I think there are several VV powder that will work with 180g, Blkram is using N165, and VihtaVuori.com lists several including N550, N555 and N560. Anyone else try any of these?
Welcome to the forum.
I agree with the above, except when I shoot monos. In my 243 truck gun I shoot 100g PT, but for lead-free I shoot 80g Hammers. Hammer Hunters work great on both deer and coyotes.
I use RL17 in my 300wsm with 180g Accubonds and it works great. I've been looking for more RL17 for quite awhile with no luck. I've thought about trying Viht. N550 as it is working very well in a couple other calibers and about the same burn rate as 17.
I got excellent accuracy with IMR4350 in my 270wsm with 150g bullets and also with my son's 6.5 cm and 140g bullets. RL26 gave about the same accuracy with more velocity in both.
I'm good as well with my 24" regular 280 Rem.
2950 fps-160g PT over RL26
3045 fps-150g AB blems over RL26
3100+fps- 140g Hammers over IMR4350
All with excellent accuracy.
Welcome to the forum! My adult son is shooting 120g Ballistic tips in his 6.5 cm, he shot a 3/8" group at 200y, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been watching through my spotting scope. He then shot a nice Arizona mule deer buck last month, DRT.
I started my son with a 243 Win 23 years ago, he practiced a lot, then shot several deer, most were bang flop using 95g and 100g various bullets. Then we were required to use lead-free bullets, the first time was a Barnes TSX, he heart shot the buck luckily as the bullet just penciled through...