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New Winchester Staball 6.5 ball powder

Any data for 7SAW / 175 Berger Elites will be welcomed and as soon as my powder arrives will be shared from my load data!
 
I'd love to see some 6.5 Creedmoor testing results. @Skunkworx I appreciate you putting this stuff to the test already and getting some information out there for us.
 
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My 8#’s arrived Tuesday, the day I had to leave for work. I wanted to do some load test on 6.5 CM, it will be a long 3 weeks before I get home...
Would like to hear about some 6.5 load results...??
I'd love to see some 6.5 Creedmoor testing results. @Skunkworx I appreciate you putting this stuff to the test already and getting some information out there for us.
 
Interesting stuff. I'm curious to hear more testing in the small BR based cases. If it can hit the typical velocities without being compressed loads and is temp stable then it has real potential.

The test I want is to see how accurately it meters through a Dillon press. Throw 20 charges and measure each one on a lab scale, then see what the total extreme spread of charge weights is. I did that with both Varget and XBR 8208, Varget had a spread of 0.46gr across 20 charges and XBR had a spread of .26gr. Would be interesting to see how much tighter you could get with this new powder. Lots of guys loading on high end scales to +/- 0.02gr so a total spread of 0.04 or 0.06. If this powder got down close to a spread of 0.1gr then you would not be giving up much at all by loading progressive.
 
Tempted to try this powder out are there any advantages of this powder over h4350 in my 260?

Hodgdon info is showing marginally higher velocity with slightly less powder but higher pressure. Max load it says is 42gr of h4350 but I'm pressured out at 41gr in my rifle @2850 FPS with 136gr.

Throwing powder with a CM 1500
 
I was thinking about this also. Every time I tried to run H414 or CFE223 out of my auto trickler it turned into a giant mess. Stick powders run fine.

I throw on a fxi auto trickler combo too. Only ever used stick. Something I should consider before trying this ball powder? Don't want a mess on my hands. I already spill enough powder with the funnel! ?
 
I was thinking about this also. Every time I tried to run H414 or CFE223 out of my auto trickler it turned into a giant mess. Stick powders run fine. The two big potentials of this for me is to be able to shove enough slow powder into a BR case to get higher velocities without pressure and being able to throw loads. But I think you'd have to use a Harrels Culver. Then I'd have to spend $300 to make that happen and unless you rig something up, it won't happen on a Dillon. Maybe that RCBS powder meter with the Dillon adapter would do the trick... But that's still more $ to do the same thing I can do now with an autotrickler that I've probably spent $1500 on.

Exactly. I'm all dialed in for precision powder weighing. While the idea of having a "throw and go" load on the Dillon is appealing, it would have to get very close though for me to switch and I wouldn't buy any new gear to do it.

For club matches you can already do this pretty easily. I ran an XBR Dasher load around 2850 that had single digit SD's and was very accurate.
 
I'll have to look at this stuff this summer. I've got a few things happening that will necessitate a new work up.
 
Interesting stuff. I'm curious to hear more testing in the small BR based cases. If it can hit the typical velocities without being compressed loads and is temp stable then it has real potential.

The test I want is to see how accurately it meters through a Dillon press. Throw 20 charges and measure each one on a lab scale, then see what the total extreme spread of charge weights is. I did that with both Varget and XBR 8208, Varget had a spread of 0.46gr across 20 charges and XBR had a spread of .26gr. Would be interesting to see how much tighter you could get with this new powder. Lots of guys loading on high end scales to +/- 0.02gr so a total spread of 0.04 or 0.06. If this powder got down close to a spread of 0.1gr then you would not be giving up much at all by loading progressive.


So while testing different powders in my 223 I gave cfe223 a try. It's a small spherical powder like the 6.5. After load development, I loaded 50 up to verify at distance. I was powder dropping and weighing them for the first 10. Every single one was almost perfect. I checked every 5th one for a couple times and then gave up. It was dead on. If this 6.5 or cfe223 will work in my dasher, everything will be done on a dillon for me.
 
So while testing different powders in my 223 I gave cfe223 a try. It's a small spherical powder like the 6.5. After load development, I loaded 50 up to verify at distance. I was powder dropping and weighing them for the first 10. Every single one was almost perfect. I checked every 5th one for a couple times and then gave up. It was dead on.

Weighed on which scale? Something with a 0.02gr resolution? Can you define what you mean by dead on or almost perfect?

One observation I noted when I did the test was the tendency to get a series of charge weights that were very, very close, then an outlier. Even Varget would throw a bunch in a row that were the same or within 0.02. However, it's the outliers that I'm more worried about.
 
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with 8208 I get extremely consistent results over 20 drops on my A&D in 223. I have a fully polished hopper, powder die, powder bar, a powder baffle and micrometer powder adjustment on all my Dillon powder drops.
 
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I've tried tweaking the screw tension on the drum. Didn't help. The fine powder would always find it's way into the bearing surface of the drum and grind it to a stop. If you leave the tension loose it will just leak like a sieve.
This! The v2 hopper is not at all ball powder friendly.

The v3 shouldnt be a problem according to the reports.
 
You guys are way more anal than me. I'm talking beam scale dead nuts. FWIW, that beam scale is much more accurate than my chargemasters, which I know are not that great, but are good enough for prs in my opinion.

I've thrown varget(horrible) and xbr(decent) and cfe223 is on a whole another level as far as consistency. Nothing like stick powder.

I drop mine right from a rcbs powder dump directly into cases or use the powder throw on my dillon 550.
 

For 6.5cm and similar calibers. Powder Valley is calling it the greatest invention since Varget. Those are big shoes to fill. We will see if it lives up to the hype


Increased velocity
Temperature Instability
Reduced Copper Fouling
Precise Metering


Very interesting looking powder. If it throws well in a volumetric powder measure that will be huge. It would figure they would come out with something like this now. I just found a fantastic load for my rifle with RL16. It will be interesting to see if I can get the same kind of accuracy and low ES/SD numbers I get with RL16.
 
My Stay Ball is on the way from Powder Valley. Looks like half price hazmat because today Hazmat was only $12.95. Was $25 the other day I went to buy it.

Will have some data on throwing charges on the 650 as soon as it arrives.
 
My Stay Ball is on the way from Powder Valley. Looks like half price hazmat because today Hazmat was only $12.95. Was $25 the other day I went to buy it.

Will have some data on throwing charges on the 650 as soon as it arrives.

Yea on the front page it says "1/2 prices hazmat fees" but it says from 10/1-10/14. I ordered yesterday and it was only $12.95 as well. I guess they extended it but didn't change the graphic on the home page.
 
Yea on the front page it says "1/2 prices hazmat fees" but it says from 10/1-10/14. I ordered yesterday and it was only $12.95 as well. I guess they extended it but didn't change the graphic on the home page.

I saw that and also saw the old dates but Im not complaining....
 
Hmmm....22BR... maybe....

I am picking up 16lbs tomorrow. I will be trying it in my 22BR, 223, and 6.5 Creedmoor. Not sure when I will get anything loaded up, have my daughter's wedding in a little over 2 weeks.

I am going to see how my RCBS uniflow does with it. I also have a 550 that I might give a try. I ran some CFE223 through my auto trickler the other day to see how it was, no issues with it.
 
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I am picking up 16lbs tomorrow. I will be trying it in my 22BR, 223, and 6.5 Creedmoor. Not sure when I will get anything loaded up, have my daughter's wedding in a little over 2 weeks.

Lord, bless your soul
 
Looking forward to you guys results....

would anybody guess how this might perform in 30-06 with 200gr bullets? After some reading it sounds like it is maybe a little slower than h4350 so that sounds good but i wonder if my case fill would be way off since its ball... currently using h4381sc at 61-61.5gr so case fill is not a issue now. Depending on how some of the reviews go i may pick up a pound to try just to add to the discussion.
 
Im in for 2lbs on this experiment. Im almost at acceptable drops on my Hornady L&L progressive using H100V loading 6.5Cm.
 
Staball 7-08 AI.PNG



Gotta say, so far I am not impressed. overall no major signs of pressure, even at top end.

Load Data for my 25" 7-08 Ackley @ 36°F
FF'ed PPU 7-08 Brass
trimmed and annealed.
162gr ELD-M loaded to 2.9- I am jumping about 60 thou though.


Variables
- All but the last two rounds were S&B LR. those last two were 210M primers. so maybe this powder needs a magnum to ignite the powder
-barrel has 2-2.5k rounds on it, so maybe it's shot out and the reduced velocity is blowby. though that seems doubtful considering the longer associated barrel life with the 7-08.
-Powder is slow? if that's the case, i'll ask for a refund. i'm not even close to published velocities.
 
Gotta say, so far I am not impressed. overall no major signs of pressure, even at top end.

Load Data for my 25" 7-08 Ackley @ 36°F
FF'ed PPU 7-08 Brass
trimmed and annealed.
162gr ELD-M loaded to 2.9- I am jumping about 60 thou though.


Variables
- All but the last two rounds were S&B LR. those last two were 210M primers. so maybe this powder needs a magnum to ignite the powder
-barrel has 2-2.5k rounds on it, so maybe it's shot out and the reduced velocity is blowby. though that seems doubtful considering the longer associated barrel life with the 7-08.
-Powder is slow? if that's the case, i'll ask for a refund. i'm not even close to published velocities.

What speed were you getting previously in this rifle with other powders? 2882 seems screaming for a 162 out of a 7-08 to me, I am not familiar with the 7-08AI though.
 
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View attachment 7174708


Gotta say, so far I am not impressed. overall no major signs of pressure, even at top end.

Load Data for my 25" 7-08 Ackley @ 36°F
FF'ed PPU 7-08 Brass
trimmed and annealed.
162gr ELD-M loaded to 2.9- I am jumping about 60 thou though.


Variables
- All but the last two rounds were S&B LR. those last two were 210M primers. so maybe this powder needs a magnum to ignite the powder
-barrel has 2-2.5k rounds on it, so maybe it's shot out and the reduced velocity is blowby. though that seems doubtful considering the longer associated barrel life with the 7-08.
-Powder is slow? if that's the case, i'll ask for a refund. i'm not even close to published velocities.

So you didnt use the same.brass for all rounds? That explains the spike in velocity....case volume difference
 
What speed were you getting previously in this rifle with other powders? 2882 seems screaming for a 162 out of a 7-08 to me, I am not familiar with the 7-08AI though. That's also a massive velocity spike with just 0.2 gr increase, any idea what happened there?


My previous data with same bullets and data

7mm-08
39.5gr XBR 8208 @ 2707

7mm-08 Ackley
41.2 gr XBR 8208 @ 2800


*Edit- the published data at max is 2824. I went almost a grain over that and still didn't come close to tbe velocity. The only ones that met or exceeded that were 1+ grain over the 7mm-08 max
 
In my limited experience I've never had published match. It's more like a safe point of reference.

Sometimes that definitely is the case. But I would say this is an exception. Almost 1.5 grains over max and i am 50FPS slower than advertised with a *longer barrel*. The only two shots that exceeded the published data was about 2 grains over max and only when I switched primers. I need more data to confirm that, but something's up. One of the specific advertising bullets is that it is faster than comparable powders.
 
Sometimes that definitely is the case. But I would say this is an exception. Almost 1.5 grains over max and i am 50FPS slower than advertised with a *longer barrel*. The only two shots that exceeded the published data was about 2 grains over max and only when I switched primers. I need more data to confirm that, but something's up. One of the specific advertising bullets is that it is faster than comparable powders.

1.5gr over what max? The powder has only been out a few weeks.... You talking about Winchester suggested data initially released with the powder? Throw that right out the window. YOUR gun will tell you whats max and all that shit is conservative as hell.

Sierra book max for Varget with a 105 in 6br is 27gr. The known go to load for 105/Varget in 6BR is 30gr and thats what everyone loads and shoots without any pressure. Thats 3gr over Sierra's "book max."
 
Has anyone noticed how fast or slow this powder heats up the barrel? Is it cool or hot burning?
 
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Sometimes that definitely is the case. But I would say this is an exception. Almost 1.5 grains over max and i am 50FPS slower than advertised with a *longer barrel*. The only two shots that exceeded the published data was about 2 grains over max and only when I switched primers. I need more data to confirm that, but something's up. One of the specific advertising bullets is that it is faster than comparable powders.

After wasting considerable time and money I pretty much start at published max and go up from there.
 
View attachment 7174708


Gotta say, so far I am not impressed. overall no major signs of pressure, even at top end.

Load Data for my 25" 7-08 Ackley @ 36°F
FF'ed PPU 7-08 Brass
trimmed and annealed.
162gr ELD-M loaded to 2.9- I am jumping about 60 thou though.


Variables
- All but the last two rounds were S&B LR. those last two were 210M primers. so maybe this powder needs a magnum to ignite the powder
-barrel has 2-2.5k rounds on it, so maybe it's shot out and the reduced velocity is blowby. though that seems doubtful considering the longer associated barrel life with the 7-08.
-Powder is slow? if that's the case, i'll ask for a refund. i'm not even close to published velocities.

Interesting that a 210 would pick up 100FPS over a S&B. Maybe you should redo the test using 210s or Winchester LR primers. Maybe S&B is too mild?
 
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