RAR6.5 hand loads with CFE223?

[LRRPF52]

There is a lot of CFE223 data here on the site.

Hornady was first to publish data with it many years ago.

It has been my go-to powder for about 8 years in 6.5 Grendel, but my needs may differ from yours.

I mostly have loaded Grendel for the purpose of hitting 2-3 MOA steel targets out to 1000yds.

Under 100gr bullets, CFE223 works best when you have a higher case fill. It’s a bit on the slower side for 100gr cup and core, but will optimize as you reach higher charge weights.

The maximum charge weights will be different between the 100gr ELD-M and 100gr Partition due to the resistance from the Partition wall.

I’ve used it under monolithic bullets as well, including a custom 94gr Hornady GMX, Barnes 100gr TTSX, and Lehigh 95gr Controlled Chaos.

We have a search engine for the site too listed under “Announcements”.

32.0gr is a good start load for 100gr ELD-M, working up in .3gr increments.

For the 100gr Barnes TTSX, I started with 31.2gr and worked up to 32.5gr.

I hit 2646fps at 32.5gr from the 17.6” Lilja Grendel just testing out various hunting loads.

I normally just load 31.2gr of CFE223 under 123gr A-MAX and mass-produce that in 100-200rd batches.

I’ve shot thousands of rounds of that through multiple rifles over the years.

For 94gr GMX, I was loading 33.9gr pushing 2750fps.

I would still load the 100gr Nosler Partition starting with 32.0gr and work up from there in .3gr increments.

With Grendel, I think for hunting it makes sense to keep things in a tame muzzle velocity and impact speed window where you get expansion and penetration, without blowing bullets up.

You don’t need crazy velocities to make it perform well with most of the cup and core hunting bullets on the market.

Higher velocity is more warranted with the monolithic bullets that like high impact speeds to initiate expansion.