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RL 26 velocity change from lot to lot??

Yes I went back and looked at your (codyadams) post again. I had already read it thanks for the info. That's why I decided to do my own test. I figured since I was going to be traveling and shooting in different locations I might as well take some time to do a little experimenting too. I was just suprised to see so much velocity between lots. The 8lber I just opened so far has been faster so hopefully the second 8lber I have is the same. I ordered them at the same time. First time I had seen RL26 in months so I bought two.
 
A velocity increase of 100 FPS seems very high. A round count in the barrel of 150 is about where I have seen velocity increases with my barrels. I would check this. I have been working off several pounds of the same lot. Interestingly, running 54gr for 2950FPS with a 156 Berger game n my 6.5x284, 3050FPS with the 140's using 55.5gr, I have seen results from about a dozen other shooters that have velocities very close to my results under similar conditions. I would have to believe that we are all very likely using different lots of ammo. This has lead me to believe that the lot to lot consistency for R26 was pretty good. This of course might be a bad assumption, and it is a good ideas to test any new lot of powder. In any case anyone trying the loads I have described above should start a few grains lower and work up slowly to insure safe pressures.
 
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LWL said:
Just out of curiosity has anyone had big velocity changes with H1000 too from lot to lot? I have not experienced any?
Click to expand...

Yes. H1000 had a huge lot swing a few years ago. When you see people referring to the old H1000 their charges were 2-4 grains above current lots. A lot of guys were at 94 grains in their Edges, when the lot swing happened they saw blazing velocities and stuck cases. They all had to drop their charges down to what you see now.

While not nearly as drastic, I recently had to drop a 300 Win a grain when I opened a new 8lb bottle.
 
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Ya unfortunately I don't have any old powder left to try. Just have to keep on moving on. I will do some testing before running out of one supply completely again. But for now I will enjoy it while it lasts. My other guns did have an increase of about the same but not between trips to the range. It could be a little of a combination but I can't duplicate the conditions so that was the purpose of this thread. All have crossed my mind, may have been the perfect storm. I've been a longtime reader of this forum and have learned a lot but I am a results driven kinda of person so I tend to run my own testing anyhow. But thanks for the information from everyone.
 
I'm going to say more likely than not the reason for your velocity increase is not actually the powder, but the barrel breaking in. From my experience breaking in barrels, I see the most velocity increase around the 50-150 round count through a barrel. You said you just hit 150 rounds too. Also, some of your cases you're shooting now are fire formed. That should also increase velocity too whereas the virgin cases were slower at the beginning. If anything, I honestly don't think lots would be much different from each other. Maybe 30 FPS max in most cases. That's my opinion/ experience anyway...
 
Well the round count is what I personally put through the gun but I bought it used so I don't have an accurate count of total rounds. I will say that when I put the bore scope down the barrel I was surprised that the barrel had so much fire cracking between the chamber and the rifling. And no its not carbon. I cleaned to shiny steel. It did have a slight carbon ring but this was done before the change in velocity when I first bought the gun. The barrel took about 25 rounds to foul and accuracy returned. I was shooting a ladder of 175gn ABLR and wasn't liking the performance I was getting so I started shooting 162gn ELDX. But like I said this was before the rise in velocity also.
 
I had a nice load using in my 270 with a 140 Sierra 60.5 gr. I ran out grabbed another lb and was over max at 59.8. I stopped using it due to the variance. If I had an 8 lb jug I wouldn't have a problem
 
Looking back at numbers and notes I realized that I also dipped bullets in dry lube before seating bullets. First time I tried this. I am starting to refine my loading techniques and liking the results with lower ES/SD. I had never done that before but I suppose it could have helped with the velocity spike. The SD were all around 5 according to the Magneto Speed V3. That was 4 different powder charges .2 gn apart from 66.6gn to 67.2gn.
 
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