Nosler RDF 175gr New Lot Issue?

[STI_1911_Guy]

I am having a little bit of an issue with a new lot of 175 gr nosler RDF's and i was wondering if anybody else has experienced this possibly with the new rdf's. I have contacted nosler but unfortunately they were closed for the day so I emailed them as of now and I'm not sure if there are any reps on here from nosler. My experience came from when i purchased a single box of 100 of the 175 rdf's to try them out and i was very pleased with the results as can be seen from some of the images (9 shot group with dime then 5 shot group and 3 shot group other image). I proceeded to purchase a box of 500 and this is where my issue started (image of OCW starting at 43-44.8 x.3 increments with a couple seating depth test at the end). I used the same brass from the same loading/powder/primers as was used previously, the only new item was the new lot of bullets. My load from the original box was 43.4gr varget/lapua brass/fed 210m and the 175rdf seated .020" off the lands. Now with the new lot, i tried the 43.4 and the same seating depth as a starting point and it was fairly bad but i thought it may need tweaked so i ran a new OCW from 43-44.8 and it was horrible with no clear node or anything resembling my previous experience. I had groups upwards of 2" which i have never seen from any load through this rifle much less my previous box of rdf's (rifle is a custom rem 700 m40a5 base copy). I was wondering if anybody else has seen this with their RDF's? Once I am in contact with nosler hopefully i will be able to send them the bullets for inspection. Lot number is smudged on the box but i believe it is KN22F20-1/150515051505 (The K might be an R)

 

[Mike_in_FL]

I'm waiting on some blems from SPS to show up and I have not used these bullets previously. I would just ask if you tried another bullet or known good load through your rifle to verify that your scope didn't take a dump or something's loose or whatever. It will be interesting to hear what Nosler says.

 

[Sierra770]

I had some inconsistencies with some of the blems. They still shot well, but if you are near magazine length, some may fit, some may not.

 

[STI_1911_Guy]

I'm waiting on some blems from SPS to show up and I have not used these bullets previously. I would just ask if you tried another bullet or known good load through your rifle to verify that your scope didn't take a dump or something's loose or whatever. It will be interesting to hear what Nosler says.

I thought the same thing myself so I wanted to make sure. Unfortunately i didnt have any 175SMK which i know shoot very well so i used the 178 ELDX i had with 43.4gr of varget and shot the 6 shot group attached in the image. I feel comfortable nothing drastic has changed with the rifle.

 

[918v]

Have you considered that what you thought was a node wasn't?

 

[STI_1911_Guy]

Have you considered that what you thought was a node wasn't?

No, not really. Given my previous experience with the box of 100 I had there should be a node, actually two in that 43-44.8 range. Looking at the target shows me no relation to my prior experience with this bullet or any bullet i have tried for that matter. Considering varget and that weight class of bullet it is fairly well known for the 308 win that there should be a node around 43.4 and then a higher one around 44.5 or atleast from my data and data i gathered from the reloading depot here.

 

[birddogsx3]

I am almost through 300 rounds and have had no issues. 100 of those are factory blems that have shot just as good as the others. I switched from Varget to XBR because I found a node faster and XBR metes better than Varget. Every gun is diffferent 43.7 is where I found my best group with Varget.

 

[squib-load]

STI_1911_Guy

you ever get it straightened out.. ? I have done a post elsewhere here on the board.. basically what I found with the blem 175s is that they are not just cosmetic but highly flawed.. I found that there are 2 different shapes of these bullets in the 3 lots that I have .. 1586, 1600 and another that escapes me.. but the bullets measured from the ojive up to the tip with 5 different caliber comparitors show that they vary base to comparitor by .010... yep.. TEN THOU.. they touch the lands way different and in the 1586 lot they were mixed, the 1600 lot were all 'long' and the other lot were all 'short'. I talked to SPS and nosler and they have done nothing for me and I bought 2k of these and they are horrible.. never will buy more nosler after this experiance.. I send in exemplars and never heard back.

shooters pro shop is just nosler blowing out highly flawed product that any other mfg would scrap.. no way would they sell bullets .. mixed or otherwise that varied by .010 .. no way..


ps.. how do you get them .020 off the lands.. single load? I run them at 2.88 to fit AICS and that is .030 off and I have a really short .. probably shortest chamber in 308 a palma 95 reamer.. !!!

 

[STI_1911_Guy]

Never got anywhere with the nosler service center. I ended up basically giving them away with the notion that I had issues and i thought they were bad bullets. I will never run them again personally. I notched my feed ramp and was able to run them long, they reached the lands on my criterion pre fit barrel.

 

[Darkside-Six]

Never got anywhere with the nosler service center. I ended up basically giving them away with the notion that I had issues and i thought they were bad bullets. I will never run them again personally. I notched my feed ramp and was able to run them long, they reached the lands on my criterion pre fit barrel.

Wish I would have seen this earlier before I made my post. I've had nothing but problems with the 175 RDF. for years I've only shot 175 SMK's and they grouped and shot great. Heard many great things about the Nosler 175's so bought a box of 500. I cannot get them to group consistently for the life of me.

 

[FLIGHT762]

I bought 200 of the 175 RDF's to test when I ordered 1000 of the .224" 70 RDF's. Can't get either one to shoot. Quite disappointed. They were both blems from the SPS.

 

[squib-load]

I think we need a public service announcement on the front page that shooters pro shop is propbably not the place for precsion shooters to go.. thier advertising blems as cosmetic only is just pure lies and bull shit

 

[ToddKS]

I have 2000 .224 77gr Custom Comps from SPS that I am not having great luck with. The only upside is I got them cheap enough that I can just plink them off if nothing else.

 

[squib-load]

ToddKS I have some 77g from way back that shot OK from AR platforms.. dont know if you are running them bolt? 24-24.2 TAC in LC brass (if varies by year) seems to print less than an inch from my 18" SPR. That load shoots even better in the less case capacity brass like winchester. there are always a handfull that break the group... not nearly as tight as berger 70s... but blems like you said are 1/3 the cost. a lee collet crimp die set for medium crimp also helped.

came across an odd duck they were blowing out a couple months back .. 77CC with cannelure .. had not seen that before. rummor in the service was that nosler lost the military contract for mk262 becasue they refused to put a canneluer on their 'too cool for tactical' match grade bullets.. sierra said no problem and bobs your uncle .. I have not tried them yet and keeping my fingers crossed that I dont have 4k in scrap metal there too.

I will no longer buy anything from Nosler that I expect to see any level of performance from.

Nosler being caught grosly inflating their BC data, and selling cosmetic blems that are really way out of spec is just the last straw on top of them not working nearly as well as their competition.


with hot calibers like 6.5x284 that I shoot.. the barrel wear for each shot costs as much as the round.. so .05 to .10 cents more per shot is nothing compared to wasting the shot alltogerther with an inferior bullet in a match..

my .02 cents...

 

[ToddKS]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have plenty of TAC and will give that a try. I am shooting them from an AR pattern rifle.

I started with AA2520 because that is what the 77 SMK shot well with. That didn't work well (2-3 MOA 5 shot groups).

 

[FLIGHT762]

I had a chance to get to my reloading room this morning to measure some of the blem .308" 175 RDF's. Ogives measured out to .642" (low) to .650" (high). Weights were 174.1 gr. (low) to 176.0 gr. (high). Just a 10 bullet sampling. I have a few more loads to try out before giving up on them. Just haven't gotten around to it since Duck season is keeping me pretty busy right now.

 

[squib-load]

FLIGHT762 that is what I found ogive varied by about 7 to 10 thou.... but if you take smaller caliber comparitors like 264 7mm 22 etc you will find that they are off by 10 thou all the way up and you will find in general that they will hit lands in the rifle by 10 thou as well.,,,