If You Could Only Have Two Grendel Powders

[BluntForceTrauma]

[grayfox]

Some of the choice depends on which bullets one shoots a lot.
For me the 120 class uses AR Comp the most, although I do play with some CFE in the 129-130s.
My 100's use 8208Xbr.
The 90 TNT - H335.

ARC and Xbr would be closest to my favorites because of really good speed but also some temp stability.

[Rosecrans1]

I like temp stability so I go with 8208xbr and H4895.
If I didn't go all temp stability and to open up a larger range of grain bullets, I would go cfe223 and 8208xbr.

[doktarZues]

I reload 223 and 6.5 grendel. Have had outstanding results with IMR 8208 XBR from 55-77gr on 223 and 90-120 on the grendel. I'm not trying to hot rod or wring every fps out, though. I just want temp stable, consistently moa or better loads and 8208 does that for me on demand. So that's all I really need.

[A5BLASTER]

From what I'm seeing with my handloads I have zero need for any temp unstable powder.

Ar-comp and h4895 are giving me same or better speeds/sd/es then any other.

So my vote for only 2 powders is ar-comp and h4895. In fact it's bout all I use now. I have a ton of other powders I need to get rid of.

[Grendelshooter]

[1Shot]

For sure IMR 8208 which is about all I have worked with successfully so far with 120 gr bullets. I am going to give Speer 90 gr TNTs a try and will try H355 and IMR 4895 of which I have a BUNCH of some time when things straighten up.

[Mitdr774]

So far my two most consistent loads are 123 sst with Benchmark at about 2475 fps and 120 pro-hunter with IMR 3031 at 2500 fps. I have debated switching the 3031 for something else though.

[BluntForceTrauma]

[lazyengineer]

For me, 8208 and TAC.

I like 8208, but as others say, pressure can be spikey. In my opinion, Grendel is a round that you want to push near safe-max as much as you can, to make it shine; moreso with Grendel more than many other rounds. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it just means the window of goodness is a tighter than a lot of other rounds.

With 8208, doing that you can end up going high pressure faster than some other powders in Grendel. At least, that's what people say, and I think I'm seeing it too. That said, my best performance so far comes with 8208. A lot of people like CFE223; but I'm not one of them. I can't get it to group well in my kit at least. In my experience it has really high SD until you run the pressures up, which isn't a great thing to do in Grendel. That said, a lot of people really think it's the best powder for Grendel, so not sure what to say.

RamShot TAC has treated me pretty well - gets some of the higher velocities you can hit with Grendel, yet gets little press. I think you can safely push it up to better speeds at better pressures than 8208 (i.e. it's not as spikey as 8208). It groups good, but lacks the T-stability quite as good as 8208, and maybe doesn't always group as good as 8208.

I've tried ARComp and like it, but that's just an odd powder. I run a progressive for a lot of stuff, and it's a large grain powder that doesn't really meter that great. Odd choice design criteria (going large grain), for a powder that is intended for small capacity tactical rounds like .223; much of which tends to be run on progressives.

As a wild card, if going light, or willing to sacrifice velocity, Accurate LT-32 is a remarkably good powder that gets very little press. It's what I use with my 95 V-Max loads. But it's fast, so even with the lights you sacrifice a little velocity, and when going heavier, you start sacrificing a lot.

Just my 2 cents!

[A5BLASTER]

I like h322 for the light weight pills but ar-comp seems to be right there with it.

120 and 123's ar-comp all the way.

129 are heavier it's h4895.

I could live just fine with ar-comp and h4895 as my only powders.

[ported45]

8208 and XBR

[mel]

I've only tried 2 powders so far ppv and h4895

4895 was horrible in my gun
Ppv well we all know how that's been working for me

Am interested in trying out tac

[FLshooter]

[CJW]

8208 and AR Comp