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. First impressions are, it may be more suited to the Short mag or at least lighter bullets.....RichI stuck 56 grs. RL17 in my 6.5 Sherman the other day behind a 140 Berger (I shoot 56 H4350 just fine) The velocity was impressive but I can't use that case anymore! I guess that's why we always say to "work your way up"
I'm surprised though that you over pressured with 56 grs in the Sherman case which has the same capacity as a WSM. It might be that the Sherman case id just a little too long and skinny for 17? Were your bullets seated to the lans? You might have experienced some bridging as well with that much empty case space?
The bullets were seated into the lands and it could be that the RL-17 builds pressure a little quicker? As to the vast difference in velocity between the E-tips and TTSX, that could very well be a difference in bullet construction (bore sealing). I've seen some pretty radical differences at times and neither of those are conventional bullets. I do plan on doing some more testing with RL-17, especially with my 300 Sherman, but this time I'll use a little more sane approachI dont consider myself an expert on powders (not by any means) but I think I have a fairly good idea what will work with the cartridges I load for and maybe a few others.
On thing I have said before on a couple of occasions, and I'm sticking to it so far, is that RL17 will always be the first powder on my to try list for any cartridge from the Dakota class on down to the 223, and that includes the belted mags from the 350 RM and down. It has impressed me that much. I have seen it water my eyes in both the WSM case and the .06 case (in the 25-06)
If I had a 25 WSM, I would sure try some 17. I would be guessing as much as you where to start, but something less than 60 gr should be a good starting point. Maybe 55. My max in the 25-06 which has a little less capacity than the WSM is 55.5 gr for the 110 and 115 Noslers. So "I would think" that 55 gr would be a very safe place to start if you're guessing. I would hope to get above 60 gr to get a good case capacity percentage.
Yeah Rich, working up is always a good idea
One thing that I notice with RL17 is that it seems to be a finicky powder. It is consistent in the same load and rifle. But if you change rifles or bullets, etc., it's possible to see big differences. One example is in my 300 WSM (Sako 85 Finnlight). It will shoot 180 E-Tips @ 3190 fps with 67.5 gr, but it will only shoot 168 TTSX's @ 3150 fps with 65.5 gr of powder and that just does not seem right at all. Another LRH member was able to get 3350 fps with 69 gr of 17 pushing 168 TTSX's in a custom barreled Rem. A huge difference. I have seen/read other similar variations with other reports.
