8208 XBR dirty?

[Coty]

I'm shooting a load I picked up here a couple of years ago (PA Anderson's loads I think). 30 gr of 8208 XBR over a 100 gr Barnes TTSX. The load is great, I've shot turkey, deer and hogs with it. This past weekend was opening season in TX, I got 2 deer and 5 hogs, so no complaints with knockdown or accuracy.

My question is if others see signs of it being dirty? I'm shooting an 18" barrel AR with a suppressor. I'm guessing the suppressor adds to the issue. When I pick up brass it is suety. When I clean the rifle the lower is fine, the upper has some suet after even a few rounds.

I'm going to load a few rounds of 123 Hornady SST with CFE and compare.

[37L1]

My experience is the CFE is much "dirtier" then 8208 XBR.

[cory]

The major culprit here is your suppressor. This is normal with suppressors. Do you have an adjustable gas block. Further constricting the gas flow helps out a lot with this.

[Savage Shooter]

I am in the middle of load development with the 123 SST and 8208 vs. CFE right now and I can't say that I can see much difference between the two in terms of soot on the fired case. Cases within the same powder at the same weight show as much if not more variation as between the two different powders. In other words - not enough consistency in sootyness on the cases even at the same powder weight and type to make any conclusions. I am shooting an AA 24" Overwatch barrel.

BTW: In my initial OCW tests, with the 123gr. SST, my barrel liked 28.2 and 28.5 (close to the recommended Max) of 8208 (which gave me right at 2610 fps). So I loaded some "fine tuning" loads of 28.3, 28.4 and 28.5 grs. Unfortunately, it's done nothing but rain for almost two weeks here in Charlotte, so haven't gotten back out to confirm this. With the CFE - I can't seem to find an accuracy node at a velocity above the factory SSTs which measure 2600 fps on my chrony. So my gun seems to like the 123 SSTs at 2600 fps (although the pressure curve and barrel harmonics of the Factory Hornadys and my handloads with 8208 are likely a bit different, even if they both produce 2600 fps. But in the hopes that I can find a load my Grendel likes with CFE, I am loading some "slow" loads at 29.5, 29.8, 30.1 and 30.4 (with the 30.4 giving me 2600 fps). At 32.0 gr CFE, I am getting about 2750 fps and I hate to give up the extra 150 fps, but I can't get below 1.25 MOA with CFE, whereas with Hornady factory and my 8208 handloads, both at 2600 fps I am getting 0.6 - 0.75 MOA.

PSS. Brass is Hornady once-fired factory, CCI 450 primer, and I matched the CBTO of the Hornady Factory at 1.672 - 1.675" as a starting point. With 28.5 grs of 8208, I had to vibrate the cases a little to settle the powder down to minimize compression. I haven't measured my chamber with the SSTs to see if I can seat them a little longer, but playing with seating depth might be the next step if I can reconfirm sub-3/4 MOA with 28.5ish grains of 8208.

[1911man]

In my experience it is no more dirty than the other powders I use ( TAC, AR Comp, and CFE 223). If I had to pick which one is the dirtiest I would say CFE 223 for me, but I have noticed that most ball powders seem to show more residue to my naked eye. That may not be true at all, just what it appears to me.

[Coty]

Thanks for the feedback. The accuracy with 8208 is really good, I'll stick with that.

I do have an adjustable gas block, I'll tighten it up a little and give that a run.

Savage Shooter - thanks for the proper use of "soot" vs. "suet", I'm not getting beef tallow in my rifle! Good to see your workup of loads. I found similar things with my Grendel, it really went wide a max loads with 8208 (1.25"). A little lighter load worked great.

[1911man]

Yeah, 28.3-28.5 seems to work well for most guys.

[dmsims21]

I think CFE does reduce fouling in the barrel. However, it is a slower burning powder, so the gas system gets worked harder. I have to open my gas block a full turn more for 8208 loads than I do for CFE.
The action gets dirtier with CFE than 8208.