Hodgdon CFE 223 powder

[FTIII]

Has anyone used it and what were your results. Is it a clean burning powder?

Thanks
FTIII

Information

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[ottoman45]

I have gone through 8lbs of it already and I'm on my second jug...

I have found that with both of my AR's a 20" Bushmaster A3 and my much newer Rock River Operator 2 with 55gr HPBT and SP 27.5 grains seems to work perfectly.

I found accuracy is great about 1"-1.5" groups with both rifles with no pressure signs.

I just started using some pulled 62gr and am finding 26gr to be a decent accuracy point if you call 2.5" groups accurate... it's the pulled bullets not the powder by the way...

As far as cleanliness at lower loadings (25-26gr) it left alot more carbon than it did at the higher loadings. This powder seems to like to be pushed to the upper end of the loading scale. Yesterday my daughter and I shot 500 rounds and the Rock River was easy to clean. I think part of that has to do with the chrome bolt and carrier but the barrel just needed a few passes with MP7 and a couple dry patches and i was done. So yea it's easier to clean than it was with other powders I've used.

[Bob Womack]

I've moved this thread to the reloading forum to see if we can get a little more notice for it!

Bob

[ottoman45]

Heres an update for you... I just got back from the range with my Bushmaster 20"

This is a 15 round group at 100 yards with 27.5 cfe223 and Hornady 55gr sp

[FTIII]

Thanks for the reply and pic. Seems to shoot nice so i'll ask a few questions if you dont mind. Does this powder flow well from a measure? I have worked up several loads and one of them is with H335 it flows very good and shoots well across the board with all of the bullets I have tried it with. One of the things Im trying to do is to find the best combo for across the board use before I load up a quantity of ammo. I'm sure at some point I will hunt with this rifle or have it in my hands when something is presented to me a oppertunity to fill a tag. The 55 grain Hornady bullet you loaded is that a standard 55gr softpoint?

Thanks again

[ottoman45]

yes to all of your questions....

it meters just as well as H335. If you are happy with H335 I see no reason to change. Both powders are nearly identical and around the same price. I was shooting with Varget and surplus powder so it was a no brainer for me to try it out.

The things I like about it is the carbon just seems to wipe off with a rag. No scrubbing of the bolt or internals is necessary. Another thing is it doesn't seem to work my brass as hard to achieve the same velocity. When resizing I use a small base X-Die and there really isn't much more than neck sizing being done with a slight push back of the shoulder. When I was shooting Varget and surplus the casings required more sizing. I don't know why this is just an observation over the last 1000 rounds I've loaded up.

And yes the Hornady 55gr sp I picked up at Wideners.com for about $80/1000. They shoot great and to the same point of aim as the 55gr FMJBT but are a flat base bullet so you have to chamfer the case mouths so you don't damage the bullet. I normally shoot the Hornady 55gr FMJBT but I found when shooting regularly at steel the soft points wouldn't beat it up as bad. If you are hunting I would recomend the soft points over the FMJ for a cheap accurate bullet....but remember there are better hunting bullets in the same weight but you will pay 2-3X as much for them.

[FTIII]

I picked up a pound of the CFE 223 powder and 2,000 of the Hornady 55gr. SP slugs today, I thought the bullets were priced right at 175. I can always use them in the other .22 cal. CF rifles as well as the AR.

[ottoman45]

good luck...my rifles like the powder bullet combo well enough not to change for a while. A fried of mine grabbed 100 of my reloads and now wants to duplicate them as well.

I dropped down to 27.2g for my loading since picking up a new Stag Model 8...this rifle sems to like 27 better than 27.5. The other 2 AR's didn't seem to mind as there groups didn't change at all. I like loading one round for all of my guns in that caliber(except my Garand in 30-06) instead of individual loading and seperating.

Start around 26 grains and work up. I began showing pressure signs at 28 and my accuracy fell way off. Let me know how you like the combo.