The 25 sst...up and running

[couesaddict]

Alright, been reading through the 16 pages of this forum and I've heard good suggestions on powder but what's the consensus? I'm at least a few months out from getting my rifle (wanting to use the Defiance anTi and deploying) so I'm really in no rush. I have on hand 4 lbs of RL26, 4 lbs of 4831sc, 2 lbs if imr4350 (and a bunch of others not listed but not fit for this round). My 270SS loves RL26 under 156 hammer hunters. I'm sure RL26 will work, but that leaves me with 4 rifles using the same pounder which is hard to find!

Went into my local shop last week and they were out of RL26 (first time they've been out!). They have H4350, N570, H1000, and IMR 7977. Should I pick up a couple pounds of one of these to use or just stick with RL26 and chance possibly running out?

I'm a hunter and not a competition shooter so my volume of shooting isn't as high as most y'all. 4 lbs of 26 should last me ~2 years or so.

Thanks!

Rl 26 will more than likely work just fine. I'd bet you could find something with 4831 also but would be giving up some speed. I've only ran n-565 and Retumbo in mine. And with Retumbo it was only with un formed brass and I ran out of space. Es seemed pretty high as well but more and more, I think that mostly depends on the barrel. I heard some positives on n-570 but it'll take a long drop tube and a lot of patience to load each round. H-1000 has worked excellent for some so imr 7977 may also be an option.

 

[J3n]

RL26 has been popping up a bit more recently. I just grabbed 8 lbs of it last week, though had to pay about $20 more to buy 8x1lb vs 1x8lb. It was all the same lot though.

Sportsmans Warehouse had it a few weeks ago and they confirmed my order for a 8# jug then 5 days later cancelled it as out of stock. can't really trust their online ordering.

 

[Ross1147]

Yeah, I asked for 565 but he didn't have that either. I've heard it's good for these cartridges. Surprisingly they did have a pretty large stock of hammer hunters in their store. I didn't realize people carried them!

 

[couesaddict]

That sounds like a pretty good store all in all! For powder though over the last few years I've had the best luck calling powder valley and places like that. When they don't have what you need, get put on the call list for when it shows up. If you're going to shoot hammers with it, Lance Kenyon is shooting the 121's with rl23

 

[Ross1147]

Yeah, they had 121s in stock but no 128s. I'm going with a 7 twist so I'm probably going to just order some.

 

[arich]

Ross1147

No experience with H1000 in the SST myself, but I've read quite a few guys are using H1000 with good results.

 

[CA48]

Pressure tested the 67gr sledge hammers today. I bought a sample pack of 15 to see how things went first. I Ran them up to just under 4100 fps with H414 and never ran into any pressure signs then ran out of bullets. Il have to buy some more to finish up and see how fast I can push them. As a reminder my rifle is a 1&7 twist 26" Bbl. Last 7 shots made a nice cluster around an 1" and they are holding together even with the RPM's at 421,000.

67gr SH, 92gr HH, 100gr Nosler BT, 131gr ACE

 

[CA48]

26" 1&7"
67gr Sledge Hammer
H414 75*
ADG brass
Fed 210
COAL 2.454" +.010"

61.5 4074
62. 4071
62.5 4145
63. 4184
63.5 4208
64. 4251
64.5 4273 ej mark
65. 4306 ej mark, slight primer flattening, sticky extraction but no bolt lift. Case fill was around ~ 90%

 

[couesaddict]

That thing is smoking! How many rounds do you have down the tube now?

 

[CA48]

No Doubt! 952 so far, something else worth noting is at around 850-900 rds my barrel lost about 40 fps but still shoots well. I fired off 3 rounds pretty quick this evening at 865yds with the 131's and the group held about 2" of vertical just judging through the scope.

 

[couesaddict]

I certainly would be happy with that! I've got mine settled in with the blackjacks pretty well but may end up with a little more time on my hands in the next coming months so I'll probably experiment a little too. We'll see.

 

[CA48]

Always happy when I'm burning power! When I get a chance I'm going to load some up and see how they group. I also spoke with Steve about making some 45-50gr hammers for a slow twist barrel in the future to see if I can get close to 5000fps for a yote rig. He was very helpful.

 

[couesaddict]

That'd be pretty awesome! Especially with a big hollow point for the splat. Gonna lose speed quick but most of the calling I do is pretty close quarters anyhow. I'm working on a much lesser calling gun. Gonna do a bugholes prefit 223ai with a nut setup to shoot 40's or 50's at the heaviest with an 18" rem varmint contour on my factory 700 vssf. First non sherman I've done in a long time but similar in design I guess. Also first time of doing a prefit and setting headspace.

 

[J3n]

Mine should be on the way to me next week. Can't get anywhere to shoot it for a bit but at least I can start making some loads for it when ranges re-open. I've managed to get both RL-26 & N565 so just need to settle on which to use.