL26 seems to yield a little more velocity.
Tried 41gr of r16 with 140gr Speer Hot Cors - shot several 1/2" 3 shot groups. Avg about 2725fps. Hdy brass and cci 200 primers. Just picked up some 140 SST's and 140 Interlocks to try. Never really got 140's to shoot well with H4350.
42.0 with 140SST's in Horady Cases, CCI 200 2.800 OAL was very promising this weekend. Several 1/2" groups at 2730fps. 41.0 with 140 SP Interlocks at 2.710 OAL is a fantastic load also out of my Bergara. Starting to not miss H4350 as much.
Getting roughly 3000 fps with RL-16 and 135 Hornady A-Tips from my 6.5 CM with Fed 210s in Hornady Brass in a 24” barrel and the same load gets me 2800 fps out of a 16” barrel 6.5 CM.
Would you go RL 16 or RL 17 for lighter 120-130 grain copper monolithic pills? [/quote]
Not the original poster but I am using R-16 for loads I previously used R-17 due to cleaner burning and reduced temperature sensitivity. Loads and velocities will be really close, not completely interchangeable but close. The only time 16 won't work is if you are already compressing the load with R-17, 16 is less dense.
Same with R22 & R-23 but they don't load as closely as 16 & 17.