Can I trickle H335 and CFE223? For most rifle cartridges I use IMR 4064, which charges poorly, but trickles great. I want to try some new powders, because that's all I have now or could find. I got some CFE223 to use in 308, and I have some H335 for 223. Can I charge these low and trickle up like with IMR 4064? Basically I'm asking will these powders work in my powder trickler?
Trickling Ball Powders
- Thread starter DMW1116
- Start date
- Status
Ranger99
Member
I can't say from direct experience since I've never used those. If W748 or TAC or AA2520
or AA1680 is similar in grain I would say yes
Never any problems metering with those
or AA1680 is similar in grain I would say yes
Never any problems metering with those
glockgod
Member
I use H335 alot for .223. Meters thru my Uniflow like greased water. I check every fifth one or so and find little if any variation. H335 is a joy to work with! You shouldn't have to trickle
Last edited:
NMexJim
Member
CFE223 meters as well as H335. I’ve not found a reason to meter either for .223
edwardware
Member
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
- Messages
- 4,424
Yes, but. . .
Med-fine ball powder will trickle, not smoothly, but it will.
On the other hand, it meters so beautifully, why would you. Do the experiment and see if you can tell the difference; I have, I couldn't.
I don't trickle well metering ball powders, that's why I use Accurate 1680 over H-4189 for 7.62x39 and BL-c2 for .308 Win. with 168 ish bullets.
The case neck tension on the bullet will effect accuracy more than the 1/20 th of a grain throw variation by a ball powder threw your powder measure. JMHO
The case neck tension on the bullet will effect accuracy more than the 1/20 th of a grain throw variation by a ball powder threw your powder measure. JMHO
Yes on all three counts.
I have a CFE load in 260 term that I throw. It's more accurate than any h4350 load I trickled.
It made me want to beat my head against the wall.
Ive found a well polished and waxed rotary drop is incredibly accurate.
I purchased an FX120i awhile back and naturally I had to test all my other scales against it.
I wont get into how all over the place my CM1500 was. However, I did test it against my 505, which the 505 was dead on as I figured.
I also tested it with 8208 which is a finer short cut extruded from my Hornady rotary group. I needed 27gr for a break in load for my 6AR. So I set up 25 cases, started adjusting my measure until I was hitting 27.02 consistently. For grins I did a 5 drop test and ended up at 135.16. I did another 5 drop and ended up at 135.12. Ive had similar results with ball powders like AA2230, H335, CFE 223, W296. Ive never been more than a few 100ths off on a 5 drop test with ball or a short cut finer extruded powder. When you get into the 100ths off in a 5 drop test, you know youre on the money, and that value is statistically unimportant at that point.
Moral of the story? Buy a decent rotary drop, Redding, Hornady, RCBS, whatever. Strip the paint out of it. Polish it to a mirror. Wax it. Run graphite thru it to lube it. Store it with used drier sheets in it to keep static away. And you wont go back.
I purchased an FX120i awhile back and naturally I had to test all my other scales against it.
I wont get into how all over the place my CM1500 was. However, I did test it against my 505, which the 505 was dead on as I figured.
I also tested it with 8208 which is a finer short cut extruded from my Hornady rotary group. I needed 27gr for a break in load for my 6AR. So I set up 25 cases, started adjusting my measure until I was hitting 27.02 consistently. For grins I did a 5 drop test and ended up at 135.16. I did another 5 drop and ended up at 135.12. Ive had similar results with ball powders like AA2230, H335, CFE 223, W296. Ive never been more than a few 100ths off on a 5 drop test with ball or a short cut finer extruded powder. When you get into the 100ths off in a 5 drop test, you know youre on the money, and that value is statistically unimportant at that point.
Moral of the story? Buy a decent rotary drop, Redding, Hornady, RCBS, whatever. Strip the paint out of it. Polish it to a mirror. Wax it. Run graphite thru it to lube it. Store it with used drier sheets in it to keep static away. And you wont go back.
jmorris
Member
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2005
- Messages
- 24,141
How long did you have the utmost confidence in it though?
A cost effective rotary measure is like using a dipper. Some powders just don't work so well . The trick is to see if you can even tell on paper. My back yard range only goes to 150 so plus or minus .5 is undetectable. Heck with the powders I use max to minus 10% isn't enough to matter much.
AJC1
Member
They measure wonderful, the height difference between your pan and spout matters a bunch in how big of mess you have after.... those little balls bounce like you would not believe and something I had to address that was never an issue with any other powder shape. Between tac and siloette I could vacuum a pound out of my garage in a world ending emergency
I never had perfect confidence in it, but I learned what its shortcomings were as I used it and tested throws against my 505. I found in testing that 85% of the time it was about .06-08gr heavy. So at least it was consistently off the mark. I also had long suspected that if ran full speed and suddenly hit the number it was lying and the load was way light or way heavy and the FX120i proved that out, so that was probably 10% of its charges. However if it trickled up slowly it was fairly accurate, albeit heavy. I sold it to a friend of mine and gave him a sheet of tests I ran against it. He will use it for loading hunting ammo, and understands what its shortcomings are as well. He also has a Hornady trickler, so this is a step up for him in quality.
- Status
