Tried RL22 in my 338 (Loved It!)

jawsman

jawsman

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G'day

I accidently bought some RL22 a while back for 338, but I only had light 200gr bullets, and no one I knew said it would be good for that bullet combo in 338.

They were wrong!

I recently got a copy of the lee reloading guide and low and behold it lists it as a good powder for the 200gr bullets I'm using for punching paper.

Funny thing to me though (never seen this before), was that the manual showed the min charge of RL22 was 78gr. The max charge was also 78gr, and it was a compressed load.

Having never used a load like this in the past, I was obviously a little nervous basically putting a max, compressed, load into a first load with a new powder.

Last night I loaded up 4 just to try.

Went to the range this morning and holly hell what a kick this round had. I know my 338 kicks like a dam mule most days, but this round with the RL22 kicked my ass.

Grouping was excellent with 3 of the four all touching each other the fourth just a inch higher than all the rest.

I'm a very happy camper right now...............
 
Any pressure signs? It would have been a good idea to load 5 rounds at lower charges and work up to the big one. It would also be a good idea to chronograph the load and see if you are running in danger territory for velocity.

Alliant's site lists a max load of 78.0gr RL-19 with a 225gr bullet. You are running a lighter bullet and slower powder, so it seems reasonable to expect lower pressures with your combo, but it is not a guarantee.

Mark
 
From the first look of the brass I did not see any obvious signs of over pressure. No flattened primers, and the brass did not expand in the chamber causing it hard to open the bolt and remove the spent brass. Everything seems fine, but I will clean and inspect the brass more throughly tomorrow and have a better look.

Pressure, at least from Lee's reloading book, was shown to be substantially reduced over the H4350 loads I normally use.

The Lee reloading book shows that with the H4350 and a charge of 70.0gr's pressure would be in the 60K range. With the RL22, they listed the pressure with the 78gr's of RL22 at something like 43K (do not have the book open with me right now). That's almost 20K lower pressure.
 
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