Engineering101
Well-Known Member
chad
You are right about RL-19 - it is temp sensitive (as are RL-22 and RL-25). They are great powders if temp stability is not an issue in your application but in hunting - not so good. RL-17 and RL-33 comes from Nitrochem in Switzerland and they use a different technology which seems OK in temp stability. I ran a QuickLoad powder survey for the 280 Rem with 160 gr Accubond (assuming a 24 inch barrel). There were 4 powders that appeared to be worth a look:
53.9 gr Ramshot Hunter gave 2845 fps
50.0 gr RL-17 gave 2818 fps
55.6 gr H4831SC gave 2803 fps
52.0 gr H4350 gave 2786 fps
All these loads produced pressurs in QL that was at least 2,000 under the 60,000 psi limit of the 280. The H powders will have the best temp stability. I would try the H4831SC first but the others don't suck. I've found Ramshot Magnum to be very temp stable but I don't know if that holds true for Hunter which gave the top velocities but you could give it a try as well.
You are right about RL-19 - it is temp sensitive (as are RL-22 and RL-25). They are great powders if temp stability is not an issue in your application but in hunting - not so good. RL-17 and RL-33 comes from Nitrochem in Switzerland and they use a different technology which seems OK in temp stability. I ran a QuickLoad powder survey for the 280 Rem with 160 gr Accubond (assuming a 24 inch barrel). There were 4 powders that appeared to be worth a look:
53.9 gr Ramshot Hunter gave 2845 fps
50.0 gr RL-17 gave 2818 fps
55.6 gr H4831SC gave 2803 fps
52.0 gr H4350 gave 2786 fps
All these loads produced pressurs in QL that was at least 2,000 under the 60,000 psi limit of the 280. The H powders will have the best temp stability. I would try the H4831SC first but the others don't suck. I've found Ramshot Magnum to be very temp stable but I don't know if that holds true for Hunter which gave the top velocities but you could give it a try as well.
