RC Cartridge review

I had the opportunity to visit RC Cartridges in Forli not far from where I was staying, Ravenna. Alessandra Socci gave full access to all aspects of the plant, including quality control. Wads are mostly B&P with some Dana. Hulls are Cheditte. Powders come from B&P and a Scandinavian manufacturer that I have forgoten the name. For the RC Red line, they developed a new powder in alliance withe the Scandinavian manufacturer that has softer felt recoil while maintaining speed. Lead comes from Italy and China. Steel pellets are from China. They check every shipment of components before accepting the shipment. They have refused powders often and components occasionally. The shell boxes are made to food standards. They are more rigid and are waxed, so not affected by humidity changes. The company stresses Quality Control and consistency. The shell must have the same performance levels in Norway as in Dubai. They check every machine's production, every 30 minutes. So, if the machine loads 4 cartridges at a time, they take four off the line to the lab. I saw .1% difference in pellet weight. That is one to two pellets! Unheard of!This BSM machine produces 90,000 cartridges a day:   Here is part of the automatic packaging system that three BSM machines feed:    Here are the patterns all shot with my DT10L with a Muller U3 choke, about half choke for you blokes.    First RC4 Excellence Trap 7.5 (English 6.5?) 28gr    This is the RC Red Black Comfort 28Gr 7.5    RC Red Supernik 28Gr 7.5    While we left with Alessandra and her husband Stefano for an excellent lunch at a local trattoria, the plant engineer took 10 samples from each box that I shot and put it through the lab. The recoil curve is not as steep as others that I have seen. It shows the push and not kick pressure.   Here are the results:   Velocities are read at the front of the shot cloud at 2.5M and 10M. In NA, we measure at 3 feet the average of the front and back of the shot cloud. The pressure is in Bar but it is a bit complex to translate into CUP. You can use an App to give you PSI.RC4 Excellence Trap 1282 fps 1090 fps Standard deviation 8.8fps 609.2 Bar SD 18 BarRC Red Blk Comfort 1266.7 fps 1065 fps SD 11.5 fps 590.9 Bar SD18RC Red Supernik 1278.5 fps 1087.6 fps SD 8.2 fps 590.9 Bar SD 18 BarThe pressure levels have only a .03 difference between shells. Meanwhile Standard deviation 11.5 fps and less are unheard of. SAAMI standards let manufacturers get away with 90 fps. In over thirty years of testing ammunition, I have yet to find a manufactured round having less than 20 fps SD, until now! "The proof is in the pudding"! RC makes the most consistent shell in the World. Let the facts speak for themselves. No other shot shell manufacturer has let anyone do what I did with my shotgun and watching them do QC and lab work. They did have a few nervous looking faces when I shot the patterns (I shot many more with more open chokes). But, the results were excellent.The RC Red Blk  and the Supernik use the same amount of powder. The speed difference is due to the nickel plating (which does NOTHING for hardness) lets the pellets align themselves easier due to the lubrifying effect of nickel. The Lone Canadian,Henry/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-wink.gif

An excellent piece of very informative information. I have literally just arrived home with my first 1000 Superniks, and cant wait to try them on my first 100 reg sporting for 20 odd years tomorrow.

Great post Hen!

Great research Henry, what distances were you patterning at? 

Happy Trigger said:

An excellent piece of very informative information. I have literally just arrived home with my first 1000 Superniks, and cant wait to try them on my first 100 reg sporting for 20 odd years tomorrow.

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Hi Trigger,   All the the best tomorrow at your return to the sport -- I hope you enjoy it,  if you don't mind me askin how much were the 1000 Superniks  ?  Nigel

Can't argue with the facts Henry. Top quality products. However, I have great difficulty paying for RC4 shells when they are way over £200 per thousand. I can afford it. I just can't bring myself to pay it.

wylye said:

Can't argue with the facts Henry. Top quality products. However, I have great difficulty paying for RC4 shells when they are way over £200 per thousand. I can afford it. I just can't bring myself to pay it.

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Same here,just can't bring myself to pay that money for clay cartridges,though i do use RC for my game shooting bought 1000 rc sipe 5s today £254 /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-surprised.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-surprised.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-surprised.gif i tend to use eley olimpics £157 and superbs for clays

All patterns were taken behind the plant at a measured 35 meters. Some of the French are buying RC in Spain at 58E the flat and in France, 61E. 61E is about $88CDN and includes VAT. Here, Winchester AA when on sale are $85 plus VAT= $96.83 and they are made just across the border! I checked the rate just now. You are paying $81.61CDN including VAT! Cheap for a premium shell!!!Henry/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-wink.gif

How would you explain Henry the speed variation below 1% and the pressure variation over 3%. Do they have velocity control or is the variation lost in your 2.5m? Yes I have A-level maths but don't need it much.

Could it be that there is not a linear correlation between the two values? Big words for a Wednesday morning.....

Near the mark I'd say Ed, the other thing is that although small velocity variations are a welcome thing, it doesn't translate to a better cartridge in itself. More expensive yes, it has to be a hard thing to achieve as it takes fantastic quality control but other cartridges with inferior velocity variation figures may well prove to be as good if they make up for it in other areas.

The biggest problem in regards to pressure and velocity is that when we load benchrest ammunition, we go by volume and not weight. We first use a standard weight but from then on we want consistent volumes. It probably has something to do with having the same amount of space or pressure on the powder charge. I know that RC refuses an occaisional powder shipment if it does not meet their established standards by weight and volume for a certain loading. In N.A. SAAMI standards, one can have a SD of 90 FPS and 900 PSI SD! Inferior cartridges that have larger speed variations will also have generaly poorer patterns and much worst performance at distance since they would have a varied retained energy! Take a 1/4 inch sheet of plywood at 60 measured yards. Shoot the good stuff and the cheap stuff. You WILL see different levels of penetration and patterns. Been there, done that! BTW, under 35 yards, even cheap stuff will break targets if you put the pellets where target will be! The Lone Canadian,Henry

great article . i am a RC fan and have been using the RC2 as an 'everyday' cart .. I also shoot hull comp x and these , being much cheaper, often won the battle of which to buy .. but … with the recent price rise's of the comp x i can now get the RC2's for virtually the same cost … RC's it is then . I intend to use the RC4's as my comp carts in the future

You won't regret it, Junxy! Amazingly, the RC Red Supernik is a fast cartridge but has lower felt recoil. It must be the powder they have developed specificaly for this load. BTW, they test every lot of powder and somtimes refuse lots! Other manufacturers, would readjust the loading for the powder lot. I shot a few CR4 Excellence in my new DT11 Sporter, last Sunday morning. Using Skt (5 thou constriction) and IC (9 thou), I shot some rabbit loopers at distance (ie, I could drop the stock after firing before the target broke), so 40 plus yards. I smoked every pair!

A few weeks ago with some friends shooting, we have a stand with a large pond and some weeds at just over 35 yards. To explain to them what patterns, chokes, shotstring and shells choice have effects on one and other, I shot several shells and choke combination at the edge of the weeds for consistency of distance and barrel angle. The slowest NA shells had narrow splatter on the water with a long shotstring. Some Euro shells that were fast, had many stray pellets and a short shotstring. The RC Red was on par with the best of the NA slow loads. It was very visual and now my friends know why I choose certain loads only.

Regards,

Henry