This fine, extruded propellant is the first in the series of Enduron Technology powders. The main features of the Enduron series are copper fouling eliminator, insensitivity to temperature changes, ideal loading density and being environmentally friendly. IMR 4166 is the perfect burn speed for cartridges like the 308 Win/7.62mm NATO, 22-250 Remington, 257 Roberts and dozens more. Positively, a versatile, match grade propellant.
From what I’ve read elsewhere, it sounds like it’s a faster than Varget, but slower than XBR. A nice middle ground for the heavier bullets and short grain extruded. I plan on picking some up. Sounds like it should work great with the Barnes TSX line due to the copper fouling eliminator.
The 4166 looks very promising for the heavy bullets. Plus it’s short grain extruded so it should meter well. My LGS posted some in stock a few minutes ago. If I can get there today, I’m gonna pick some up.
This stuff is a little longer than I was hoping… I will try to drop it, but I don’t mind trickling for a few hunting rounds if it gives excellent performance with the Barnes TSX line of bullets. This powder should work well with them due to the copper fouling reducer, but I’m not sure how well that actually works…
I’ve seen it “work” in magazines and online, but most of the time those articles are just advertisements for the product. I’m really hoping this works pretty well, I’ve been wanting to develop a load for the 70gr TSX’s without having to clean every few shots.
Yeah, I picked some up last night after work. I thought it wasn’t suppose to hit shelves until January, but I dropped by my friendly local reloading store and they still had a few lbs.
I don’t care about that environmentally friendliness crap as long as it performs well. But, looking at Hodgdon’s load data, it shows it to be ~80fps slower than Varget. I’m gonna load some up and try to get some time to head out to the country where I can use my chrono.
I have used a fair amount of cfe223, and I still have a fair amount. I can say that the copper fouling eraser does work. I have not tried it on existing copper fouling, so I don’t know if it works for that like they claim.
I also bought the cfe223 to work up a load for tsx/tsx bullets. I have not noticed the Barnes bullets fouling more than others, but I don’t shoot them in large numbers.
It’s good to know that it actually works. I still have a lb of the CFE223 from a few years ago, but I switched to strictly extruded powders and haven’t messed with it much since.
I do plan to start the TSX load development on a clean, copper free barrel. I’ve just avoided working with these bullets due to the clean barrel requirement. When I started developing a load way back with Varget, I did notice the groups opening up quite a bit the more I shot them, though.
I made the switch to extruded powders, and all the ball powder I have has been sitting ever since. I will probably use the tac, and cfe223 then get rid of the other rremaining ball powders I have. I might keep them for another powder drought, because I will take ball powder over no powder.
I may also test the cfe223 to see if it will remove existing copper. I was looking at my marlin 336, from a distance I thought I had rust. A close inspection revealed a lot of copper. So I may look if I can find some data using the cfe223, and see if it will remove the copper.
