MkIV shooter was on the mark.
I "rescued" a Savage m110 from a pawnshop for less than $300; for several trips in, it kept "whinning" like an abandoned puppy whimpering "take me, please!"........
Anyway, I'm extreamly impressed with what Remington and Savage have done. This is not a really "extream" cartridge except for the velocities it pushes 180gr pills.
For my purposes, I decided that pushing an inexpensive bullet with the very inexpensive surplus powders would be the way to feed this monster. So far, the Remington 180gr Cor-lokts have held up their end of the deal, but I haven't tried any of the surplus powders yet.
Your load of 93.0gr of RL-25 is right on the mark. I've so far only tried RL-25, Retumbo, and H50BMG.
93.5gr of RL-25 gets me 3,300fps and near moa accuracy. (Haven't seen any really good groups except a few "flukes" which is reasonable with 3-shot groups). This is a very shootable (pressure wise) load and recoil is about the human limit for tolerance (mine at least).
I've worked up to 100.0gr of Retumbo, and I don't believe what my chronograph is telling me. It says that this load, which is "topped out" in my rifle is exceeding the "books" by as much as 150fps. (26"bbl on Savage). Putting it in the .30-378 speed range, which really, it should be. The last time out with this load under a 180gr Sierra GameKing (not boat-tail), gave a 3-shot group of 0.900"; second best with this rifle (RL-25 shot one at 0.800", but average is probably 1.10".
H50BMG is really too slow for this cartridge, but with a max load, which is heavily compressed, it turned in about 3,150fps, and mediocre accuracy (~2.0"), but rifle is still "breaking in", so after another 50rds or so, I'll revisit it and the Remington Cor-lokts.
Why the Cor-lokts?
Well, for a "cheap" bullet, my experience is that they will better resist blowing apart at the velocities of this launcher, and well, they are MUCH less expensive than the premium bullets such as the Triple shoks and Failsafes. Should I decide to take this gun hunting for anything other than whitetail deer on fields, cut-overs, or pipelines, I'll invest in some better bullets, but probably 180gr Noslers at that.
My experience, and that of a good friend is that my Rem m7 in 7mm-08 with 140gr Noslers is a better choice of an elk rifle. (7lbs vs 10.5lbs).
I personally can't fault you choice of the TSX, but I have no experience with them, and no motiviation to try them. I've had outstanding success with the conventional bullets when matching them to velocity and intended application.
A Sierra 180soft point might come unglued at 50yds on a large elk, but I doubt it. However, a 180gr Nosler would perform like Noslers always do.
At least with these, and/or the Remington, you have an instant choice because my experience is that they shoot to essentially the same POI if loaded over the same load, and the cost allows PRACTICE, which to me is much more important.
For very close shooting on the Elk, the 200gr bullets would definitely be a better choice. My gun shot some 200gr Nosler Part. that came with the gun very well after I reversed the extractor which had been installed backwards at the factory, and polished the gouges out of the chamber where previous owner used some sort of steel rod to punch out the fired rounds. Last four rounds fired were within 1", so I knew the gun was able to "shoot" prompting me to consider it a "keeper".
My next approach on this gun is going to be with the 180gr Corlokts and some XMP-5744 and loading it "down" to .30/06 levels and making it even more enjoyable to shoot.
But, thats just my preferences and prejudices!
