WTF Alliant?

[Ernest T]

Ernest T: Not to get off the subject of the oversize jug of R16 (which in my opinion doesn't make much sense), but curious what caliber you are reloading and using R16 in. When it first came out or I should say the first time I saw it at a gun show, I broke one of my reloading rules and bought a pound of it without checking its capabilities. Sort of an impulse buy! Anyway, I reload for 250 Savage in both Savage 99's and a Ruger 77 and have great experience with R15 using 75-87 grain bullets (Varget, 3031 also). Couldn't find much reloading info using R16 at the time with my choice of bullets. Called Alliant, Hornady and Speer. I thought R17 to be to slow for my needs and assumed that the R16 maybe a good alternative to the faster R15. Not much on the web or any other sources. Was advised that the R16 would work better for 30 caliber loadings and/or calibers with a better case capacity such as the .243. Anyway, around 2 months later I went to another gun show where the dealer who I've done business with for around five years and know allowed me to trade the R16 in for another powder. Haven't done much research on it since. Just color me curious.

I just selected one of the powders listed for 6.5 Creedmoor 140 grain ELD-M bullets in the Hornady manual. I had just taken up reloading again after a 30 year hiatus and things had changed... a lot. I bought one lb. of RL-16 and watched a lot of YouTube videos and read a lot of reloading forums and websites. It was a pretty steep learning curve, but I found a powder charge and seating depth that my Savage likes. I have a Savage Axis II Precision in 6.5 CM with a 22" barrel. I was able to get sub 1/2" groups with that first one lb. can, but couldn't find any more for 6 months so I bought two 8 lb jugs this time. I did a mini load test with this new jug and the results were petty much the same as last July when I started. Remove those thee flyers and that's 12 shots touching each other. I'm pretty sure those flyers are me and not the load doing that. BTW, I made these targets in Power Point and had them printed at the UPS store for $0.35 each. The center circle and squares were supposed to be 1' and were in PP, but printed they are slightly under 15/16".



This is one of my groups with RL-16 from last summer.



This is what Alliant says about it.

Repeatable long-range accuracy demands propellant that behaves consistently across temperature extremes. Alliant Powder® Reloder 16, like Reloder 23 and AR Comp™, accomplishes this world-class stability using TZ® technology. It manipulates the response of the material and resists the natural tendency to generate more pressure at higher temperatures and less pressure at lower temperatures. The Reloder 16 burn rate is slightly faster than that of Reloder 17, well within the 4350 burn speed band. This makes it ideal for traditional hunting cartridges such as 30-06 Spring. and 270 Win., as well as 6.5mm target loads and tactical applications where temperature stability is required.

• World-class stability across temperature extremes
• Contains proprietary de-coppering additive
• Excellent lot-to-lot consistency
• Formulation contains no DNT or DBP
• Made in Sweden for Alliant Powder