reloader 17 in 22-250

[stebbins243]

Has anyone loaded reloader 17 into the 22-250 yet? I know the powder is close to 4350. Wondering if i should just start with the min load of 4350 and work from there? Or hopefully a member has already done this footwork and will be willing to give me insight. Thanks

 

[stebbins243]

Well i loaded about 10 up last night with 37 gr of reloader 17. 50 gr varmint grenade cci br primers and col of 2.350 as recomended by barnes. I know with 4350 ive used 38.5 gr with no pressure, so well see what happens. Will post success or dissapointment later this week when the rain lets up.

 

[stebbins243]

I had a chance to shoot the reloads. They shot great. I had a factory box of hornady to compare because i dont have a crony. They had no pressure signs on the case, no excess muzzle jump or powder flash. I sighted in at 175 yards with the hornady varmint box. Got a consistant group and then grouped the reloader 17 rounds. They shot just low of the hornady loads by about 1/2 inch. The hornady box claims just over 4k fps. I would guess the reloader stuff is just under that, somewere in the neihgborhood of 37k-38k. The grouping from the reloader was much tighter, yeilding 7/8 moa. The hornady struggled with 1moa but its also factory. I will do further testing with ;Dthis powder when i get home from this trip and can use a crony and have a few loads worked up. As for now the reloader 17 mimics 4350 almost exactly. I am very happy with it. I was hoping i would be so i would have a reason to buy the big 5lb jug of it. It has been an excellent powder in my .243br as well as a few others.

 

[WyleWD]

Thanks for the report. I like the stuff too. I have a 220 Swift that I tried it in with 50gr bullets and it showed VERY good promise, but I've not been back to the Swift to tweak the load a bit.

Thanks for sharing, and good of you to take a less traveled path and try the R17. WD

 

[flatlander]

A good friend of mine had me do a 1:9tw 22-250 AI bbl. for him a couple of years ago, and was having problems with Hornady 75 AMaxes blowing up when running warm loads with RL22. He then switched to RL17, worked up to the same velocity (3400fps IIRC), and had no further problems. We figured RL17 has a less abrupt pressure curve than RL22 due to it having the deterent go clear through each kernal of powder, but whatever it was, accuracy was at least as good as the RL22 loads, and he's a happy camper.

 

[WyleWD]

Please keep us posted on your progress on this venture. Very interesting. WD