8208 XBR® SMOKELESS RIFLE POWDER Reviews & Ratings

This extruded powder uses less volume then comparable burn rate ball powder so when loading 100g or bigger bullets I could get to the max loads without compressing the powder. Sweepstakes

Excellent powder works well in 223, 308 and 30-30 for me.

I would love to say, don't buy this powder...mostly so I could keep buying this myself. It's very rarely in stock and when it pops up, its usually gone in minutes. I have used this powder in 223 loads from 55 Grains to 69 Grains and it's about as temperature insensitive as I have seen. My groups in virtually every load are sub 1" MOA at 100 Yards with almost any mid-range to high end AR-15. Tip: Pick up Sierra 55 Grain Blitzking bullets and go to work, I promise you, it will give you good results. Personally, I have good success with this powder around 2900 fps (16") gun and consistently get 5 shot groups well below 3/4", and in my Larue OBR I get 5 shot groups around 3/8" to 5/8" very consistently. This powder is made in Australia so it's been slow to ship out of that Country. Fun fact, if you look at ADI Ammo or Australian Outback ammo, their ammo is made with this powder in a 55 Grain Blitzking configuration. They champion it's temperature stability on their packaging. Disclaimer: The attached images show some shot groups with load data, I take absolutely no responsibility if you decide to copy these loads and shoot them yourself. These loads were well within the safe load range but use at your own risk.

This powder is tops for the heavies like 69gr and 77gr loads in 5.56 (223 Rem) and I've even had great success with 62gr solid copper projectiles in the same caliber(s). I always have the best results at the very upper limits of the charge weight ranges though. I've not had any serious pressure signs though in any of MY guns. It meters very well enough for an extruded powder, it's not terrible. It seems to be very temp stable. I just love this powder because most of all the accuracy potential just shines. Ive developed my best 500 meter load using 8208.

As part of load development for a 6.5 Creedmoor I loaded this powder along with H4350, RL-15, and RL-16 behind Hornady 147g ELD bullets. My goal was to duplicate the factory load. I used .2 grain increments in my powder charge, 5 rounds per charge. Firing was limited to 100 yards. To start I fired 15 rounds of factory 147ELD to establish a base point for comparison. Needless to say its performance was very good. Of my tests, all powders had at least one node that was at least as good as the factory load, with more than one group per powder being under .75 ctc. 8208 turned in a stellar .231ctc group that was a tight 4-leaf clover! Ill play around with seating depth next but to say Im ecstatic is an understatement! Ive found my go to powder for this caliber and will seek to duplicate its success in .308 and .222 Remington next.

Yes that was a cheesy lord of the rings reference, but this powder will help you get the consistent accuracy that you need. I gave a few 52gr Hornady hand loads to some guy at the range that had a basic OEM standard AR15 rifle. He was able to shoot sub MOA at 300 yards. He was happy that he hit a 3 inch target at 100, and now a 2.5 inch at 300. This powder is a reloaders dream.

rem 6.8SPC bolt gun , one hole groups at a 100 SMK 135 gr BT, SSA cases, rem 7 1/2 priming, won several local matches with it. Wonderful metering, clean highly recommend!

One day I was brousing the news stand and saw Hodgdon's "Reloading" mag for 2010 and on the front cover was an item about a new Match/Varmint powder. Ho-hum (I thought. . .another new powder) but started to read about the old Thunderbird Cartridge Co. and remembered that I still had about five pounds of the old original T32 hiddeb away for a rainy day! I was hording some of the original knowing that it can never be replaced! But could it be that someone has re-invented the wheel!? I finally found two one pound jugs of the IMR 8208 XBR at the INDY Gun Show. That nite I was busy loading for my .223 and 6.5 Grendel using information from the Hodgdon reloading mag. Saturday morning bright and early I went out to the range. I was amazed at how the .223 Remington loads took right off and using the 77 grain Sierra bullet. I hit the sweet spot right off using new WW brass primed with 7 1/2 Remy. Using a Lelja barreled AR-15 I was getting a ragged one hole group at 100 yards! I switched to the 6.5 Grendel and found that my velocity was low and although SD was great my groups were not what I was expecting. I returned home and did some tweaking with this load and the groups later shrank to a very respectible .375"! I found that the IMR 8208 XBR really likes the 6.5 Barnes 120 grain TSX boattail bullet!! I think that they have hit a home run with this powder and it will be here for a long time for both bench rest and varmints.

ONE powder from .223--- .308 23 grains in the .223 at 100yds. with a 52 grain HPBT 1-14 twist, very close to a 1 hole group!!! The .308 1-12 twist with a 35 grain load and a 155 grain HPBT at 200 yds. it's clover leaf time!! A very clean powder meters great.

When this powder became available after the benchrest shooters pleaded for it, it sold out immediately to those shooters in the know. Now it is and will become a favorite of the precision shooting community. Great stuff, meters easily, and does not react to temperature chages when shooting in hot or cold country. Could not be better.