Anyone try RL 15 with lighter bullets in a 338 Win Mag? I've got 200 grain Hornady IL's that I wanted to load with it. So far with the 200's I've tried RL 19 with decent results and H4350 with poor results. Any experiences out there? Thanks!
338 Win Mag and RL 15?
- Thread starter mistahmojoryan
- Start date
I have had success with RL-19 and 225gr bullets. I am thinking of trying it with the 250's as well, but haven't got that far yet.
Mark
Hi: I have shot 180's and 185's using both Varget and Re15. They shoot extremely well and very accurately out of my 338's. 3000 to 3100 fps was the normal velocities I was obtaining. I also found that in my 338's, the faster burning and slower burning powders such as Re22 performed better than Re19 and the 4350's. Be careful using the Nosler information from the last manual because I found the loads a bit hot for my liking in my rifles. Steve
I don't know if RL15 and the 300WM would work. Here's a quote from John Barsness on why it works well in the 338WM with lighter bullets:
"A few years later I experimented with other powders. RL-19 also shot OK but was slow. Not enough powder could be stuffed in the case to quite get 2900 fps. Finally I noticed RL-15 among the powders in Nosler's manual, and tried 65 grains. It shot VERY accurately at about 2950 fps, and that's all I've used since. The load groups 3 shots into 1/2" to 3/4" in my rifle.
Many people think that since the .338 is a belted magnum that slow-burning powders are required, but in reality the bore-capacity ratio is about like the .30-06, so it makes sense that somewhat faster powders would work with lighter bullets. I've suspected that Ramshot Big Game would also work great with 200's, but have just started fooling with it."
