When I got home from the week-end my new Handloader was here. Inside was a brief review in Propellant Profiles of the new IMR 8208 XBR. On the way home from trying some new loads I stopped at my local dealer and low and behold 8208 in the flesh (well a plastic bottle in fact).
I bought some and the Varget I came for and scurried home to test. The max load listed on the Hodgdon website was 23.6 with the 69 gr HPBT. I skipped the reduced loads and got a few to shoot at my home 50 yd range. only got 2737 and 2723 from the two 5 shot strings. Accuracy wasn't spectacular either. I noted that the primers were not even particularly flat and almost no flow around th firing pin strike, I suspect it could hold a few .10ths more? Re reading the article the imputation was that the powder would work best with lighter bullets in .223. I'll have to try it with some 55 gr A-maxs I am thinking of slaying groundhogs with this summer.
It was rather exciting to find a brand new powder so far out in the sticks so soon, but a little anti-climactic later.
Can anyone suggest a better load for the 69 gr s than 26.0 grains of Varget. I'm getting just under 3,000 fps and sub .75 MOA should I just give up and decide that is as good as it gets??
I bought some and the Varget I came for and scurried home to test. The max load listed on the Hodgdon website was 23.6 with the 69 gr HPBT. I skipped the reduced loads and got a few to shoot at my home 50 yd range. only got 2737 and 2723 from the two 5 shot strings. Accuracy wasn't spectacular either. I noted that the primers were not even particularly flat and almost no flow around th firing pin strike, I suspect it could hold a few .10ths more? Re reading the article the imputation was that the powder would work best with lighter bullets in .223. I'll have to try it with some 55 gr A-maxs I am thinking of slaying groundhogs with this summer.
It was rather exciting to find a brand new powder so far out in the sticks so soon, but a little anti-climactic later.
Can anyone suggest a better load for the 69 gr s than 26.0 grains of Varget. I'm getting just under 3,000 fps and sub .75 MOA should I just give up and decide that is as good as it gets??