The CFE technology works very well, I use the rifle version in my varmint 223 and I might clean it next year, after hunting season.... Maybe.... Patch here and there for carbon but thats all it requires to make 2-300 yrd kills consistently with little degradation in accuracy.
The powder is available in bulk from Higginson's.
CanuckWR, you are having better luck with this powder than I am. I haven't noticed any real difference in my Tikka T3 in 223Rem.
Now just to be up front, this rifle isn't a fouler anyway. It will easily shoot 50 rounds without the groups opening up.
At first, I was a bit disappointed with it, until I found it really likes just a hair of compression and magnum primers. I had been dumping the powder/bullet out of some Norinco 223Rem and replacing it with 60 grain Hornady Vmax over CFE. My groups weren't fantastic at all, especially for this rifle.
I was surprised because the batch of Norinco ammo I bought shoots very well in this rifle, as it comes from the box. Doesn't seem to be temp sensitive either. Mind you, in BC, we haven't had the extreme weather they've had east of the Rockies.
Anyway, something was wrong. The brass was fine, as were the bullets. This particular lot is one of the best I've had as far as consistency goes for accuracy. The only difference was the load. The powder in the Norinco rounds carries exactly the same weight and volume of powder as the BLC2 load I use with that bullet. It gives identical velocities as well, or within a 35fps range. The primers, are hard as hell but about as hot as CCI BR.
The hard primers, certainly aren't conducive to consistent ignition. I sold off the rifles that hammered the hell out of these primers and it wasn't a problem. I sold them because I was tired of lugging heavy rifles across a field or through the brush to a coyote stand or out on the range for ground squirrels. As I age, I need to make things easier, rather than grit my teeth and bear it. So, now I shoot the Tikka T3 and am very happy with it. Problem is, I may have to get ahold of Wolf Springs and order up a new, stiffer firing pin spring.
Anyway, changed out the primers for the CCI small rifle Magnum primers and everything just fell into place. Luckily it was that easy.
Now to the CFE powder. I was a bit perturbed about how dirty it seemed to burn. The magnum primers didn't make any difference in what appeared to be powder fouling. After 20 test rounds, the powder fouling in the bore didn't increase at all. I cleaned the rifle, because I am used to cleaning after 20 rounds. Old habits are hard to break. It wasn't needed. A quick pass with a bore mop soaked with Hoppes No 9 and a pass with a clean patch showed almost now copper fouling. Not that this was unusual for this rifle but the next test included the last 40 rounds I had in the box. I repeated the same cleaning procedure mentioned. There looked to be a slight bit more copper fouling but accuracy remained consistent. Cleaning really wasn't necessary.
It's still to early to claim the powder residue in the barrel is actually working like a lubricant or maybe as a bore coating. There are claims that there is a very mild abrasive in the powder that scrapes the copper deposits from the bore. Somehow, I doubt that but maybe I just have a hard time getting my head around it and don't understand how that can work by just blowing over it. I think, the next round down the bore, along with the residue from the previous cartridge is what really scrubs the fouling. I would be willing to bet, the abrasive is extremely mild and extremely fine grained and the combination of being squeezed between the bullet and the bore are doing the trick.
Next time out, I am going to take a 120 rounds with me. I will shoot until accuracy starts to deteriorate before I clean.
So far, it's looking good. I just picked up a lovely Sharps from a good CGNer and I was hoping to use CFE with 405gr cast lead as a starting point. It may be to slow for this purpose.
