Southern AZ Temps and RL26

[105Coues]

I know tons of people are using this powder but have read a few posts about temp issues. Anybody have any personal experience with it. I hate to work up loads in the winter and not be able to use them in the summer. 6.5 prc, 270, 300wm
Thanks in advance.

 

[Dosh]

105, using RL26 in my 300 Win Mag here in the Salt River Valley in the 100's and last week in the 60's with no noticed difference in POI. This is the first cartridge I've tried RL26, but found several pounds so I thought I'd save some H1000 using it. Read lot of reviews it was quite stable.

 

[coop2564]

I shot RL26 a lot while working in West TX. Never saw any of the so call pressure spikes that many talk about. But I never work up a load thats at max in cold weather and expect it to not increase in pressure and velocity in hot weather. Hunting in South and west tx I know it can be 90 one day and 22 the next. So I load to where 100 will never put me over max. Its really that simple.

 

[QuietTexan]

Work up loads in the summer, that's prudent even with the so-called temp stable powders. Things can get funny over 100* no matter what you're using or where you are.

 

[105Coues]

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it. I am not looking for record speeds, just accuracy so I will definitely be staying away from max working it up now. Temps here vary from below zero to over a hundred.

 

[jasonco]

@coop2564 That's fine and good in West Texas, but her in CO, we have major temperature swings, to where, it's a good powder for velocity/accuracy, I won't load it anymore and just keep it on the shelf. December-June, is when I do the majority of my load development and a load for a 300RUM, that was stable, a week prior in 70's, was dangerous the next week, in the low 80's. And this was not a full house load!

 

[105Coues]

@coop2564 That's fine and good in West Texas, but her in CO, we have major temperature swings, to where, it's a good powder for velocity/accuracy, I won't load it anymore and just keep it on the shelf. December-June, is when I do the majority of my load development and a load for a 300RUM, that was stable, a week prior in 70's, was dangerous the next week, in the low 80's. And this was not a full house load!

Well chit..... thanks for chiming in and sharing that. I guess I will have some experiments to do.

 

[Feugo Jeuvo]

I live in Southern Arizona and specifically use RL 26 for the 6.5 PRC. I don't experience any pressure spikes and minor velocity changes from 55° to 95°. Velocities range from 2936 to 2954 fps with temperature changes. Acceptable in my opinion

 

[AZHTR]

I found this ..........

Temperature Sensitivity Test: IMR 8133 and Reloder 26

Just ran a fairly rigorous temperature sensitivity test on IMR 8133 and Reloder 26 in my 7mm RM. Equipment. 26" X-Caliber prefit, 1:8 twist, fluted heavy sporter. Sartorius high precision scale for powder charges ( ≤ 0.03 gr ES for charge weights) LabRadar Indoor/Outdoor thermometer set...

www.longrangehunting.com

 

[QuietTexan]

@coop2564 That's fine and good in West Texas, but her in CO, we have major temperature swings,

I lived in CO and West Texas each for a long time. Both places will see huge temp swings in one given day, 20* when you wake up with 40 mph winds then it's 90* by the afternoon. Just like in AZ, where you can see even more drastic freezing to 100* swings because that's how deserts work. No place has a monopoly on temp variability. Colorado just has better scenery while you're freezing your butt off in July. I still try to avoid loading for 100* temps unless they're just for shooting when it's that hot, I go for early mornings or evenings in the 70s-80s for summer load work. Things can get spooky with anything fast when you're talking legitimate 100*+ temps and you didn't work up there. Doesn't take much to bake a case in the sun or the chamber gets overheated by not cooling as fast.


When I was a younger man I've been in below zero actual temps both Colorado and Texas, over 100* both places, seen snow piled up over fences lines and cattle drifting down the highways in blizzards, eyes frozen over and dying because they're too stupid to paw the ground and you have toss hay on top of the snow for them. Chopping ice with a hatchet and wondering where the red ear tags came from but keeping them alive while hoping someone is doing the same for yours. I've seen the ground baked to where it splits open and the tufts of grass blow like tumbleweeds and you'd **** in your own hat just to wet your horse's tongue and you try to catch his for yourself and you walk beside him all day because you can't ride the poor thing when it's lathered up worse than you. 30 miles of fence lines and thank God nothing was broken this time because you don't think you could run the wire stretcher to fix a break if you found one. The smell of saddle soap and Hoppes and the rustle of metal on leather as you pull out the Winchester for a one-in-a-thousand shot that drops an antelope, sinking your teeth into the hot liver and tasting the copper blood knowing you'll make it home now. Knowing the sorrow of a broken chain on a windmill next to a dry tank with 50 dead sheep piled in the bottom but then the joy of finding a calf trussed up in the mesquite and seeing him run back to their mommas and saying your eyes are only wet because a thorn snuck past your tapadero. Definitely not because you're about to take his nuts and even after 50 years on the ranch that makes you shudder every time. I'll tell you about a time in scrub pines on Raton Pass where..........

 

[105Coues]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the feedback!