Bad range results

L

lugerstew

New member
I had terrible results with CFE223, my 243win. 26inch barrel 1 in 8 twist, with a 75g Hornady vmax. I was wondering if anyone else had tried CFE223 with a 243win?
I had sds of 140, es of several hundred, not good groups, 100 yds, and strange
bolt feelings when I pulled the trigger, it felt like the bolt jumped, before the round went off, the test was 34g to 37g, and it was all bad! It seems to me, from this experience, I should not do CFE223 again with anything over 58g vmax with my 243. I have no idea what went wrong. Cartridges were only about half full.
I got the info from the hodgdon website.
 
Did you use magnum primers? I had bad results with CFE223 in 223 with standard primers and 55g fmj. Started out with SD38.59 and ES 74, switched to magnum primers got SD 16.54 and ES of 42. and that was will full cases.
 
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Try a case full of 4831 where the bottom of the bullet just touches the powder charge -- about 47.5 grains. I tried many powder combinations with the 75 grain HP until I found this one. It prints a 5-shot group in about 3/4 inch at 100 yards in my Model 70. Hodgen or IMR 4831 both work well in my gun.
 
H4350, 4831SC or IMR 4350 with heavy 100 - 107 gn bullets will get you bugholes. Start at minimum and work up but mine liked it hot @ 3k plus
 
I tried CFE223 in several different calibers.
Gave decent velocities, but like you, ES& SD were terrible!
That and do load workup when it's hot out!
Stuff is way too "temp sensitive" for me! Only powder i've had temp issues with.
The powder i had remaining i used for lawn fertilizer.
 
I had decent results with the Hornady 58g vmax, all around 1/2 moa at 100yds, and no shooting issues, but the gun just hated the 75g for some reason with this powder, I have had excellent results with the 75g and other powders, even the one I tried a few minutes after this episode, IMR 8208xbr had very good sds of 2 to 6 with only 3 rounds each. I also have used this stuff in 223, bullets 55g to 77g, the sierra 77g shot very well.
It also worked well in my 308 with bullets from 130g to 175g, although occasionally, I had overpressure signs when I approached max.
Almost all of my bench shooting, the temps are from 20 deg. F to about 55 deg. I have heard about the temperature sensitivity, makes me a bit scared to shoot all these good loads above 70 deg.
 
It may just be a case of burn rate for case volume and bullet weight.

Some powders just really shine in a given cartridge for a given bullet weight.

Hodgdon Hybrid 100V in the 257 Roberts with 100-115gr bullet weights for example.
But it doesn't seem to perform as well with lighter, or heavier bullets.
 
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