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IMR Enduron powders... Who's had good luck with them?

8208 is not an Enduron powder. It is excellent however.

It's not even a 'proper' IMR powder being an ADI manufactured 'Extreme' grade from Australia. (For the Aussie home market, ADI packages and sells it as 'Benchmark 8208'.) Logically, it should be a Hodgdon branded grade in the US, but IIRC, Hodgdon hoped it would mimic the performance of surplus IMR-8208 which had been a considerable hit with short-range BR shooters in the 6PPC. It didn't catch on in this role, so found other uses.

Like @Forum Boss I found it to be an excellent 308 Win powder, although this was prior to the days of employing 200gn bullets in FTR. I used it in the 2013 F-Class Worlds at Raton with the 155.5gn Berger in SP Lapua brass. My UK load gave 3,050 fps (32-inch barrel) and the same charge from a different powder lot rose to exactly 3,100 fps in the much higher Raton temperatures. Surprisingly, there was no need to retune the load - my usual charge weight still produced the smallest groups and ES values. 8208 never caught on in the UK and I was unusual in using it, but that was a good thing (for me) as it remained available when everybody else was chasing near unavailable H4895 and VarGet. I spoke to US FTR team members back in 2013 who said they'd tried it but preferred VarGet - but they'd already adopted the 185gn Juggernaut by then. Sadly, 8208 is Reach non-compliant, so is one of the many fine propellants we in the UK have lost.
 
I was disappointed with the first trials of 4166 in 223. However I qualify this by stating that the brass was ADI, which has a lower (5.56 like) capacity. The load was 24.5g with a 69g Nosler Competition, somewhat compressed, and it was shooting at the bottom of the 600yd F-class target. I haven't tried it again - yet! Primer was Federal Gold. My usual load is 25.4 Varget with 69's/24.4 with 75's. I will try it again. maybe with a bit more neck tension - maybe a different primer?

I'll try it sometime in the next few weeks with the 77gn SMK in a 223 F-Class rifle. I'm running a test series of potential replacements for the Reach-banned H4895 and VarGet in the cartridge. My intention is to set the maximum a half-grain or so lower than H4895, but to play safe I'll work up to there with a lot of small steps. I have friends who had good results and high MVs with 4166 in 308 FTR - can't remember now whether they were loading 155s or the 185gn Juggernaut at the time.
 
Enduron powders are extruded but double base. Published load recipes do not use magnum primers. I am in the process of comparing regular vs magnum primers with IMR 4955 and 130 gr 6.5 CM. What I have so far indicates about 1.5% velocity gain with magnum primer.
 
4166 has gone well with some of my cat tests. I want to test
it heads up with AA-4064. IMR-4064 shot well alongside
4166 . So The only advantage for 4166 would be temp stability.
But then again I never had temp stable problems with IMR
4064.
 
Ive had awesome results with 4166 in my 284 Win, 257AI, and 7x57AI. I did find that when it pressures out, it comes on quickly and it also seems to have its best numbers just before max. YMMV
 
4451 was a good alternative for .284 when it was the only thing I could find last year. Not my favorite but I was pretty happy with the results overall. 4955 not so much.
 
I liked 4166 in 6BR with a 95TMK for PRS. I loaded everything on a Dillon 550. I won a match and my buddy won the local series that year.
 
Like others I have had positive results with 4166 in .308. It does seem to be finicky for its burn rate though.

7977 has given much lower velocity than its burn rate peers in my experience. Oddly enough it was 1:1 with QL data in each case for me. I mean if QL said 2900fps, I got 2899fps... SD/ES were extremely good though. Seems to mimic what others are saying about consistency at lower pressures.

I have a few lbs of 4451 that I will be trying in a 25x47L but have not opened them yet. If less than stellar, it will be used for the initial ~200 rounds on the barrel before cracking my lot of H4350 that I lucked into (huge thanks to my LGS for doing me a solid!).
 
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I've been playing with 4955 so far I am impressed. 6.5 PRC 142 gr ABLR and 143 EDLX have grouped well low ES and speeds 3030 no pressure.
 

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