what's best powder

[imaguy3]

Load, and hunt in the same temp zone if you are worried about this. Plan ahead. It's that easy .

No need to worry of temp sensitivity.

That's impossible where I am. I hunt year round (right behind my house), summer temps when hunting are 80 at sunrise and approaching 100 by mid morning. In the winter morn. temps will be in the 20's/30's up to 70/80 in mid afternoon.

I'm more concerned with minimizing poi differences at longer range caused by the powder sensitivity and velocity changes.

[LR1955]

That's impossible where I am. I hunt year round (right behind my house), summer temps when hunting are 80 at sunrise and approaching 100 by mid morning. In the winter morn. temps will be in the 20's/30's up to 70/80 in mid afternoon.

I'm more concerned with minimizing poi differences at longer range caused by the powder sensitivity and velocity changes.

IG3:

I think you ought to go for the powder that gives you the velocity you need for terminal performance, then precision, and forget about zero changes due to powder temperature.

At most, in the winter, you have a 30 degree change from a average of about 50F. In your ballistics program that may appear as 1/4 or at most 1/2 minute. Your summer temp you say vary only about 10 degrees from a estimated average of 90. Not even a consideration.

LR55

[grayfox]

Yeah. I was going to say if temp deltas are your ultimate worry then load up some 120-129’s in a creedmoor and load over varget..... or else plan cool n warm temp loads like 55 said....

[jason miller]

Pretty well covered already, but I'll throw my hat in.

If temperature stability is high on your list, like it is mine, then I would try AR Comp first for any bullet weight in the 6.5 Grendel. For bullets 123 or lighter, 8208 is pretty much its equal and won't run into compressed loads quite as quickly as ARC. For 123's and heavier, H4895 is about equal to ARC- again, with slightly less powder compression at higher loads.

And if you run 160's or heavier in that 280AI, like I would, then RL26 would probably give you another 100 fps over H4831. Maybe even more. RL26 has also shown itself to be very temp stable in my testing with a .243 as well as other people's testing in other cartridges- including the .270 with 150's, which is darn close to a .280 with 160's...

[imaguy3]

Pretty well covered already, but I'll throw my hat in.

If temperature stability is high on your list, like it is mine, then I would try AR Comp first for any bullet weight in the 6.5 Grendel. For bullets 123 or lighter, 8208 is pretty much its equal and won't run into compressed loads quite as quickly as ARC. For 123's and heavier, H4895 is about equal to ARC- again, with slightly less powder compression at higher loads.

And if you run 160's or heavier in that 280AI, like I would, then RL26 would probably give you another 100 fps over H4831. Maybe even more. RL26 has also shown itself to be very temp stable in my testing with a .243 as well as other people's testing in other cartridges- including the .270 with 150's, which is darn close to a .280 with 160's...

Yea I was wanting to try those 129 accubond lr's..

I guess what confuses me is I look at Alliant's, IMR's, and Hodgdon's website, without even going through this whole thread, 6 of the powders people use have no data on that manufacturers page. I guess I didn't think the Grendel was that obscure that the powder manufacturers wouldn't have data?

In my 280ai I'm running the 175 eldx, I'm getting 2800fps and 1/2" 5 shot groups... I'm not changing a thing ha..I just bought another jug of the H4831sc too, so I'll probably never finish the jug now that I have that gun dialed in.