New powder for 7mm RM?

[remingtonman_25_06]

Hey all. Been thinking lately about my RL-22 situation. I worked up a load consisting of 64g under a 168g VLD. It was shooting barely over 1/4" at 100 yards and going 2940fps. Great!! Loaded about 30 rounds with the powder I had left and shot them all. Ran down to the store, bought a new can of RL-22, came home dumped in 64g RL-22. Went shooting the next morning and now they shoot 3100fps and groups doubled. Hmmm, must be that dang Alliant powder known for being inconsistent from lot to lot, and temperature changes. Well truth is, I love the load, but I dont think I want to deal with this powder. Its really a pain in the butt. So I am left looking at the powder burn rate charts to see where Rl-22 is. Looks like H-4831 is one ahead of Rl-22 so it should work ok. I see that norma MRP is after RL-22, but thats real hard to find. Next up is Vihtavouri N165. Never shot any "V" powders, any comments on them??? Do you think it would be worth a shot? Next is IMR-7828. I know it works quite well in the 7mm with 160g+ bullets, but I know that IMR is pretty temp sensitive and I dont wanna deal with that. Right after that is H-1000. The way I see it, I can go with H-4831, N165, or H1000. I want to keep at least 2900fps with the 168g and under .5 MOA. Any suggestions???

 

[41mag]

Have you given Ramshot MAgnum a thought? I have shot some from a cople of 7mags and it does pretty well. I am not sure on the temps yet though. Also when you load these powders they recommend standard primers. I know that in two cases, it did make for tighter groups, and closer velocity spreads.

From the Ramshot Q/A page

Q: It's been my experience that I need to use a magnum primer with spherical powders. Do I need to use a magnum primer with Ramshot powders?
A: While this may have been true with spherical powders in the past, Ramshot powders employ a new technology of coatings which increase ease of ignition, cleanliness and in most cases decrease temperature sensitivity. You also have to take into account your firearm's accuracy which may or may not perform better with magnum versus non-magnum primers.

Might be worth a try if you have anywhere up there to get some.

 

[Reloader]

I personally would just back off of the R22 charge and see if accuracy comes back. R22 is tough to beat in the 7RM. I do admit, it's best to buy it in 5lb jugs as w/ any powder.

As far as your other choices H4831 is pretty slow in the 7RMs I've tried it in but you may find an accurate load w/ it. H4831 has performed much better for me w/ lighter bullets such as 140s in which it gave descent speed and good accuracy.

IMR7828 gives great speed w/ the 150+ pills. I had poor spreads w/ it under 150 NBTs in two 7s.

I'm not sure I'd recommend H1000 to anyone in a 7 due to a hot lot I purchased not too long ago. That particluar lot worked well w/ minimum loads but, maxed out far before it should have. Burned alot like 4831.

Good Luck

Reloader

 

[keithcandler]

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and the answer is simple for you. You should buy one or two 5 lb'ers of R#22. Just for the record, buying one pound of powder at a time is a recipe for disaster no matter what brand of powder. You should expect for lot to lot variations of %5 when you open up a new lot of powder. If you have not experienced this fact, you have been extremely lucky. Some brands of powder are worse than others, but I never assume they are the same. I had extremely good luck with h4831 with the 160-162g bullet weights in a 7 Mag, and I would consider it to be a great alternative to R#22. I have one 7 Mag that shoots a single ragged hole with H-4831 with the 162g Hornady.

good luck

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I think I've narrowed it down to H4831sc, H1000, and IMR7828. Just dont know which would give top accuracy and velocity. I'll be buying one of them soon to test with either the 162g amax this time, or stick with the 168g vld. Care to share the specs on your load with the 162g and h4831??

 

[Reloader]

Out of those you've narrowed it to, the 7828 is the fastest followed by 1000 & 4831 in my two 7s. The 1000 and 4831 are the most accurate of the three in these two rifles but, H4831 is slloooowwww in all of the 7RMs I've run it through.

H1000 under 150 MKs is a pretty good shooter in my sendero. Like I said, be careful w/ it, the last pound I bought of it was hot.

Good Luck

Reloader

 

[keithcandler]

The rifle that I have shot likes 66g of H4831 using a 9 1/2 with the bullet touching the lands. It also liked 72.0-72.5g of H-1000 using the 215's. You know how lot# of powder can vary Up to 5% so work up to these loads. I think that you will love the 162 A Max. I loaded the 162 SST and the accuracy was unreal and it performed fantastic on game, DRT effect...no gimpers!

It's fun to try different powders, so don't be scared to spend $25 on a pound of powder. When you find the load for your rifle with one of these powders, don't be surprised if it shoots less than 1/2". The 7 Mag really loves the 160-162g bullets. I bet my family has killed at least 200 deer with the 160g Sierra BT Spt loaded with Rem brass, 9 1/2, and 61.0g of IMR 4350.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Thanks Keith. I wrote those down for future references. I actually went ahead and bought 2 cans of RL-22. That was all they had of the same lot #. I was hoping for 3-4 lbs, but 2 lbs will give me about 250 rounds so that should be okay. Only thing is, I got to work my load back up again, as this lot is different. I also bought some 160g AB's to try. Forgive me for asking, but what are you guys using for RL-22 and the 160g AB?? Is it around 64-66g?? I know my rifles will go 3000fps with 160g+weights, just hoping the 160g AB will print .5" group at 100 yards, and stay around .5moa-.75 moa out to 700. I"ve only played with 1 powder and 2 bullets with this rifle and so far its liked what I've fed it, 140g btip and 168g vld w/Rl-22. Hopefully the 160g AB will cooperate just as well.

 

[keithcandler]

My 700 7Mag rifle liked 65g or R#22 with a cci250 with the 162g. R#22 is so radical from lot to lot...my load does not mean a thing to you. I would start off at 64g and go up. Touch the lands with the bullet and watch for pressure. Let us know how you do with the A max if you shoot it.

By the way, I had fantastic luck with the 154g SST also. I shot 3 bucks at 270-330 yards. Two of the bucks flopped, and one hopped straight up in the air and fell over backwards...dead. Load was 63.0g of IMR 4350, Rem brass, 9 1/2 primer, bullet jammed the lands by .003.

Good luck!

 

[zingdingo]

Remman,

For the record, I just had the exact same thing happen to me using H4831sc in my 6.5/284. I have decided the next time I run out of it I'm just ponying up for a 8 lb jug. I'm a poor kid too, but I don't want to have to redo my load development with every pound of powder, and in the end, it's ultimatly cheaper as well.

Best of luck,
Carl

 

[Reloader]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it around 64-66g??

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I'd start w/ 64 at the most and work up, you already know how the lot variances can be.

My favorite load right now is 66grn of R22 pushing the 160 ABs(R+P Brass, 215GMMs). It only gets 3060-3080 fps but the accuracy is pretty good for the rifle(around 1" at 200). I'll be using that load for my Elk and Mulie hunt next month.

Good Luck

Reloader

 

[coupalr]

I wish I had bought enough of the same lot of RL-22 to wear my 300 win mag barrel out. I bought 8lbs in December when I started my load development and I am on my last lb now.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I only had enough brass to try 1 load. I tried 64g RL-22 and it didn't shoot very well. About 1.5" at 100 yards. Velocity was 3075fps. They were within 3070-3080fps. Im thinking about dropping it down to see if it will tighten up. I dont think they'll tightne up anymore by going up. I bought some new winchester brass though so I"ll have to work up anyways. I also bought a box of the 162g AMAX's. So I have a little bit of loading and testing to do out of my 7 mag to keep me busy for a while. I'm going to be working on 160g AB and 162g AMAX with Rl-22. I have 2lbs of the same lot. We'll see how it goes.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I went ahead and loaded up some 160g AB's, and 162g AMAX"s with 61g, 62g 63g RL-22. New Win cases, Fed 215 primer, seated to touch the lands with both bullets. I forgot my locking piece on my tripod to use my cronograph, I was mad at the very least /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif Anyways, I wanted to shoot the 162g amaxes first so I shot the 61g load. It put the first 2 in the same hole, w/ the 3rd out about 1/4". Not to shabby, 3/8" group. 62g was same scenario, just a little bigger overall group, about .75". 63g the first 2 shots were 1 inch so I didn't even shoot the 3rd. I figure I'll work around the 61g load and cronograph next time out. Hopefully get to shoot a 162g amax into some newspaper as well. Next was 61g rl-22 and 160g AB. 3 shots were a nice litle cloverleaf. Couldn't believe it, but I better! A tad over 1/4" will work for me. 62g put 2 about .5" with a 1" flyer. I didn't even shoot the 63g load. So it looks like 61g RL-22 is under .5" for both 160 AB, 162 AMAX. I just hope the velocity isn't under 2900fps! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif My cameras batteries are still dead so no pics of the targets.