Nosler 140 g RDF

ajwubbels

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
Apr 11, 2018
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Thoughts on switching to Nosler RDF's from Hornady 140 ELD-M? Hornady's are getting hard to find and the RDF have a better BC. TIA!
 
Buy a box and give em a go. The higher BC would be beneficial at farther distances. The BC difference between the ELD-m and RDF isn’t a lot. The BC may be higher or lower than advertised dependent on your charge and barrel, and overall quality of reloads. All in all just buy a box and give em a go.
 
Buy a box and give em a go. The higher BC would be beneficial at farther distances. The BC difference between the ELD-m and RDF isn’t a lot. The BC may be higher or lower than advertised dependent on your charge and barrel, and overall quality of reloads. All in all just buy a box and give em a go.
Thanks! I just may.
 
I've never tried reloading the 140 RDF projectiles but the factory ammo made with them shoots great. I was given a few boxes to try out and out to 600 they doped the same as 140 ELD-M factory ammo and shot a sub MOA group at 100. I'd try a box and see how it goes
 
I tried them in my AI AX w/ a 26 " AINA 6.5CM Bartlein barrel as I ran out of 139 Scenars. Initially I jumped them 30 thou as many people it seemed were having luck at that distance but for me they shot like shit. My barrel is not picky with all the other projectiles I've shot at various seating depths so I got a bit discouraged and was about to write the RDF's off. I played with the seating depth and the 140 RDF's worked real well out to 800 metres at 10 thou jump so if they don't work initially with lots of jump play with them a bit. I am glad I did.
 
The RDF's are gtg if your particular rifle likes them. I have one that shoots them in the .1's and another that shoots them in the .2's. That is it. 3 other rifles shoot them 1-2". All of this after extensive load development. They're definitely not the easiest to tune and seem to be very barrel dependent.
 
Seems hit or miss for most people. I'm loading up a batch right now all 5 thou off the lands for a b14 hmr. Really affordable bullet and would be nice to get em to shoot well
I'll report back to this thread when ever I get a chance to go out!
 
Can't get them to shoot for shit. I've shot some tiny 3 shot groups with them, but don't think I've ever shot a 4 or 5 shot group less than 3/4 MOA with them.

I've moved on to Berger Hybrids in all calibers I shoot now - they are really consistent and it is incredibly easy to find a load that shoots lights out with them.

The RDF's have a great BC and price, but their performance is definitely lacking. I really wanted them to work, as they are great on paper. I currently have about ~2000 140 RDF bullets sitting on my floor, relegated to fouler or barricade practice loads. Life is too short to try and make a shitty bullet work.
 
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Only 140 bullet I run in competition. They absolutely shoot lights out of both of my 1/7.5 twist creed's. I seat to give lands and I can push them faster than any other 140 class bullet I have tried. My 26" tube easily can hit 2950 using a compressed 4831sc load.
 
Count me in the group that found them lacking. Now I bought 750 of them on price/BC. Then I had inconsistencies I couldn't address. Upon measuring many bullets, I found OAL's to be off by up to .024" (min-max measurements). Base to ogive were .020" difference. I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. As a comparison, 143 eld-x are +/- .002 at the most. And usually within .001" base to ogive. So for me, the QC isn't there for what I wanted. I ended up sorting them into 10 (TEN) f-ing lots where base to ogive were .002" of each other and taking the pains to seat them so cartridge base to ogive were within .001".
That's a pain in the ass folks.
 
Seems hit or miss for most people. I'm loading up a batch right now all 5 thou off the lands for a b14 hmr. Really affordable bullet and would be nice to get em to shoot well
I'll report back to this thread when ever I get a chance to go out!

In my experience, they need to be jumped at least .030". YMMV