Reloader 15 ?

[jackieschmidt]

I found R-15 to be one of the most accurate powders ever in the 6BR with heavy bullets.

But that was on any given day. The next week end, it would be all over the place.

I sold off or gave away every ounce of it I had.

 

[urbanrifleman]

I found R-15 to be one of the most accurate powders ever in the 6BR with heavy bullets.

But that was on any given day. The next week end, it would be all over the place.

I sold off or gave away every ounce of it I had.

That's EXACTLY what I found. I literally thought I was horrible at shooting. Turns out the r15 would go out of tune at the drop of a hat. And the scatter nodes were huge. Where my temp stable powders have much flatter response, and scatter nodes are still small.

 

[Laurie]

Crazy temp sensitive in 223.
View attachment 1484594

It's interesting that 8208XBR is so badly affected from what looks like the mid 60s. When it was introduced, Hodgdon claimed it was less temperature affected than VarGet. (Despite the IMR name, it is a Thales/ADI developed and manufactured 'Extreme' powder alongside the other Hodgdon extruded grades.) I used it in 308 Win F/TR 155.5gn Berger BT loads in the 2010s. The move from UK summer temperatures to Raton NM in August in the 90s F increased MV from c.3,050 fps to exactly 3,100.

AR-Comp is impressive if those results are accurate! (I bought a couple of tins before it became almost unobtainable in the UK and prices went through the roof, and it's carefully hoarded for 223 80gn match loads in a bolt-gun. A superb 223 powder!)

 

[bugman]

I found R-15 to be one of the most accurate powders ever in the 6BR with heavy bullets.

But that was on any given day. The next week end, it would be all over the place.

I sold off or gave away every ounce of it I had.

I shot quite a bit of it , but that was years ago in dashers. My 2 cents is that there was a lot of velocity and consistency variance in different jugs of 15, and that was with the same bullet, same lapua brass capacity, blah, blah. I had good jugs , and I had some really quirky jugs that would do what you just described.
I do not know whether it was the the caliber or the lot of 15 or the alignment of the stars, but after several barrels, I got rid of the 15, and switched calibers.
In all fairness, many competent Williamsport LR shooters would shoot nothing but 15 in a 6 dasher, and they have the wood to prove it.

 

[JLT]

In my limited testing with 15 vrs 15.5 it took .2 more grains of 15.5 to achieve same velocity as 15 in my 20BRA.
No stability testing though.

There's no comparison. I use both and I generally agree with most of the comments re: RL-15. The 15.5 flavor has proven to be as stable as RL-16 and RL-23, which is to say that it doesn't much care what the temperature may be. It is as temp-stable as they come. RL-15.5 is becoming my go-to powder in the 6mm Dasher.

 

[JAlfred]

Maybe one of the most temp unstable powders on the market.

Yep, but like the crazy girlfriend, its not without charm.