Any secret to loading Nosler RDF's?

[tonyben]

I recently bought 1,000 Nosler 168 grain RDF's and have never loaded this kind of bullet before. I seated them to 2.830" and have a lot of room to go farther. I was at the range last week and someone told me that RDF's like to jump and to seat them deeper.

Has anyone else heard that or has that been discussed here? I really like the ballistics of the bullet. I was getting 2700+ FPS and decent accuracy out of it, but not mind blowing. That could be the limitation of my rifle though. I think I need to re-bed the rifle as it's been a few years since I bedded it. On my ladder test I was getting around 1 inch groups with the smallest coming in at 0.8" at 100. My rifle typically shoots 0.4" to 0.75" groups with Nosler Custom Comps.

The rifle is an old Savage 110 flat-back long action chambered in 308, so I have no restrictions on mag length, but I'd still like to shoot these in M14's so keeping the OAL short enough for magazines is a bonus.

Thanks,
Tony.

 

[6MMsteve]

I have never gotten a RDF to shoot at all...had a 6 dasher with brux 1n8 t that shot super with just any Berger bullet, 90 to 108gr..so I bought some rdf's I jumped jammed primered powder and could not get lower than .6 groups..had a 6xc and tried some 1.5 inches was the best it would do with RDF's...now you may find a load depth combo but I never did...I would love to know the secret to get the rdf to shoot, I jumped .030 to .125 maybe I didn't go back far enough...good luck my friend have a great day

 

[DGP4]

Are we talking .308 WIN ? If so, I get .5 groups consistently with my Howa 1500 heavy barrel. I seat them at 2.835" Coal and get my best groups with 43.5 grains of SW Precision Rifle

 

[Matt_3479]

Im noticing the struggle with the rdf’s. I have a pipe on my 223 that will eat anything and spit it out inside .5 moa all day long on the windiest day. Average for 3 different bullets were .3’s. The rdf’s have posted spectacular vertical for 1 group and horrific for the next. When I think I’ve found it, I loose it again. I have 200 left, so will pick my best spot and just burn them for practice and move
On to scomething else

 

[std7mag]

The 70gr RDF in my 223 Rem seem to like a jump of 0.030" off the lands.
I have other issues with the rifle, and the trigger puller,that i'm not gonna blame the bullet.

If your loading for your Savage 110, then load for it.
When loading for your M1As, then load for them.

 

[Ned Ludd]

I have only loaded .224" cal RDFs, but they preferred a jump of .030" to .040", which is longer than I typically ever have to test for the Berger bullets I use. Others have also reported that the RDFs seem to like a little more jump in their hands. Whether that is also true of the 168 RDF in your specific setup can only be determined by testing. You might try a coarse increment (~.005") seating depth test so you can readily cover a wider range, maybe something like out to around .050" off.

 

[tonyben]

Sorry, I meant seated to 2.830". Yes, 308 Win.

Silly typo...

 

[JEFFPPC]

I shot some in a 6BRX. Like pretty much every bullet and more than some others they need sorted first. I shot the same set up as I was shooting 107 Serras with that barrel. About .007 in the lands. The shot ..3 to .5 with no load development per se. Would they be a 1000 yd bullet. I doubt it but since most of my shooting is ground hog matches that go to 500 yards I think they could tune to make me competitive. In real life matches he who reads the conditions usually determines the winner more so than one rifle is a .1 better at 100 yards than the next.

 

[Martin52]

......I seated them to 2.830" and have a lot of room to go farther. I was at the range last week and someone told me that RDF's like to jump and to seat them deeper.

You may already be jumping them long - do you know how much jump you currently have with a 2.830" COAL ?

 

[Walt Schmidlin]

I called Nosler, they recommended -.050-.060 off for 6.5mm, 140gr RDF in a 260 Rem. Excellent results at 600yds with H-4350.
However I had to throat the barrel because of pressure issues, the freebore was too short.
The 6.5mm 140gr RDFs are noticeably longer than the 142gr SMKs.

 

[Bill Norris]

Tried the115 GR. NOSLER RDF in my 243AI. 44.5 GR. IMR-7828SSC FED 210M. 3-shot group was .470 @ .026 OTL Got some 130 gr. coming for the 260AI. Will post results.

 

[DGP4]

In my rifles both the 168 grain .308 and the .224 70 grain RDFs like a good jump. They do not like to be very close to the grooves.

 

[Willow]

The secret is...don't shoot them. In my experience they're suitable for PRS matches, not so much for F-class. Too inconsistent for my liking and no one in Australia is using them for F-class matches.

 

[r bose]

I've shot every RDF bullet made. All wanting the same 3 things. 1, To be jumped more than you'd normally expect. My impression when calling Nosler is they were made for mag fed, gas or bolt rifles. 2, I find they also like to be spun more than others. I'm using 7T in 223, 7.5T or 7T in 6mm, 7.5T in 6.5mm, 10T in 308, and 9.35 T in 338 lapua. When first starting with the RDF's I had issues with great groups followed by terrible groups too. I blamed the bullets, then I borrowed a concentricity gauge. These bullets are longer and sometimes much longer than a "standard" bullet of comparable weight and caliber. 3, I found that when seating the bullet the tip was hitting the top of the seating cone before it would touch the perimeter of the bullet giving me crazy runout, sometimes, and off call shots.

Pull your seating dies apart and put the tip of a bullet in the cone/bell of the seater. If it moves around and the tip of the bullet is touching the top of the inside tip of the cone first, you've found your problem. Plenty of youtube videos showing how to fix this. I drilled out the cone allowing more room for the bullet to move up into the cone till the cone contacts the circumference of the bullet, not the top of the cone. Then I chucked up a bullet in a drill, used some JB lapping compound and lapped the cone where it would touch the bullet perfectly. I've had zero issues since.

Hope this helps....................

Robert

 

[CharlieNC]

I've shot every RDF bullet made. All wanting the same 3 things. 1, To be jumped more than you'd normally expect. My impression when calling Nosler is they were made for mag fed, gas or bolt rifles. 2, I find they also like to be spun more than others. I'm using 7T in 223, 7.5T or 7T in 6mm, 7.5T in 6.5mm, 10T in 308, and 9.35 T in 338 lapua. When first starting with the RDF's I had issues with great groups followed by terrible groups too. I blamed the bullets, then I borrowed a concentricity gauge. These bullets are longer and sometimes much longer than a "standard" bullet of comparable weight and caliber. 3, I found that when seating the bullet the tip was hitting the top of the seating cone before it would touch the perimeter of the bullet giving me crazy runout, sometimes, and off call shots.

Pull your seating dies apart and put the tip of a bullet in the cone/bell of the seater. If it moves around and the tip of the bullet is touching the top of the inside tip of the cone first, you've found your problem. Plenty of youtube videos showing how to fix this. I drilled out the cone allowing more room for the bullet to move up into the cone till the cone contacts the circumference of the bullet, not the top of the cone. Then I chucked up a bullet in a drill, used some JB lapping compound and lapped the cone where it would touch the bullet perfectly. I've had zero issues since.

Hope this helps....................

Robert

Very good info from experience.

 

[tonyben]

Thanks! I intend on using them as test ammo in customer guns to get a decent accuracy baseline since match ammo is too expensive now. The days of $16/box of gold medal match are gone. I test every rifle for accuracy before I ship them out. I was getting by with 1,000 rounds of 168gr Nosler CC and 175 grain Nosler CC and eventually ran out. I saw the deal on RDF's and jumped on it.

My Savage is intended to be a practical/tactical M40-ish rifle that's good enough for hitting man-sized steel out to 1,000 yards. I'm not intending to shoot F-class matches with it.

I also just built a M14 EBR and it will be used in the same manner as my Savage. Both have 1:10 twist barrels.

Tony.

 

[DiffEQ]

. 2, I find they also like to be spun more than others. I'm using 7T in 223, 7.5T or 7T in 6mm, 7.5T in 6.5mm, 10T in 308, and 9.35 T in 338 lapua.

My barrels are slower twist than the red. Guess I'm going to find out on the RDFs when I get around to shooting them.

 

[r bose]

My barrels are slower twist than the red. Guess I'm going to find out on the RDFs when I get around to shooting them.

Should have said I live at sea level.......sometimes shooting at below sea level here in SE Louisiana. I need a faster twist than what most shooters can get away with who live at higher elevations. Also to me, seems like the longer, pointer, shorter bearing surface the bullet is, the more it likes to be spun. Over the years my twist rates have gotten faster to keep up with the bullet designs.