last try of 8208xbr under 95 gr. SST's

[Trashy]

Below are todays results of the next ladder of 8208xbr under the 95 grain Hornady SST.  I switched to CCI 450 primers for this work up due to the 400's having slight primer cratering, which was odd cause the 450's had more pronounced cratering and a couple of punctured primers on the upper end of the ladder.  I'll get a pic of the empties posted.

This ladder was 5 rounds at each charge weight of 8208xbr beginning with 25.4 grains and ending with 28.1 grains moving up in .3 increments.  Hornady 95 grain SST, CCI 450 primers, CBTO 1.678 and no crimp.  I almost didn't fire the 28.1 grain charge weights due to what i thought was excessive primer cratering at 27.8 grains but curiosity got the better of me so I did.

25.4 gr, avg vel 2602, sd 15.2, es 40, group 1.04"
25.7 gr, avg vel 2627, sd 9.3, es 20, group 1.33"
26.0 gr, avg vel 2661, sd 5.4, es 13, group 1.50"
26.3 gr, avg vel 2696, sd 10, es 23, group 1.25"
26.6 gr, avg vel 2711, sd 16, es 42, group 2.15"
26.9 gr, avg vel 2726, sd 5.3, es 13, group 1.10"
27.2 gr, avg vel 2775, sd 8.4, es 23, group 1.60"
27.5 gr, avg vel 2799, sd 2.9, es 7, group 2.31"
27.8 gr, avg vel 2834, sd 5.2, es 13, group 1.80"
28.1 gr, avg vel 2847, sd 11.2, es 26, group 1.28"

I know the groups could have been better if I would have taken more time on each string but the range was busy today and there were a lot of cease fires\cold line calls.

I think I'm done with this powder\bullet combination, 8208xbr is looking like it is at its limit.  Going to make up a ladder of Accurate 2520 and Hornady Leverevolution next and see where that takes me.

   
The brass is in the box left to right from lowest charge weight to highest charge weight.

[grayfox]

I could like a node around 2800 for that bullet, 20” barrel. That’s where I would expect to find one. Somewhere right around that 27.5, maybe a tad higher but your next node is prob close to 2900 and yeah, xbr might not get you there.
But 2800 with the SST? You’ve got a 250 yd hunting setup right there.
If you could get the 95 Nosler to that, even a bit longer, but a good rig for out east here.

---

If there’s some room to play around with seating depth you could see the accuracy tighten up.

[Dino11]

I gave up on the 8208 for the same reason, just couldn't quite meet the call.

Velocity was down even when the charge was up. I will be loading some ladders tomorrow, the son and I have a range day planned.

I had pretty good groups with CFE223, and I had room to go on velocity, and as I sped them up the groups tightened up. So I'm going to start where I left off and pick another powder to try.

I have some 100 gn that I might try and stuff some H322 behind.

[Trashy]

I agree that 27.5 at 2800 would be a good node, it had the lowest sd’s and es’s out of all the charge weights but that where I started getting excessive primer cratering And the ejector swipes were pretty significant. I shot the last two charge weights to see if it was going to peak or keep getting worse and it kept getting worse.

My issue may be that I have a Grendel throwing a 95 gr V-max at 2850 FPS with both 8208 and 2520 into an inch or less (without any pressure signs) as long as I do my part and I expect the 6arc to do better by 50 FPS at least. Whether or not that is feasible it is still my expectation.

Dino11, No disrespect intended but I have tried cfe223 several times and it just hasn’t worked for me and it has always been a PITA to clean up afterwards that’s why my next selection is LVR. Leverevolution is right beside cfe223 on the burn charts, it seems to give the same velocity curve for almost the same charge weights and density and from reading other folks comments on the Grendel forum it cleans easily. Having never loading it before my thought is “what the hay let’s try something we haven’t done before”, it may not work for me either but at least I can say “been there, done that” ???

[mikebin]

Below are todays results of the next ladder of 8208xbr under the 95 grain Hornady SST.  I switched to CCI 450 primers for this work up due to the 400's having slight primer cratering, which was odd cause the 450's had more pronounced cratering and a couple of punctured primers on the upper end of the ladder.  I'll get a pic of the empties posted.

This ladder was 5 rounds at each charge weight of 8208xbr beginning with 25.4 grains and ending with 28.1 grains moving up in .3 increments.  Hornady 95 grain SST, CCI 450 primers, CBTO 1.678 and no crimp.  I almost didn't fire the 28.1 grain charge weights due to what i thought was excessive primer cratering at 27.8 grains but curiosity got the better of me so I did.

25.4 gr, avg vel 2602, sd 15.2, es 40, group 1.04"
25.7 gr, avg vel 2627, sd 9.3, es 20, group 1.33"
26.0 gr, avg vel 2661, sd 5.4, es 13, group 1.50"
26.3 gr, avg vel 2696, sd 10, es 23, group 1.25"
26.6 gr, avg vel 2711, sd 16, es 42, group 2.15"
26.9 gr, avg vel 2726, sd 5.3, es 13, group 1.10"
27.2 gr, avg vel 2775, sd 8.4, es 23, group 1.60"
27.5 gr, avg vel 2799, sd 2.9, es 7, group 2.31"
27.8 gr, avg vel 2834, sd 5.2, es 13, group 1.80"
28.1 gr, avg vel 2847, sd 11.2, es 26, group 1.28"

I know the groups could have been better if I would have taken more time on each string but the range was busy today and there were a lot of cease fires\cold line calls.

I think I'm done with this powder\bullet combination, 8208xbr is looking like it is at its limit.  Going to make up a ladder of Accurate 2520 and Hornady Leverevolution next and see where that takes me.


The brass is in the box left to right from lowest charge weight to highest charge weight.

Thanks for the information, Trashy.

---

Good stuff.