caroby;550222True...
My hopes are simple... That Hodgdon / >>ADI<< produce a consitency between lots over the years as Jackie said and that this stuff meters like REAL 8208. Finally that its tune window is broad and not real TWEAKY!!!..
PV is shipping me my test 8lb lot of 8208XMR... Cautiously optimistic.:o
cale[/QUOTE said:
Something to keep in mind about the chemistry of gun powder manufacturing, the final product is made up primarily of nitric acid and a cellulose source. Just as all Scotch and Beer are different so are powder lots.
The most common ingredient today for a source of cellulose is wood fiber. There is soft and hard woods in all parts of the world. There is tree trimmings and commercial chippings that are bulked ans sold to the various powder manufacturers. Since there are variations of the cellulose fibers in the different woods there will be various results in the outcome.
The most consistent of all the celluloses is cotton. Believe it or not but Vihtavuori claims to use cottoni!! Most all of the cannister powder producers use wood pulp. So Vihtavuori should have the most consistent products lot to lot.
In mid Summer 2003 I started on a project of getting IMR8208 back in production. That Summer, Tom Dierkin Marketing Manager of IMR in Canada, started to put this project underway. Jeff Summers and Kent Harshman both donated some of the original 8208 for test samples since IMR did not have any of the old production records from the period when IMR8208 and IMR8208M were produced for the military.
Bill Krazenski was to transport these samples to the IMR office in Plattsburg, NY which is not far from where Bill lives.
Not but a few months after that Hodgdon got the rights to distribute IMR powders. Shortly after that, at my request, Ron Reiber at Hodgdon started a file on the continuation of the previous project.
In 2006 I made a proposal through a well known shooter for Hodgdon to produce a 500# sample of the top benchrest shooters to test. My proposal was if that 500# batch proved worthy I would order an approximately 16,000-18,000# batch. Some of the agreed testers were Smiley Hensley, Don Powell, Wayne Campbell, Kent Harshman, Jeff Summers and a couple of others.
My offer to Hodgdon was refused at that time. Why? Because they (ADI) uses wood fiber as a cellulose source and they could not guarantee the tight lot-to-lot consistency we need.
I post this brief background of that first attempt to get a like-original IMR8208 powder back in production to bring benchrest shooters into the reality that there is no way, even using cotton, to exactly reproduce a cellulose based gun powder.
In early March 2009 I shot quite a bit of one lot of this new IMR8208XBR and I feel it will be a very worthwhile addition to the benchrest sport, but it ain't perfect either!!
If you are interested in some heavy reading about smokeless powder production get a copy of Phillip Sharpe's book "Complete Guide to Handloading". Good luck on finding this book since the first printing was 1937 and the last printing that I have found was 1953. It was a Funk & Wagnall publication. There are several very detailed chapters in this volume about powder production.
