Cfe 223
- Thread starter Gerald
- Start date
It's great powder. Go onto their website and look for loading suggestions.
It's very clean burning and I suspect that's why it's touted as being a copper fouling eliminator.
It's also very consistent with the cases it's suggested for use in.
So far, I've used it in the 223 Rem and 308 Win.
Where did you get yours? I've been looking for it and nobody seems to know it exists. What are the velocities like? As good as the data claims? I tried IMR 8208 and it just doesn't perform as well as claimed. Still a good powder but just a little slower than advertised.
punkrockboy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Eastern Bantario!
I just picked up 8 pounds at higginsons. I will be trying it today.
I have been using CFE-223 for about a year... it is my "go to" powder for .223 and .308, and is becoming a strong contender for .243 and 7mm-08 (still have some more testing to do with these two calibers)... it is clean and consistently accurate and very fast... it is probably at it's best in .308, where it blew-away my old favorite loads.
I didn't much care for it in a bolt when I first tried it, but the AR's love it.
Copper Fouling Eraser, more like carbon fouling eraser. Doesn't seem to do much for copper for me, but damn, it's really good at stopping carbon buildup.
It does seem to have the magical ability to get the most FPS per inch of any powder I've played with.
It's a ball powder, it shouldn't be temp stable. Someone here has claimed they it's very temp stable, but I'm not sure, I was not able to get that consistent results with it when making accurate loads. I stick to Benchmark or other powders when I'm going to accuracy.
I love it for making FMJ rounds in my AR's. It's very slow burning and gassy, makes sure my 20" DI and 11.5" Piston cycle well. Also feels smoother then some faster burning powders for the application. It's totally too slow for the application if it wasn't for the semi-auto factor.
It seems to be BL-C(2) with a dry lube mixed into it. When you clean your gun after using it, your patches come out blacker then you've even seen them and you first think it's the dirtiest powder you've ever used, and are appalled and offended, but then you notice the patches turn grey to which way faster then any other powder. It because all that black was the dry lube you just wiped out, and in fact, it stopped the normal carbon fouling to build up.
Cleaning an AR bolt is a breeze. Instead of having to muck out carbon, you are simply wiping off dry lube. If you run a piston gun, it keeps that piston running smoothly, and again, when you go to clean it, you are wiping out dry lube. Everything seems to clean up much faster, tho it seems much dirtier at first.
In fact, I noticed something weird about it. Cause it's so gassy and gets into everything, and cause it stops carbon from building up, I've actually noticed it clean carbon off an AR bolt.
I had an AR bolt with a small amount of carbon buildup that I did not bother scraping off, then I ran the gun with CFE, and when I cleaned it the next time, the carbon was gone.
The dry lube stopped the carbon from sticking to the bolt, and actually allowed the existing left over carbon to burn off, cleaning the bolt. It was quite a finding.
Anyway, it's an interesting powder. I find it too gassy from some applications, I can't stand it in a 16" carbine AR.
Copper Fouling Eraser, more like carbon fouling eraser. Doesn't seem to do much for copper for me, but damn, it's really good at stopping carbon buildup.
It does seem to have the magical ability to get the most FPS per inch of any powder I've played with.
It's a ball powder, it shouldn't be temp stable. Someone here has claimed they it's very temp stable, but I'm not sure, I was not able to get that consistent results with it when making accurate loads. I stick to Benchmark or other powders when I'm going to accuracy.
I love it for making FMJ rounds in my AR's. It's very slow burning and gassy, makes sure my 20" DI and 11.5" Piston cycle well. Also feels smoother then some faster burning powders for the application. It's totally too slow for the application if it wasn't for the semi-auto factor.
It seems to be BL-C(2) with a dry lube mixed into it. When you clean your gun after using it, your patches come out blacker then you've even seen them and you first think it's the dirtiest powder you've ever used, and are appalled and offended, but then you notice the patches turn grey to which way faster then any other powder. It because all that black was the dry lube you just wiped out, and in fact, it stopped the normal carbon fouling to build up.
Cleaning an AR bolt is a breeze. Instead of having to muck out carbon, you are simply wiping off dry lube. If you run a piston gun, it keeps that piston running smoothly, and again, when you go to clean it, you are wiping out dry lube. Everything seems to clean up much faster, tho it seems much dirtier at first.
In fact, I noticed something weird about it. Cause it's so gassy and gets into everything, and cause it stops carbon from building up, I've actually noticed it clean carbon off an AR bolt.
I had an AR bolt with a small amount of carbon buildup that I did not bother scraping off, then I ran the gun with CFE, and when I cleaned it the next time, the carbon was gone.
The dry lube stopped the carbon from sticking to the bolt, and actually allowed the existing left over carbon to burn off, cleaning the bolt. It was quite a finding.
Anyway, it's an interesting powder. I find it too gassy from some applications, I can't stand it in a 16" carbine AR.
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
My normal load for 223 is 25.7gr varget with 53gr vmax gets someplace near 3020fps. Tried out the cfe223 28gr was the best I tried and they were 3060fps. That little gain in speed for that much more powder isnt worth it to me. Also seemed dirtier then varget for me.
A buddy of mine tried it in his 222 and didnt get the greatest speed out of the amount of powder used either. Last time I talked to him we both were gonna pawn the rest of the pound we each bought on the other person. lol. Ill stick to varget.
A buddy of mine tried it in his 222 and didnt get the greatest speed out of the amount of powder used either. Last time I talked to him we both were gonna pawn the rest of the pound we each bought on the other person. lol. Ill stick to varget.
Conte, I agree with you, it doesn't eliminate copper fouling but it does reduce it.
The carbon left behind after the shot, is glass hard and create more friction, which results in more copper fouling.
hometownhero, were you using magnum primers with your CFE223?? It does make a difference with ball type powders and the carbon fouling left behind
The carbon left behind after the shot, is glass hard and create more friction, which results in more copper fouling.
hometownhero, were you using magnum primers with your CFE223?? It does make a difference with ball type powders and the carbon fouling left behind
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
No just the regular cci. The load data never mentioned mag primers at all.
- Location
- Kingston, ON
The Hodgdon website lists loads for .222. Their 2012 annual has an article about CFE 223 if you can find a copy of it. The 2013 is out now so the 2012 might be hard to find.
First off I read that you agree it reduces copper fowling. Next sentence I read says it reslts in more copper fowling. The truth is in there somewhere lol. Am I reading your statements correctly?
CFE 223 Less Accurate
Tried it on my 308 Savage 10 PC and got more speed BUT way worse accuracy. Tried IMR 4064, Varget, H322, Benchmark and to me better by far (means consistency & tenths in MOA on target) IMR 8208. To me, accuracy is better than gaining a couple hundred fps and a little 'fouling' makes your rifle shoot better. Watch the Magpul series on precision rifle, it's an eye opener. If you remove all the copper, groups open up big time until your rifle is 'dirty' again. I tested only patch cleaning my rifle with solvent (no brush) and my groups went from half MOA to over 1 MOA. Back to topic, CFE 223 is a no go for me.
Tried it on my 308 Savage 10 PC and got more speed BUT way worse accuracy. Tried IMR 4064, Varget, H322, Benchmark and to me better by far (means consistency & tenths in MOA on target) IMR 8208. To me, accuracy is better than gaining a couple hundred fps and a little 'fouling' makes your rifle shoot better. Watch the Magpul series on precision rifle, it's an eye opener. If you remove all the copper, groups open up big time until your rifle is 'dirty' again. I tested only patch cleaning my rifle with solvent (no brush) and my groups went from half MOA to over 1 MOA. Back to topic, CFE 223 is a no go for me.
