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[Ronald W Schaefer]

What bullets are you interested in for 6.8 Western? I've loaded up 145 ELDX, 170 EOL, and 165 ABLR.

LL, I've got 165 Nosler ABLR, 170 EOL and 175 Sierra Tipped Game King. I like the terminal performance and BC/SD of all three, just looking for whichever shoots best. Book performance of 165s at 2950 and lower pressure at max load than others kind of has my eye. Fierce zeroed and created custom turrets for the Winchester 162-gr copper solid factory ammo. They shoot pretty good but for whatever reason I don't love them. Also, I found RL-26 at Gun broker for a stupid price, so I pulled out my credit card and held my hands up as I paid for 2, 1lb. cans. It has so much use for all my other overbore mags cartridges I was considering the 8-pound cannister...but it was $1600.00...then I came back to earth and realized I have all the powders listed that are supposed to work in the 6.8 and RL-26 ultimately might not "wang the fun meter"...so just went with the exorbitantly overpriced 1 Lb cannisters--got 2 for experiments. I'm embarrassed to admit 2, 1Lb cannisters cost me $320.00--over $400.00 with tax title and shipping. Toys, right?

 

[Leaf Litter]

LL, I've got 165 Nosler ABLR, 170 EOL and 175 Sierra Tipped Game King. I like the terminal performance and BC/SD of all three, just looking for whichever shoots best. Book performance of 165s at 2950 and lower pressure at max load than others kind of has my eye. Fierce zeroed and created custom turrets for the Winchester 162-gr copper solid factory ammo. They shoot pretty good but for whatever reason I don't love them. Also, I found RL-26 at Gun broker for a stupid price, so I pulled out my credit card and held my hands up as I paid for 2, 1lb. cans. It has so much use for all my other overbore mags cartridges I was considering the 8-pound cannister...but it was $1600.00...then I came back to earth and realized I have all the powders listed that are supposed to work in the 6.8 and RL-26 ultimately might not "wang the fun meter"...so just went with the exorbitantly overpriced 1 Lb cannisters--got 2 for experiments. I'm embarrassed to admit 2, 1Lb cannisters cost me $320.00--over $400.00 with tax title and shipping. Toys, right?

That's a steep price to pay for pow.

I don't use RL26 for that reason, but I've had good luck with other powders. I'm still developing my 165 ABLR load with N570 so I don't have it listed. I can look at my charge weights after work, but the chronograph wasn't working the day I looked for pressure, so I only have max charge data without velocity.

My 145 ELDX load is what I used for NRL Hunter One last year so it's under pressure significantly.

145 EDL-X, 66 gr Magpro, 250 CCI, 3045 fps @85°F, 2.916" OAL, Winchester nickel brass. Target Load, 3 grains under pressure.

170 EOL is not max, but close.

170 EOL, 65.5gr Retumbo, 250 CCI, 2957 fps @ 85°F, 2.951" OAL, Win Nickel brass.

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

That's a steep price to pay for pow.

I don't use RL26 for that reason, but I've had good luck with other powders. I'm still developing my 165 ABLR load with N570 so I don't have it listed. I can look at my charge weights after work, but the chronograph wasn't working the day I looked for pressure, so I only have max charge data without velocity.

My 145 ELDX load is what I used for NRL Hunter One last year so it's under pressure significantly.

145 EDL-X, 66 gr Magpro, 250 CCI, 3045 fps @85°F, 2.916" OAL, Winchester nickel brass. Target Load, 3 grains under pressure.

170 EOL is not max, but close.

170 EOL, 65.5gr Retumbo, 250 CCI, 2957 fps @ 85°F, 2.951" OAL, Win Nickel brass.

Yeah I know...but I been looking for it for literally two years...finally gave up and said "fine, rob me". OCD feller that I am, I was waiting to get that powder so I could do the one and done suite of tests...which I know is a stupid plan that will never work but like I said, the rabbit hole sucked me in. You've got some good performance with that 170 & Retumbo.
I have H1000, H870, AA 8700, Retumbo, N565, Mag Pro, Magnum, Endurons 4955 & 7977, US 869, RL-25, I-4831 & 7828, LRT, Staball 6.5...and now the infamous RL-26 "Fairy dust". One of those powders with one of those three bullets is gonna shoot. I have CCI-BR-2 primers as well as Federal 215 and new Western Brass along with a bunch of nickel finished factory once fired. I use an arbitrary cutoff of 60 grs for a large rifle and above that I use the FED 215s, then do a shoot off once I'm getting it dialed in. Waiting on my new Garmin chrony to come in so I'll start loads while I'm waiting. My Caldwell had so many dropped shots last time I worked on the 6.8 and 6.5 PRC I nearly shot the chrony...too much coffee. It was a big shoot with over 75 rds. of test loads, and only partial data for about half. I even had the LED bars going due to overcast day. Soooo, when I saw the performance specs and write ups for the new Garmin I ordered one that was supposed to be in stock. By the time I hit the send key it was out of stock...so waiting for my latest toy and spendy powder to get started. I'm gonna do a big work up and post my data because there is not a lot out there. As an aside, I always start with various weight and style factory ammo to see what bullets the rig likes...I've discovered that really saves some time. I was working on a 6.5 PRC new out of the box, Browing X-Bolt White Gold Medallion Rifle and factory ammo. I had six different types of factory ammo to check. Second one I shot was 142 gr Nosler ABLR--it turned in 2950 fps, 15 ES and 7 SD and was a five-shot group of .449--I called that good. No chance I'll repeat with my custom, blingie, 6.8 Western!