Rl-17

[Gray R]

Hey guys. Just a post that hopefully someone can find helpful. I had a 5 pound jug of 17 so I wanted to use it in my 6.5x284. I found that 50 grains still didn't show pressure but when I tweaked my coal 49 grains gave me .38 at 100 yards. This was at an indoor
Climate controlled range. Yesterday I took it out to shoot and the zero
Held the same in 93 degrees and didn't have pressure at all. And my chrono said 3015. So it may not work for everybody but it's worth a shot

 

[Trnelson]

I really like R17. It is useful in a lot of calibers. I started using it when Norma URP got all dried up. Now I have multiple # of each.

 

[Gray R]

Yeah so far ive uaed it in 308 and the 6.5 and it has been killer in both. Even more so the 308

 

[Trnelson]

If you like the R17 you will likely enjoy the results of URP. It is slightly slower and yields slightly better velocity. YMMV. I found a load using each of those powders so hopefully if powder gets short in supply again I can just switch to the other and know what I'm going to get.

 

[Gray R]

Yeah thatd be nice. The 17 isnt too hard to find yet but its worked so well if another crunch happens ill definitely buy 20 or so pounds. I hate not being to find what we want

 

[Trnelson]

I usually get 8# per rifle once I find the load I'm looking for. At the end of that it's probably time to re-barrel, or close to it. I won't get caught short on powder, brass, bullets or primers again.
Did you get your 6.5/284 to where you want it to be?

 

[Gray R]

I finally did thank god. I made the dummy round by barely seating and then closing the bolt on it and it gave me 3.16. So i loaded using that number as my max and i had as bad as four inch groups at 100. 8 didferent depths with rl-17 and H1000 gave me awful
Results and then i tried the dummy test again and it came up with 3.19. And that .03 made all the difference cause it tightened to .38 outside at 100 with 49 grains rl-17. And the load chronoed to 3015 so im very happy now. And i agree my rl17 jug is 5 poinds almost new ive got 100 lapua brass 3 firings and 100 virgin cases. Then enough bergers to kill my barrel so im at least set up woth this caliber

 

[HunterGreen]

Is that powder temp stable ??

 

[Trnelson]

It is not "as stable" as some of the extreme powders. That being said, in the rifle I use it in it shows a very predictable "deviation" as tempurature increases or decreases. Even the extreme powders show variation due to changes in tempurature. All powders I am aware of behave in that fashion. IMO, it's just a variable that a shooter must validate and log, YMMV.

 

[Gray R]

Also it seems that the loads become exponentially more sensitve when youre at or near max loads. I havent experienced this cause i dont think im
Anywhere near max but o have heard it about reloader powders. I worried about the temp
Sensitiity for a while but it was very accurate in several guns so im just going to chrono it about wvery fifteen degrees difference and ill be fine

 

[HunterGreen]

Also it seems that the loads become exponentially more sensitve when youre at or near max loads. I havent experienced this cause i dont think im
Anywhere near max but o have heard it about reloader powders. I worried about the temp
Sensitiity for a while but it was very accurate in several guns so im just going to chrono it about wvery fifteen degrees difference and ill be fine

Used rl19 for awhile, the groups I get @600yds are .733 3 shot groups. Velocity were 3254 from 30 inch tube loaded 44.1gr. .243 win lapua brass neck turned.

I thought I knew very well my deviations from hot to cold, a few times I was reaching 3644fps in 88° weather. Not cool if that were a hunt..

I will play around with H4350 & H4831