XBR Powder

H

Husky Hummel

Guest
This weekend I shot a complete 2 day BR match at Mainville PA at the Keystone Challenge shooting XBR the whole weekend. My take on the powder is that it will shoot and it will agg. I was shooting 30.6 gr w Hottenstein boat tails and if I did my part, the gun would do its part in some real adverse conditions to say the least. I did manage to shoot a 1/2 inch group at 100 yds and a 2 inch group at 200 yds and still managed to land a 5th place 2 gun agg. And 4th and 7th in the grands w a 2nd place in a 200 yd agg. Those 2 big groups wasnt the powder or the gun, but the shooter pulling the trigger at the wrong time and holding the wrong way on the 200 yd target. Prior to the shoot last weekend, I had did some testing in much better conditions w some real nice groups and a nice agg. I shot the same bullet seating depth w 2 other powders and the gun looked like a complete diff gun and not in a good way. So, if you have a barrel that never seamed to work, try some of this new powder and see what happens. The barrel that I shot this past weekend has never shown me anything until the XBR so what do u got to loose? My bottom line is that I think this powder will agg and win some big matches in the future.
 
Untill just recently, I had forgot I had 95 pounds of that stuff sitting in my office. That is how excited I am about it............jackie
 
Well once u post that you have 94 lbs of it, I am betting u will be excited!
 
HH. I think, I saw the same thing. 2 different days. 35 degree weather. 3 shot groups.
If I did my part. Got a .07 or .08". Maybe a big .19".
All this with a worn out barrel.
Haven't had time to play lately..........
 
Well, I started out with two "hazmats" worth, I probably have probably shot up about two pounds, so I guess 94 will do...........jackie
 
Dale Boop and Jim Carmichel used it successfully at the SS, but I found it more finicky than N133. The weather was hot and the the wind was switchy. Maybe shooters will learn this new powder in time??? I hope that it works out. Husky, I heard that Jeff Stover shot a 2-gun teen agg at Mainville last weekend. I am sure that he was using the old 8208 and Hottenstein bullets. Good shooting....James
 
I don't even think it's gun powder. I think it's some synthetic, plastic, "save the whales" gun powder substitute, created by recently graduated new wave idealist engineers that have never shot a rifle. I have officially given up on it and have 7-1/2 lbs for sale --cheap,or will trade for Vietnam era "black lookin" real gunpowder !
Joel
 
For me it is just to slow for anything lighter than 88 grains.
It works ok with the 88 grain BIB but anything lighter than that and it just takes to much powder, which increases recoil.
Frankly even using the 88BIB it takes about1.5 grains more powder than HBM does to do the same job and the extra recoil is noticeable.
Also I don't think it aggs any better.
I have 8lbs left and I might give it another try with the 88BIB and I will try it with the 100 SIerra and 110BIB. I am sure it will do well there.
Ted
 
The big selling point of this powder was that it would not suffer from all the tuning ills that seems to inhabit 133. Well, that sure ain't true.

And, I am really pissed because the 1 lb can I was given to test shot real well, but the 96 pounds I bought turned out to be a lot slower, and has never approached the accuracy I was gertting with the originol can.

The rumor floating around now is that the very shooters who were instrumental in bringing this powder to the masses are now working on something else, with the hopes that this time it will be right. Of course, that is only a rumor............jackie
 
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Rumor is that the newest lot of H-4198 is a full grain slower than the previous offings. What's going on with that freakin company anyway?
 
Jackie,
I think I am beginning to agree with you. I had much better results with Benchmark the year before. Seems this XBR is just a sloower Benchmark. Maybe it will work ing a 30ppc or a 30BR. Will test this on Wed. along with an old jug of 2015BR.

Donald
 
will trade for Vietnam era "black lookin" real gunpowder !
Joel



Ahhhhh Huuuuummmmm............ Yes.

Dupont IMR8208.................... Da real stuff...

But.......... Those out there with a 22PPC chambering (full length)......Hummmmmm ... XBR looks DARN good @ 3500fps with 52 - 56gr pills..! Burns clean too in this chambering.

cale
 
The big selling point of this powder was that it would not suffer from all the tuning ills that seems to inhabit 133. Well, that sure ain't true.

And, I am really pissed because the 1 lb can I was given to test shot real well, but the 96 pounds I bought turned out to be a lot slower, and has never approached the accuracy I was gertting with the originol can.

The rumor floating around now is that the very shooters who were instrumental in bringing this powder to the masses are now working on something else, with the hopes that this time it will be right. Of course, that is only a rumor............jackie

Go buy a can of 2206H and tell me if the XBR is the same..........
 
JD Mock, Jeff shot 2 teen 100yd aggs but I assure u that his 2 gun agg was not in the teens. The conditions at 200 yds was very challenging to say the least. A agg in the low 4s won the 200 yd HV in the morning.
 
XBR is not even the same size as real 8208

This new XBR ( I will not call it 8208, because it isn't) is not even the same granual size as the old 8208. The old 8208 has a granual diameteer of .025 and a granual length of about .030. This new stuff has a granual diameter and length that is the same size as 322 or Benchmark, that being .030 diameter and about .040 on length. It seems that one of the main promises as this new powder was being developed was that it would be the same size and meter the same as the old 8208. Not so! It looks like this is just Benchmark or 322 by another name.

A good starting place would have been for the manufacturer to start with the same base powder size as 4227, which is the same size as the old 8208.

Promises have not been kept.
 
The original idea was to have t322 or t32 duplicated and that powder was on the hot side but shot real well most days.
 
If its slower than 133 then its way too slow for the 30BR --greg

Jackie,
I think I am beginning to agree with you. I had much better results with Benchmark the year before. Seems this XBR is just a sloower Benchmark. Maybe it will work ing a 30ppc or a 30BR. Will test this on Wed. along with an old jug of 2015BR.

Donald
 
This new XBR ( I will not call it 8208, because it isn't) is not even the same granual size as the old 8208. The old 8208 has a granual diameteer of .025 and a granual length of about .030. This new stuff has a granual diameter and length that is the same size as 322 or Benchmark, that being .030 diameter and about .040 on length. It seems that one of the main promises as this new powder was being developed was that it would be the same size and meter the same as the old 8208. Not so! It looks like this is just Benchmark or 322 by another name.

A good starting place would have been for the manufacturer to start with the same base powder size as 4227, which is the same size as the old 8208.

Promises have not been kept.

yep just what i said when i got my first batch in....but i dont know nothin"

in my opinion, as i have said before, one of the big advantages to br shooters that throw charges is the size of oem 8208. it will throw a charge much more consistant than 133..period......say by half or more...thus your shots are more conssitant...and a good shooter can shoot better.

its nice that it will work in a 308.....cause other than that is seems to be a waste of time.....
i do not understand how a company can be given samples of a material to copy and cannot even get close......

mike in co
 
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