04-27-2020, 04:02 PM
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!
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!