My question about burn rates is this; Will a powder with a faster burn rate, increase velocity? I understand there are a lot of variables involved here. I am asking because, I am still trying to find a load that I can shoot in my 20VT, and keep the velocity from decreasing too much. The weather and a few other thing have been keeping me from testing my current loads. From some of your posts concerning the Vartarg, I see a lot of you are using RL7, or H4198, of which I have tested thru my rifle. I tried 17.5 grs RL7, W/32gr Vmax, the load that was suggested to try for fire forming my brass. This load caused, what seemed an over pressure. Reduced my load to 17grs. RL7 and no more problems. I also tried H4198 @ 17.5 grs , with no problems, but if I increase powder charge by as little as .1gr, I will start getting a hard bolt lift. I also tried RE10x @ 17.8 grs, and no problems. And I did shoot some loads with H335 @18.3 grs with no problems. RE10x, as listed on my powder burn rate chart, is listed 6 spots slower than RL7 and H335 is 11 listing slower than RL7. With the slower burning powders, I am able to increase powder charge by more than 1 full gr. of powder with no problems, even when jamming bullet into the lands
All other tests were done with 32gr Vmax bullets seated to just touch the lands, and when I had some trouble, I backed the seating depth .020 off the lands with no change.
Until now I have no experience with a rifle that I can seat a bullet at or into the lands. I am at a complete loss!
