Any experience and opinions on the new powders?

[tazman]

Has anyone tried any of the new powders from IMR or the other manufacturers?
If so, what is your experience and opinion?
Are any of them markedly superior to the older powders?

[Adam20]

I picked up some rl 16 a fews back, burn rate similar to h4350 have not done a lot of shooting with it yet. It is looking good.

I use cfe223 also, not sure if newer powders offer anything over Time tested powders other than availability.

[waco]

My brother has had great results using IMR 4451 (4350 equivalent) Rx16(same as 4350 as well)
In his 6.5cm
He also bought a bunch of IMR 4166 (think Varget) not sure he has tried it yet.

[OFFSHORE]

For the wheel gun (or any magnum hand cannon) shooters, Accurate No. 11 FS is a very nice alternative to H110/W296. It has produce equivalent velocities in both my 44Mag and 445SM, very accurate, clean burning, great ES/SD and meters fantastic. Best of all muzzle/cylinder flash is almost nonexistent and I don't find it as temperamental as H110!

[Gewehr-Guy]

For those that like Red Dot, you should try IMR Red , I've been using it in 30-06 and the Krag, and liked it enough to buy an 8 pounder. Still have my eye out for some UNEQUAL, but I really think that they dropped it before ANY was made, maybe we made fun of the name too much and they thought there would be no market for it?

[lotech]

I'll occasionally try a new powder, but it seems there is a tremendous glut of powders available today. It appears that many of the "new" ones offer nothing over what we have already had for years; lots of overlap.

I'm quite sure there have been some true advancements in technology, such as temperature stable powders. As for powders that reduce copper fouling and have other real or alleged advantages over other powders, I don't have enough experience with these to comment.

If 50% of the 100-150 (or whatever the number actually is) powders were discontinued today, we would still have a more than adequate number of powders as long as various burning rates were covered. Powders are occasionally discontinued and we complain about the discontinuance of the best powder ever produced for a particular purpose. It's difficult for me to buy that reasoning. We have enough other powders that I'm pretty sure results can be duplicated, but it may take a lot of load development work. Maybe that's what we really don't like.

I suppose the overabundance of powder types is simply good marketing practice and it's hard to fault a business for trying to make a decent profit.

[tazman]

As far as the copper fouling prevention capabilities of CFE Rifle/Pistol, My gunsmith is a big AR fan and shoots a lot of bullets through them. He claims that by using CFE Rifle, he can avoid 95% of the copper fouling he usually gets with other powders. He said that often, he will come back from a high round count at the range and not be able to find any copper fouling in the barrel. He uses a bore scope of some kind to inspect the barrel very closely.

[Lance Boyle]

I have read that another reason for new powders to replace old is that the new greener methods are preferred to avoid wastes they have to deal with.

I am sure there is a germ of truth somewhere in that. I am still missing 4759.

[dverna]

Following with interest.

I have over 150 lbs of powder so I am covered for a long time. If there was something that had a significant advantage I would be interested in trying some. With the bulk of my loading being shotgun and pistol, I doubt the new powders offer much. My last buy was 35 lbs of Clean Shot because it was cheap and too good a deal to pass up.

Once I have a good load, I stop experimenting and buy what I need to last a while.

[NWPilgrim]

I have tried CFE223 in .223 and like it very much. It is extremely similar in burn rate and load charge to BL-C2 which I like but gives slightly better accuracy and is good for bullet Wright’s 55-77 gr. And the anti-copper fouling really works well. I still have lots of BL-C2 to use up but then I will be switching over to CFE, H335 and 8208XBR for all my .223 loads.

I tried IMR4166 (similar to 4064) in .223 and have not got great accuracy yet but decent. Anti-copper fouling works but it is absolutely the filthiest powder I have ever used! Leaves thick, wet black gunk all over the bolt and BCG. Not buying any more of that!!

I was anxiously waiting to try Unequal but looks like it is not being released? I got some CFEPistol but have not tried it in 9mm and .40 yet but the burn rate is promising.

Thanks for the tip about Accurate 11. Sounds worth a try.

[oconeedan]

If you are into speed, there must be something to LeverEvolution powder. They seem to get more fps than was previously possible. I haven't tried it, as it looks to appeal to those that push the limits...which I don't usually.