Loaded 160gr Hornady RN today

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In my rifle, max COAL is 2.425". Magazine length is 2.330". Per QL and the information I had to put in a 2.300" COAL and 27.4gr RL-17 leaves me with 2160 FPS and a chamber pressure of 42k PSI (+10% burn rate variation puts it at just under 51k PSI). If burn rate is what the software has then my theoretical mac load is 29.2gr for 2293 fps at just under 51k PSI. If I push pressure over 55k I should be able to get over 2350 fps. Again, these are theoretical values that are untested and not a suggestion. I have not tried any of these yet though. QL has been wrong before on velocity so I dont know how accurate the numbers it gave me are.

Hornady lists that bullet with a usable velocity range of 2000-2900 fps. Based on past requests for information for minimum expansion velocities, I would expect a minimum impact velocity of around 1800-1900 fps to get any kind of expansion.

My calculator shows the gel impact round had ~1950fps at 100 yards w/ a MV of 2233fps. The degree of decay of the bullet suggests to me it wasn't even close to the velocity performance threshold. FWIW, here's one that I dug out of the soft sand berm behind the target (1/8" thick luan backer).