long shot thanks alot

[K22]

I took you up on your suggestion to give IMR8208 XBR powder a try in my 204 Kimber. All I can say is wow! Great suggestion!!
The picture kind of tells the story, but using the same components I used when I loaded H4895, 8208 gave me much better accuracy results. Full length sized Remington brass and Rem. 7 1/2 primers with a Berger 35gr. bullet gave me the results I was looking for. Oh, and these Kimber Montana's do shoot.

While the 28.0 gr. load was pretty good, even with the pulled shot, it was a slight bit on the hot side. 27.8gr. wasn't bad, but 27.9gr. was perfect.



Thank you again long shot for the heads up.

[Dean2]

Really glad to hear that worked out. I have had exactly the same good performance from 8208 so it is great to see it working for others too. Just as an aside, wioth the 35 Berger 27.9 was the magoic number in mine too. :-)

[Stephen Perry]

K22
Your rifle shoots well. The 28.0 group looks good for 4 shots. Your 27.8 group is a weather report, if you had same hold for all the shots the wind blew them in and out of the group. Your 27.9 group is a great group for a Varmint gun. All 3 groups would hit 1 minute of varmint at 100 yds. Actually on any other day all 3 loads will shoot well.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

[K22]

Originally Posted by Dean2

Really glad to hear that worked out. I have had exactly the same good performance from 8208 so it is great to see it working for others too. Just as an aside, wioth the 35 Berger 27.9 was the magoic number in mine too. :-)

You have got to be kidding.

And I need to give you credit also Dean2. I looked over the loads you had tried and got the idea to start with 27.8gr. So thanks to you also Dean.

K22
Your rifle shoots well. The 28.0 group looks good for 4 shots. Your 27.8 group is a weather report, if you had same hold for all the shots the wind blew them in and out of the group. Your 27.9 group is a great group for a Varmint gun. All 3 groups would hit 1 minute of varmint at 100 yds. Actually on any other day all 3 loads will shoot well.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

Thanks Mr. Perry.
I thought very hard on using the 28.0 group, but it was running on the slightly hot side so I didn't. The wind was blowing today and I was trying very hard to keep the same hold, which is not very easy with a 5lb. 6oz. rifle. Well actually 6lbs. with the scope. 27.8gr. seemed just a bit light and when I hit that 27.9gr., everything came together.

[long shot]

Glad it worked out for you. It sure seems to be a good combination out of the 204R. My load is just a bit lighter running 27.5 Grns. of the magical 8208XBR. If I do my part it will do a raggedy hole consistently. Same results in my 17 Rem using Mr. Nagels 25 gr. bullets. Doing so well with these two rifles I had to try it in my 222mag. and had similar results with 52 gr. Amax bullets. Needless to say I have a bunch of powders collecting dust right now Show us some pics. of "first blood" when available.

Aaron

[K22]

Originally Posted by long shot

Glad it worked out for you. It sure seems to be a good combination out of the 204R. My load is just a bit lighter running 27.5 Grns. of the magical 8208XBR. If I do my part it will do a raggedy hole consistently. Same results in my 17 Rem using Mr. Nagels 25 gr. bullets. Doing so well with these two rifles I had to try it in my 222mag. and had similar results with 52 gr. Amax bullets. Needless to say I have a bunch of powders collecting dust right now Show us some pics. of "first blood" when available.

Aaron

I did work out. I'm going to try 8208 in my 17 Rem. also. I may end up with a bunch of powder collecting dust too. The real test of 8208 will be in my Ruger 223. It only likes W748 period. Bullet weight, primer, brass change, it doesn't matter. If it isn't 748, it isn't shooting it.

[Silverfox]

K22--My rifle isn't the same make as yours, but rather it is a Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger with a 25" super match grade SS Pac-Nor barrel with a 1 in 11 twist. Both IMR 8208 XBR and H4895 work great in this rifle with 32 gr. V-Max, 35 gr. FBHP Bergers, 39 gr. Sierra BKs, and 40 gr. V-Max bullets. All these bullets are coated with hBN and seated so they are .010" off the lands.

I'm using the 40 gr. V-Max load I worked up even though the 39 gr. Sierras shoot just a tiny bit tighter group. The V-Max is a little less expensive to shoot in the colony rodent situations.

With the hBN coated 35 gr. FBHP Bergers, I tried 27.7 gr. of H4895, 27.7 gr. and 28.0 gr. of 8208 on only one trip to the range and the 28.0 gr. load of 8208 would be my choice for the 35 gr. Berger in this rifle.





The load of 28.0 gr. of 8208 gives me an average muzzle velocity of 3,970 fps.



I also use IMR 8208 XBR in my new .17 Remington built on a Stiller Predator repeater action that has a #6 contour SS 26" Lilja barrel with a 1 in 9 twist and 4 grooves. I'm using WW .204 Ruger brass that I formed down to .17 Remington in this rifle. Before I started shooting test loads with I checked the Hodgdon/IMR starting loads and max loads and decided to start on the low end of the listed powder charges because these casings formed from .204 Ruger casings have just slightly less volume than regular .17 Remington casings. The starting load listed for the 25 gr. Hornady HP bullets is 22.7 gr. and list 3,882 fps as the velocity.

I tried 22.9 gr. and 23.0 gr. of 8208 with the hBN coated 25 gr. Hornady V-Max and got an average velocity of 4,030 fps at 12 ft. from the muzzle and 4,070 fps average respectively. I'm sure glad I didn't start close to the maximum load which is listed at 24.2 gr. I think the 25 gr. V-Max has a much longer shank than the 25 gr. HP and that accounts for some of the extra pressure, but the smaller volume of my formed casings also contributes to the extra pressure.

I settled on 22.8 gr. of IMR 8208 XBR and get an average muzzle velocity of 4,064 fps. Five-shot groups measure from the high .3s up to mid .4s. I'm seating my bullets .010" off the lands. My chamber has .069" lead and the neck measures .201". I turn the necks on my casings walls to .0125" thick.

I also tried some of the 29 gr. BTHP Kindler bullets with 8208. These bullets were coated with hBN and I thought I could get by loading up near the max load. Well, that was a wee bit careless because I forgot about the smaller volume in my formed casings and started out with the maximum load listed for the 30 gr. Bergers at 22.6 gr.!!! Bolt lift was just a tiny big heavier than normal and the primer shoulders weren't quite as round as they should be. I got an average velocity of 3,965 fps at 12 feet from the muzzle and a 5-shot group that measured .321". It was 71 degrees outside.

I decided to shoot the 5 loaded casings I had with 22.8 gr. of 8208. The primers showed a bit of cratering, the shoulders were not as round as they should have been, and I got a shiny spot on the casing base!!! Average velocity at 12' from the muzzle was 3,998 fps and the 5-shot group measured .598" with a called flyer. Without the flyer the 4-shot group measured .393". I wish I could afford to shoot more of these bullets, but when I can buy 25 gr. V-Max for around $16/100 and the Kindler bullets are something like $32/100, it's a no-brainer for me to shoot the V-Max bullets, especially in prairie dog towns. If all I shot this rifle on was coyotes, I might consider using the 29 gr. Kindler BTHP bullets.

[long shot]

[QUOTE=Silverfox;

I tried 22.9 gr. and 23.0 gr. of 8208 with the hBN coated 25 gr. Hornady V-Max and got an average velocity of 4,030 fps at 12 ft. from the muzzle and 4,070 fps average respectively. I'm sure glad I didn't start close to the maximum load which is listed at 24.2 gr. I think the 25 gr. V-Max has a much longer shank than the 25 gr. HP and that accounts for some of the extra pressure, but the smaller volume of my formed casings also contributes to the extra pressure.

This is a perfect example of rifle to rifle and a little bit of component changing differences. I am loading 23.7 grains of 8208 with no pressure signs whatsoever using Nagel 25 grn. pills in my 17 Rem. using Rem. factory brass.

Aaron

[Alycidon]

What is hbn?.

A

[K22]

Silverfox,

Thanks for that detailed reply. Now that I've got this 204 up and running, I'm going to give 8208 a try in my 17 Rem. Noticed that 25gr. Bergers weren't used. Any reason why other than Nagels are a bit better.

I did notice the differences long shot. Rem. brass is what I will be using since I have a small stash of it.