Anyone tried ReloadSwiss RS50 in .308?

[stubear]

Hi all,

I'm having a look around and reading up on reloading at the moment with the aim of creating a one-size-fits-all 150gr load for my .308; Its an S&L Victory with a 22" 1:10 twist barrel if thats of any use to this discussion!

Thus far I think I'll probably start out by trying Nosler partitions as these seem to offer a good balance between expansion and penetration, and should be able to cover everything from munties to reds and also boar.

My initial thought was the ubiquitous N140 as a powder but from talking to a mate last night who does a lot of reloading (albeit for target rifle as opposed to hunting) he suggested I might try the RS50 powder instead, as this offers a smoother burn than N140 due to the retardant being distributed throughout the powder grains which means you can get the same velocities for less chamber pressure. Also this will hopefully mean a less snappy recoil!

I gather RS50 is the tub name of the powder that RUAG use in their ammo? I do remember someone commenting that RUAG ammo shot particularly well in their S&L so this potentially could be a good thing!

RS's own reload data for RS50 suggests a starting load, for 150gr .308, of 40.7gr going up to a max of 47.4. Does anyone have any experience of this?

Just wondering if anyone has tried RS50 as a reloading powder, and if so how they found it and what loads they used?

Cheers!

Stu

 

[kennyc]

If Rs50 is what used to be sold as tr140 then I used to use it with .308 with great success . Generally people found you need .5 gn more than the equivalent n140 load (work your loads up) it seemed to meter well and gave good accuracy.

 

[ChesterP]

I can't see any real world benefits over N140 for hunting loads which aren't overly "hot", and (in my supplier's case anyway) Rs50 is more expensive. I shot a Munty buck this morning using the .308 and 150SGKs with a low load of 43.1gr N140 and it dropped instantly. Unless you shoot a longer barrelled rifle looking to push 3000FPS from 155's for say 1000 yd target, there ought to be minimal difference between TR140 and N140. I've not tried the Rs stuff, but when getting one hole ragged groups at lowish but very accurate loads using N140 where pressures are reasonable, I can't see any benefit in changing.

 

[Laurie]

There is nothing much charge weight or performance-wise between Viht N140 and RS50, so local supply and price issues would be the sole sensible reasons for switching. It isn't one of the RS propellants with the EI distributed deterrents technology - that's restricted to the 'high-energy' (nitrocellulose base with infused nitroglycerin) grades, of which RS40, RS52, RS60 (also known as 'Elcho 17' and Alliant Reloder 17), and RS70 are the most widely used.

Both N140 and RS50 are equally fine general purpose 308 Win powders. To obtain higher MVs from the cartridge with 155-180gn bullets, RS52 would be the one to use. However, as with its Viht equivalents (N540/550), full use of the available performance upgrades does have a price in much accelerated chamber throat erosion.

 

[JTO]

N140, RS50 and Reloder 15 all appear to have identical burn rates.

 

[Dalua]

I used RS50 in its TR140 guise in 7.62 for target rifle, sporting .308 and old .303s.

If the TR140 hadn't been such very good value for money when I started reloading, I'd just have gone for N140.
As has been pointd out, 'proper' RS50 is markedly more expenseive than N140 - expecially if the latter is bought in 3.5kg pots - so I've gradually moved all my loads to N140, except the target rifle load - which I can't be bothered to mess about with!

 

[stubear]

Cheers all! Sounds like there isn't much in it other than cost and availability, so I'll see what I can get £ for Lb and go for that.

 

[DOGDER]

i am using 125gn sierra spt bullet heads and 47gns vhit140 shoots very well and kills animals up to sika size easily. seems to be very flat out to two hundred and easy on the shoulder.
same load with RS50 no real difference

 

[RH Somerset]

I used RS50 for 130gr TTSX in 308.

Worked OK but found I ran out of space for enough powder so moved to N135.

 

[Rusty Gate]

Hi all,

I'm having a look around and reading up on reloading at the moment with the aim of creating a one-size-fits-all 150gr load for my .308; Its an S&L Victory with a 22" 1:10 twist barrel if thats of any use to this discussion!

Thus far I think I'll probably start out by trying Nosler partitions as these seem to offer a good balance between expansion and penetration, and should be able to cover everything from munties to reds and also boar.

My initial thought was the ubiquitous N140 as a powder but from talking to a mate last night who does a lot of reloading (albeit for target rifle as opposed to hunting) he suggested I might try the RS50 powder instead, as this offers a smoother burn than N140 due to the retardant being distributed throughout the powder grains which means you can get the same velocities for less chamber pressure. Also this will hopefully mean a less snappy recoil!

I gather RS50 is the tub name of the powder that RUAG use in their ammo? I do remember someone commenting that RUAG ammo shot particularly well in their S&L so this potentially could be a good thing!

RS's own reload data for RS50 suggests a starting load, for 150gr .308, of 40.7gr going up to a max of 47.4. Does anyone have any experience of this?

Just wondering if anyone has tried RS50 as a reloading powder, and if so how they found it and what loads they used?

Cheers!

Stu

Go on the website & there’s a reloading section free to use

 

[Stalker62]

Go on the website & there’s a reloading section free to use

Eight years on, I reckon he is probably sorted...

 

[Drew 3]

Ha! Was just about to reply with my 2 pence worth.

 

[Greenmist]

Ramshot TAC would be another one to try, it worked well in my .308, hopefully it will continue to do so when it gets back with the new barrel