With Alliant RL-17 being absent for several years, I attempted to find a substitute. 17 has been a magical powder for 9.3x74R with mid-weight bullets, giving outstanding accuracy and velocity.
RL-16 is advertised as being in the same burn range but more temp stable. It is another double-base extruded powder like RL-17. Quickload doesn't seem to handle this one very well in the 9.3x74R without a little tweaking (as outlined in their readme file) because of the case geometry. Ultimately, I discovered RL-16 has less bulk density than RL-17 and you can't get enough in the case for mid-weight bullets. Even with heavily compressed loads, reaching peak velocity/pressure wasn't possible with the 242gr Hammer, though it's not far off. A heavy crimp was required which I think hurt accuracy.
Next up I tried CFE223 with the 242 Hammer. Very dense and only about 91% case fill. Velocities were all over the place though, up to 50 fps extreme spread. Normally I wouldn't care but in a double rifle that can be precisely regulated at longer ranges (Blaser S2), it matters.
Where RL-16 really shines is the heavies. It has about 100% load density with the 325 gr Norma Oryx, with an average velocity of 2280 fps and standard deviation of 6 fps for 20 shots from both barrels combined. Accuracy was superb, sub-MOA.
I use magnum primers with all loads now in the 9.3x74R just for simplicity.
I will caveat that none of these combinations appears in any reloading manual that I've found. I used several sources of published data, QuickLoad, Garmin radar, and combined all that with some common sense. The pressures should be below MAP for the 9.3x74R but it hasn't been tested by me.
RL-16 is advertised as being in the same burn range but more temp stable. It is another double-base extruded powder like RL-17. Quickload doesn't seem to handle this one very well in the 9.3x74R without a little tweaking (as outlined in their readme file) because of the case geometry. Ultimately, I discovered RL-16 has less bulk density than RL-17 and you can't get enough in the case for mid-weight bullets. Even with heavily compressed loads, reaching peak velocity/pressure wasn't possible with the 242gr Hammer, though it's not far off. A heavy crimp was required which I think hurt accuracy.
Next up I tried CFE223 with the 242 Hammer. Very dense and only about 91% case fill. Velocities were all over the place though, up to 50 fps extreme spread. Normally I wouldn't care but in a double rifle that can be precisely regulated at longer ranges (Blaser S2), it matters.
Where RL-16 really shines is the heavies. It has about 100% load density with the 325 gr Norma Oryx, with an average velocity of 2280 fps and standard deviation of 6 fps for 20 shots from both barrels combined. Accuracy was superb, sub-MOA.
I use magnum primers with all loads now in the 9.3x74R just for simplicity.
I will caveat that none of these combinations appears in any reloading manual that I've found. I used several sources of published data, QuickLoad, Garmin radar, and combined all that with some common sense. The pressures should be below MAP for the 9.3x74R but it hasn't been tested by me.
