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Help choosing powder

Reformedcitykid

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Minuteman
Mar 23, 2023
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New York
I'm looking to take advantage of this Grafs free-Hazmat sale and buy a few powders, out of the choices below, which would be your top 5? I reload 223, 308 & 6.5 CM. Some overlap would be nice but can also have some caliber-specific options.

BLC-2
H335
H4350
N140
N150
StaBALL 6.5
Ramshot Tac

Thanks in advance!
 
223 and 308 is going to share the same powders. I would go N140 for those. And H4350 for the CM.
 
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my list of powders for 6.5 creed
rl 17 , h100v can use the least amount of powder and get higher speeds
h4350 , imr 4350 , Imr 4451 if you can find it , both imr powders will speed up in summer and slow down in winter personal I liked imr 4350 even over h4350 at 41.9 gr of powder in the winter It gave me great speeds ( slightly slower than h , but in summer it ran faster than h and around the same numbers .
6.5 stabal , varget , and accurate 4350 , n555 ( these shoot real nice but your probably going to need larger loads to get the same speeds as the other powders )
n550 and rl16 ( whileI like the way they shot was horrified by the ammount of powder needed to get the bullet moving ( I am sure another rl powder might work in there like 22 or 15.5 but I have never tried it so I don't know
for 308 the only ones I know of are 8208xbr , varget and imr 4895 betting there are many others I just don't know of .
 
I'm looking to take advantage of this Grafs free-Hazmat sale and buy a few powders, out of the choices below, which would be your top 5? I reload 223, 308 & 6.5 CM. Some overlap would be nice but can also have some caliber-specific options.

BLC-2
H335
H4350
N140
N150
StaBALL 6.5
Ramshot Tac

Thanks in advance!
Buy some StaBall 6.5 and get 100+ FPS more velocity over other powders, at the same pressures (according to them). I have a jug, but haven't gotten around to testing it yet. But plan on trying it in my .260 Rem, 7mm-08's, and .308's.

Otherwise, it's going to be impossible to beat the old "tried & true" option...Varget, for consistency and temp stability. And still get good velocities. Don't overlook LeverEvolution, either. It's right there with CFE223 in burn rate (slightly slower than CFE223), and shoots just as nice and clean and consistent as Varget in my tests.
 
H335 isn't a great choice for shooting heavy for caliber bullets in 223 or 308. It is great choice for throwing charges with 55g bullets though.

I think Tac is pretty temp stable and a good choice for heavy 308 and 223 bullets. Would probably also work well with the 6.5 Creed shooing 123g or less.

H4350 is great temp stable powder. Its for something a little more overbore than the 308. It use to be THE powder for 6.5 Creed {41.6 with 140}. I like it in 6 creed, 280, 30/06, 243, or 22-250 with 75g+ bullets.
 
You'll have to play with bullet weights some to help the overlap, but the N140 and N150 would both work (N150 is pretty temp sensitive though).

BL-C(2) and CFE-223 would also work...but ate extremely temp sensitive and are harder to achieve low ES and SD with.

My most accurate 6.5CM hunting load out of a Savage 110 Timberland was found by accident as it was the summer of 2020, supplies were gone, and I was just trying to break the barrel in. I'd have to look at my notes, but ~38.5gr IMR-4895 (considered way too fast for a Creedmoor) under a 120gr NBT gives me 2,840 FPS, and just under 1/2 MOA out to 300. IMR-4895 is actually listed in Nosler's load data as their most accurate powder for 120gr bullets in the 6.5CM (that's why I tried my load).
 
I personally would get Staball 6.5 for the 6.5, although H4350 works well too. I used to use H4350 in my 6.5s, but have since moved to RL16 and Staball 6.5 for better velocities and metering.

I've been playing with the new Staball Match in .223, and it's looking pretty good, just getting started in .308 a bit with it too. Staball Match isn't on your list, but it's in stock at Graf's, and that's what I'd get for the .308 and .223 over anything on your list.