I've not found RL16 any worse than other powders for carbon build up/ring. I initially thought it was worse but in the last year of using it, I've grown to like it and I'm actually using it more than H4350. It gives solid SD/ES's in a wide range of temperatures and accuracy is there. I think the 6.5 is prone to "carboning" so I just stay ahead of that with frequent cleaning. Just my .02...
H4350 vs RL16- Some Charts on Temp Stability
- Thread starter spife7980
- Start date
During the big H4350 shortage I worked up a load with H4831sc (44.5g 147g ELD-M) and got good results so bought 16lbs on sale for $189ea, IIRC. Anyway, have been hearing good things about RL16 so I bought some and did a .2g ladder from max down and found a nice node at 41.4, which gives me 2736fps with 60742psi, and after 400 rounds or so, no visible carbon problem. Maybe it's the relatively low powder charge and resulting complete propellant burn, I dunno.
After some of the sad stories of RL16 and carbon, I went back to bronze brushing every 200 rounds or so. I've not pushed it to see if it's necessary but so far that is working. I see quite a bit of carbon in the throat (bad enough that I first thought it was fire cracking) around 170-200 rounds. I did not see an accuracy drop but I decided to start scrubbing at that point. It's working well for me if I do that but definitely more dirty than H4350. All borescope verified...
I’m really liking R16.
Use less to get more.
Good ES/SD seems easy to get.
Accuracy is there.
I’m not really seeing it being all that dirty.
Now using it between 25 to 90 degrees I have not had any issues.
3 different lots required no changes.
Use less to get more.
Good ES/SD seems easy to get.
Accuracy is there.
I’m not really seeing it being all that dirty.
Now using it between 25 to 90 degrees I have not had any issues.
3 different lots required no changes.
