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The Lord has indeed blessed you if your only problem is having just 9 pounds of RL26. I have plans of testing this combo once we get above freezingI did a little preliminary testing in my 6.5CM with RL26 and the Hornady 143 ELDX to see if it was worth pursuing.
May have to take a closer look at it.
My gun is a Rem 700 LH 24" bbl & Leupold VX5 4x-20x-52 duplex scope.
My only problem is I've only got about 9 lbs of RL26 left and I been feeding it to a couple 30 Nosler's.
Problem is I could easily use 24+ pounds of the RL26....
I've got 5 guns that I could shoot the pixie dust in, and the 24 pounds I just mentioned would only feed one of them for barrel life, or not quite two of the others for barrel life.
I'm not so stuck on using RL26 that I forget about other powders (however, it would certainly be nice to have as much as I wanted/needed). I have plans for this 6.5CM of mine and it doesn't include RL26. I'm close enough on speed and same level of accuracy with another powder. Plus, I plan to test a couple of other powders as well. I do struggle to wrap my head around why RL26 does so well in the 65CM while other powders in similar burn rate are too slow.About 6 years ago, I was determined to have the supply of Re-26 I needed for the cartridges I was using it in. So, I spent some time locating and committing to buying as much as I could find in a 3 state area. I could drive those 3 states in a big circle in one extremely long day, buying up the powder supplies along the way. Arranging to meet all the buyers for their convenience, I started off very early on a beautiful day hoping that certain cities didn't slow me down too much.
21 hours later, I made it back to the shop to unload and get some sleep. The only thing I accomplished was to spend a lot of money in a very short period of time and avoid HAZMAT costs, tax and shipping. Of course all those taxes got leveled up by the fuel I used, wear and tear on the truck and my time making that drive.
The reality is that there are a couple of other powders which slip right into the niche that Re-26 created. As shooters/reloaders we might find a few pounds stashed somewhere in the country for a slight delay to the inevitable or pay those hoarders on certain auction sites their egregious prices.
The reality is that Alliant powder has made their choice and we are in the predicament of eventually running out of Re-26. It's most likely that it could run into 10 years or so before powder companies return to their base users, reloaders and shooters. Russia is unlikely to capitulate to the Ukraine and the rest of the NATO countries are unwilling to let him steal the Ukraine for his own uses. I suggest that we give up on the remaining tiny supply of Re-26 and move onto those powders manufactured by companies still willing to take advantage of our desire to reload and shoot. No one powder may provide the exact performance of Re-26 but we surely need to move on.
This is where I am. I had a opportunity to purchase some RL26 but decided I had enough other powder's on my shelf that work very well in the 6.5 CM. No I'm not hitting 3000 fps and quite honestly I'm not even close but I have no problem grabbing a different rifle if I need another 200 fps.
Putting RL26 into the Creedmoor doesn't make it something it's not. Plus, the load data is out there even from reputable companies. So, why not take advantage of every thing you can, and certainly so in a cartridge that typically gets its capabilities pushed to the max anyway. Besides, it takes no more effort to load RL26, or any other powder that gains a ballistic edge, than any other powder.
