I haven't fooled much with 175 bullets of any flavor in a Palma chamber in any gun. I may have to remedy that, as the question seems to come up regularly. There are a number of special .308 'match' reamers floating around out there, more than a few of which are basically either an Obermeyer (what the 12 F/TR uses) or a 95 Palma reamer, throated slightly longer to accept a S175MK seated to make more use of the available magazine length (generally 2.810-2.820"). As such... trying to stuff a S175MK in a *regular* 95 Palma chamber may not be the best route, and I'd seriously have to wonder if a Berger 175gn VLD would be much better off. However... Berger does make a 175gn LR BT bullet - basically a 'big brother' to the 155.5 gn LR BT 'Fullbore' bullet. I've fondled/measured some of the B185LRBT and B210LRBT bullets, and they have fairly short bearing surface sections compared to older designs from other makers - just like the B155.5BT (and admittedly the newer S155MK Palma bullet aka '2156&#39. Being closely related and all that, I'd bet the B175LRBT probably has a shorter bearing surface than a S175MK... so you might get luck in that it doesn't take up as much case capacity when seated into or near the lands.

From previous experience with S175MK bullet in *other* barrels and chambers, about 2.800-2.810", either 43.8gn RE-15 or 44 gn Varget in a Winchester case seemed to work really well.

As mentioned, both the new B155.5BT 'Fullbore' and the new S155MK 'Palma' bullets are longer (like the Lapua Scenar) and have a much shorter bearing surface than previous models. As such, you can easily seat them out far enough to get enough powder behind them to make rated speed.

The downside is... the 1-13" twist is/was more ideal for the traditional (old) S155MK and its clone, the Nosler 155 Custom Competition bullet, and the old B155BT & VLDs. The much longer Lapua 154gn Scenar and the new Berger/Sierra bullets are probably more ideally suited to a 1-12" twist, and wouldn't be out of place in a 11 twist. Note there is a difference between 'not ideal' and "won't work at all". I've used B155.5BTs over 46.8gn N150, about 45 thou off the lands, in both my 12 F/TR and in my 12 Palma. Accuracy in the 12 F/TR could be described as 'surgical', while the 12 Palma wasn't exactly slacking off - though I was less concerned about it as I use that particular rifle as an iron-sight gun.

YMMV,

Monte