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Nosler bullets and "strange" Re 22 powder

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25 August 2004, 13:36
huntingmandan
Nosler bullets and "strange" Re 22 powder
I sent some bullets back to nosler (6mm 95 gr partitions) to test since I have been having inconsistant results with that batch of bullets. The tech staff tried them in 2 different groups in their test barrels and came out with a .8 and a 1.4 inch group. I was getting 4 inch groups. One thing they noticed (and so have I) is that the Reloader powders are acting strange. My original loadings shot 3000 fps and into .5 inch groups. The new batch of RE 22 that I was using shot 4 inch groups. (it also sprayed them around the paper with Sierra 100 gr BT Gamekings)
When they loaded the bullets and tested them, their lot of Re 22 produced 46,000 lbs of pressure at 2930 fps vs 59,000 lbs of pressure and 3020 fps when they tested a year ago using the same powder (but a different lot of powder). quite a difference between lots of powder! Just goes to show, that you should wither buy powder in bulk or work up from a safe level whenever you change something!

Kudos to the nosler company for jumping on my request and getting some answers!
25 August 2004, 13:44
shilen30
Thanks for the report. I buy rl22 in bulk now as well. RL22 is great powder, but I wonder sometimes if they change slightly (or in your case a lot) from lot to lot so people will really stock up!
26 August 2004, 00:51
Tailgunner
It's not just Alliant, ALL powder manfactures have lot to lot consistancy problems. IMR figgures 1 full # either side of nominal to be acceptable.
There's a reason all the manuals tell you to work back up when changing components or lot numbers.