Reloader 26 w/180 vlds

[dok7mm]

After having great success with Reloader 26 and 168 vlds in my 7RM, I am wondering if anyone has tried RL-26 in 7stw with the 180 Berger vld or the target hybrid.

 

[ksubuck]

Since no one else has chimed in, I will say I don't have any experience using RL 26 in the STW.

I looked at RL 26 with the 180 VLD, but opted to use RL 33 instead. I liked the better projected case fill and the extra 100fps would move me up to the next OBT node at a reasonable pressure.

My final load is 86.5 grains RL 33 which runs 3110 fps out of my 26 inch barrel. I get 0.5 MOA accuracy, which is not as good as the bugholes I get using IMR 7828, but it is plenty good to hunt with.

 

[dok7mm]

Since no one else has chimed in, I will say I don't have any experience using RL 26 in the STW.

I looked at RL 26 with the 180 VLD, but opted to use RL 33 instead. I liked the better projected case fill and the extra 100fps would move me up to the next OBT node at a reasonable pressure.

My final load is 86.5 grains RL 33 which runs 3110 fps out of my 26 inch barrel. I get 0.5 MOA accuracy, which is not as good as the bugholes I get using IMR 7828, but it is plenty good to hunt with.

I used IMR 7828 in a previous STW throated for the 140 Noslers and enjoyed great accuracy, but current rifle is throated for 180 Bergers. Case fill with regular 7828 is running about 80% +/- at .010" jump and I was looking for 95% fill. After this post, I did some checking and the RL-26 is a faster burn than originally advertised. The .010" jump is by far the best seating depth in this rifle ( I tested to .090"). I have plenty of Retumbo and yesterday shot pressure tests with it, then 5 shot groups at 200 yards. Best load was at 77.0 grs, sd-3.1 es-6.0, @ 3032 fps. First round was 1" low and last 4 went into .388" group, so I'm loading up 25 more to test at 300 to 600 yds. to make sure it wasn't a fluke. This was first firing on Nosler 8mm RM brass resized and neck turned to .014" for .316 necked 26" 3B Bartlein 9 twist on a TAC 300. After annealing, I'll probably need to tweak load a bit as I'm using HBN in a nitrided barrel. I have always got good velocity with Retumbo, but always ended up using 7828 for accuracy. Maybe this time I'll get lucky. Thanks for your input ksubuck.