Just picked up some Reloder 17. Anyone else tried it yet?

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GJgo

GJgo

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I have a 300 WSM that I have a good load for, and a 270 WSM that I don't. I've read some good things about the RL17 so when it hit the shelf today in my local store I grabbed a pound.

Anyone else experimented with it yet? I looked around Google a bit, and while this is touted as a short mag powder, most of the things I saw were guys using it in their wildcats..
 
I haven't found it yet, but it seems to put up some good numbers on the Alliant site in quite a few calibers.
Let us know how it works.

NCsmitty
 
GJgo,

What part of Colorado? I've been wanting RL17 for months to use in 300wsm and .30/06. I'm going to be in Durango for a hockey tournament this weekend, but I don't remember any likely places to buy powder up there.
 
I got it at Jerry's Sporting Goods in Grand Junction- they got a case of it in the other day. Bit of a drive from Durango though..
 
I use RL19 for my 300WSM loads with good results. It's a bit slower than RL17 but they're both good powders.

:)
 
Neither RL19 nor H4350 really gave me what I was looking for (although the latter is close) in my 270wsm..

I just ran my first set of RL17 loads at the range today. Regarding this particular 270wsm I own, which has been a real bugger to find a load I like for, I for the first time today saw some consistency that I liked using the RL17 and 130gr accubonds.

To compare, in this rifle I can run the 130gr accubond in front of 63gr H4350 and it runs 3395 over my chrony with a low SD. In my gun this is approaching the max load from watching the signs. The grouping is fine, but I've just been wanting to keep looking for more, if you know what I mean. Despite the low SD the groups just aren't real consistent.

So, how did the RL17 do? Pretty good, actually. So far I ran it up as much as 62gr for 3350, and 63gr for 3380. While the SD isn't quite as low as with the H4350, the groups are more consistent and tighter- the first time I've ever seen consistency in this darn thing! I can tell that there's still some headroom in the load as well, so I'm going to go back for more and start to creep up in smaller increments while watching for sign.

So, is RL17 getting me that magical extra speed? Not in this gun it isn't. However, at around the same speed the extra consistency is welcome.

Maybe someday I'll try it in my 300wsm to check for speed. Probably after I shoot up my sweethart load though in case I like what I see more. :D
 
I have read that article- thanks for the link.

Just got back from another go around. Turns out that there was quite a bit of headroom still- I crept up on 3500 FPS before I saw any pressure sign! However, the groups were opening back up so I stopped there.

I backed up the great grouping and low enough SD with the 63gr (RL17) load, and it was still in the 3380-3400 range. That's smokin- Weatherby territory. I think I've found my new load. :)
 
Today I tried some 130gr TSX with the RL17. Previously I could do nothing to make various Barnes shoot in my 270wsm, and this is still the case with the new powder. Monster groups. So, it's back to the Accubonds which are doing very well. Sportsman's Wherehouse just got some RL17 in 5lb jugs, so I'm set!
 
In my 270 wsm that hates them, yes. I clean and clean and clean.. guess what I'm doing as we speak in fact! It's a blued barrel.

In my 300 wsm that loves the TSX, no. I can literally have that barrel spotless in 5 minutes of cleaning- it's amazing. It's also stainless, FWIW.
 
The 300 is just a smoother barrel. The chrome-moly steel of the 270 is rougher and catches the copper from the TSX.
How many rounds through the 270, is it still fairly new?

NCsmitty
 
It's got 150 or 200 rounds through it. The first 25 were shoot clean shoot clean, the next 25 were shoot 3 or 4 then clean. It just never smoothed out like my stainless barreled long guns did despite basically the same break-in procedure.
 
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