I've been reading small articles about guys using RL-22 in 25-06, 30-06 and 6.5x55. An African game hunter used 60grs with 180gr partition and claimed he had good results. I'm thinking about experimenting with some short action loads like .308 and 7.5 Swiss. Anyone tried this?

Sir I am pretty sure that RL-22 is simply too slow burning for pretty much anything a .308 can throat up. with the semi possible exception of the 250gr bullets by Barnes... RL-19 can give you some ok results in 175+gr loads, but really even it is a bit slow burning. The problem is the bore diameter Vs. the weight and length of the bullet does not generate enough pressure in the little 308 winchester. Now for the 6.5x55 sweede RL-22 is Very Good stuff! Heck even RL-25 works well in the sweede. But the sweede's much smaller bore drives a longer bullet and thus the pressures rise significantly thus allowing efficient combustion of the slower powders.

Happy reloading sir,
Gary

Thanks, RL-22 is something I buy in bulk so I was looking for more options for it.

Any other calibre's you load for sir? The heavier 30-06 loads do ok with RL-22 as it has enough case capacity, say from about 175gr on up. Of course the 300 win-mag does good.

Have a good one sir
Gary

I load 44 mag, 222, 223, 6.5x55, 7.5x54, 7.5x55, 308, 30-06, 300WM, 8x57.

6.5x55, 30-06, and 300wm are all very good candidates for RL-22. Especially the 6.5x55 sweede! That just happens to be my alltime favorite. There are many good 6.5x55 sweede loadings that use this powder.

Good shooting,
Gary

I've been asking myself why anyone would use such a slow powder in a non-magnum chambering, and the answer hit me, chamber pressure.

The magnum powder should have a lower working pressure for a place like Africa where Mr. Murphy is always around. Anyways, on handload.com two guys I've seen post at the hide montanamarine and ussr, both use RL-22 under a 190 grain SMK for some (what I consider) blistering velocities. Don't know how low pressures could be in those loads...

http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/default....=Powder&Source=

Anyways, for a hunting load 60 grains of RL22 under a 180 grain bullet should get you around 2,600 fps (depending on barrel length).

Jimro

One of the original military powders for the 6.5 x 55 was called NC1220. They used 46.3 grains of that powder in their 143 grain "Prickskytte" M41 ammo. (Lots of folks think that the M41 stuff had 139 grain bullets, but that's not right, I've pulled and weighed enough of them to know that they are 143 grains, give or take half a grain.

The NC1220 has the same color, cut, and smell as modern RL22. It also smells the same if you burn a pinch in an ash tray.

I removed the NC1220 from a couple of M41 rounds, and replaced it with RL22. (Checking the load data for RL22 and a 140 grain bullet, this seemed perfectly safe to do).

I chronographed those two shots along with some regular M41 stuff and the speeds were inside the ES of the M41 stuff.

Suffice it to say that NC1220, which is made by Bofors in Sweden, appears to be RL22 (which is also made by Bofors in Sweden) ...

Dan

RL-22 works pretty well in the 6.5 X 284 with the 139 Scenar and 142 SMK. It does seem to prefer a hotter primer than the usual FGM or CCI BR2. In my case the Winchester primer works well and the combination has proven good to 1,000 yards. It does produce some pretty stubborn carbon fouling after 60 rounds without cleaning though.

RL-22 also works well in the 30-06 with heavy bullets, say 190 gr and up. The new 210 SMK has been showing good results but once again a hotter primer works better for me.

I've talked to folks who have even used it in a 22-250 using 80 and 90 gr bullets but it isn't exactly a common use.