Easy pouring .223/5.56 powder?

[areaone]

Ramshot Exterminator is all I use in bolt and AR for the 223. Great prairie dog loads using 55 and 60 gr. Flows like water, clean, very accurate, very good pricing. In my 222 Rem using 50 gr TNT Speer it is devastatingly accurate......3 shot groups in a custom 222 .25 or better groups, at 2900 fps.

 

[brainiac]

The best I have found for all 3 of my 223's has been Benchmark. Meters well for me and shoots really well in all of them.

 

[earlcurtis67]

My burn chart shows that CFE-223 burns a little slower than Varget and IMR 8208 XBR is faster. In my Howa 1500 1:9 twist 24" barrel I find that the best recipe is 69gr Sierra Match Kings with 22.2gr of IMR 8208 XBR. That's a pretty mild load by the way.

I didn't have much luck with CFE-223 in my .223 guns, but it works quite well with my 6mm BR. In any case, although CFE-223 is a really fine ball powder and does indeed pour like water, my tests with a Hornady Lock-N-Load case activated powder dispenser shows that the IMR 8208 XBR (a short stick powder) meters every bit as accurately as CFE-223 and produces smaller groups. Of course every gun is different.

Im shooting pretty much the same load as Mozella except with 450 primmers, very accurate but sooty necks. IMR 8208XBR meters very well and consistent throws

 

[XTR]

I've used 2230 in my Dillon, checked every 10 or so on the scale, never found one to be off by more than 0.1 gr. Stuff meters with great accuracy

 

[navyrad8r]

like Zilla and others Ramshot TAC, but please don't overlook WC 846 (surplus BLC(2)) can save some money if you can get your hands on some...the ball powders are the ticket for easy metering! on the other hand ....If you really want a crunchy powder grab some IMR4064!!
Cheers,
Doc

 

[boltgunluvr]

like Zilla and others Ramshot TAC, but please don't overlook WC 846 (surplus BLC(2)) can save some money if you can get your hands on some...the ball powders are the ticket for easy metering! on the other hand ....If you really want a crunchy powder grab some IMR4064!!
Cheers,
Doc

IMR 4064 actually shoots the best in my 223s & 308s, even better than Varget, though it is meters horribly crunchy!

 

[navyrad8r]

bolt,
I hate to admit it...IMR4064 and IMR 4320 are my Favorite (go to) powders...its like walking on a bag of tortilla chips or eating celery.

 

[boltgunluvr]

bolt,
I hate to admit it...IMR4064 and IMR 4320 are my Favorite (go to) powders...its like walking on a bag of tortilla chips or eating celery.

LMAO. So true, BUT the stuff just works.

 

[Ilmo]

I like TAC,....... very very similar loads compared to h335.... but I think is cleaner burning....

 

[Terry]

I've used 2230 in my Dillon, checked every 10 or so on the scale, never found one to be off by more than 0.1 gr. Stuff meters with great accuracy

+1

No temp problems if you don't load to the bleeding edge.

 

[Mozella]

....... snip...........IMR 8208XBR meters very well and consistent throws

With my Lock-N-Load case activated powder dispenser I find that a fine ball powder like CFE-223 meters the best, but IMR 8208 XBR is a very close second when it comes to precise loads. However, I recently purchased an RCBS Chargemaster and it actually works better with a short stick powder like IMR 8208 XBR than it does with the CFE-223.

The Chargemaster has trouble trickling the last bit of CFE-223 and often overshoots and/or doesn't often produce a charge which is within a few hundreths (checked on my Gempro 250) of the desired charge weight. IMR 8208 XBR, on the other hand, frequently produces perfect charges (within .02gr) when dispensed with the Chargemaster. It seems that the finer spherical powder sometimes forms clumps, even with the straw modification, which weigh more than a short stick kernel. But sometimes it doesn't clump up. So, even if the CFE-223 pours like water, it doesn't work quite as well as short stick powder with my Chargemaster.

 

[sdbob]

Always fighting the static cling with the CFE-223.....went to TAC and never looked back.

 

[JAnderson94]

I just skimmed the thread and nobody else mentioned if they were using a model 55 or not. I just started using a model 55 for high volume loading. I had poor results trying to use cfe223, I switched over to 8208xbr and Benchmark and got insane consistency throw to throw. I'm not sure if it's my technique or just that it likes short stick powders. It is off the width of the white line on my RCBS 5-0-5 scale throw to throw or less. There are a few tricks that you can do that I believe improve consistency on these throwers. I'm shooting 50-53-55 grain bullets with these two powders