8208XBR Report from Alabama

S

Steve Lee

Active member
I had my first chance to play with 8208XBR yesterday at our local club match here in Birmingham, and so far it looks very good.

Since we have been in the deep freeze here in the deep south until this past week, I didn't have a chance to play with it prior to the match, so I decided to just start shooting with with no prior load development.

1st target was shot with 29.5 grains resulting in a .201

2nd group was 30.0 grains resulting in a .235. This group would have been around a .180 but I missed a flag switch on the last shot.

3rd group was 30.5 grains resulting in a .147

4th and 5th groups were also loaded at 30.5 resulting in .159 and .212

Agg was .1908 for 1st place.

Needless to say I'm ecstatic with a teen agg first time out with this powder, especially considering I did no load testing prior to shooting the agg.

Conditions were very mild and temps were in the low 50s.

If my first experience is any indicator it looks like it has a very broad and forgiving load window.
 
xbr8208

Yeah, Steve did a great job. I used my usual N133, and my .22 agg didn't cut the mustard. I tried XBR on the sighter, not having ever shot it before the match, and 31.6 or .7 wasn't where it was at, so I stuck with the 133.
 
Thanks Steve and Gary

for the update. My XBR came in the day befor Christmas but I have not been able to try it yet because of a broke hip. It looks like that middle load window (30.2 to 30.8gr) works best for most. Some say that 31.0-31.5 works when the temp is below 60. I hope to be able to try some week after next.
Good shooting
 
Last edited:
Steve Lee said:
Agg was .1908 for 1st place.

Needless to say I'm ecstatic with a teen agg first time out with this powder, especially considering I did no load testing prior to shooting the agg.

Conditions were very mild and temps were in the low 50s.

If my first experience is any indicator it looks like it has a very broad and forgiving load window.
Click to expand...

I would be ecstatic with a teen agg anytime out.
Great shooting.
 
jerry
what were you doing? i sure hope you get ok soon.

tell ya what i will toot for you when i go through alabama next month. listen close- ya hear.
 
Steve

Great Agg, and with the XBR no doubt.

The only time we have shot ours is in temperatures below 55 degrees, and anything below 31 grns gave verticle. Only when we got it up past 31.5 did it really tighten up.

I suspect that when the temperature gets up in the 80+ range, around 30 grns is going to be the upper window.

This stuff seems to be a tad temperature sensitive. Maybe iy will level out in warmer weather.. That is when we do 90 percent of our shooting anyway..........jackie
 
I did a first test yesterday on the new 8208 and this is what I observed. I shot it at 200 out of my rail. It is a very clean powder even when shot with light loads. Little or no copper fouling. I used Barts Ultra F205 with a medium jam in a worn Shilen 20" barrel. 29.0 grains was 3000 fps and 32.0 was 3311 fps. 32.0 is the max I can get in the case. Temp 65 RH 71% No load shot really bad but I got the best groups @30.5 gr and also @ 32.0 gr. The nodes appear to be 1.5 grains apart and the ES and SD were good above 30 grains. The velocity changes about 10 fps per .1gr which is low compared to most powders. My pet load of 08 133 is 29.2 and runs 3255 for comparison to 8208 @ 30.5 3166 both group at the .3ish level at 200. I liked the 30.5 load area as it seemed more consistant. The 32.0 dotted up better but tended to pitch a shot a little. All groups were a minimum of 5 but I did not test any 10 shot loads.
 
Jerry H said:
I did a first test yesterday on the new 8208 and this is what I observed. I shot it at 200 out of my rail. It is a very clean powder even when shot with light loads. Little or no copper fouling. I used Barts Ultra F205 with a medium jam in a worn Shilen 20" barrel. 29.0 grains was 3000 fps and 32.0 was 3311 fps. 32.0 is the max I can get in the case. Temp 65 RH 71% No load shot really bad but I got the best groups @30.5 gr and also @ 32.0 gr. The nodes appear to be 1.5 grains apart and the ES and SD were good above 30 grains. The velocity changes about 10 fps per .1gr which is low compared to most powders. My pet load of 08 133 is 29.2 and runs 3255 for comparison to 8208 @ 30.5 3166 both group at the .3ish level at 200. I liked the 30.5 load area as it seemed more consistant. The 32.0 dotted up better but tended to pitch a shot a little. All groups were a minimum of 5 but I did not test any 10 shot loads.
Click to expand...

Jerry,

My testing of this powder in Phoenix back in November gave results almost identical to your's. Very interesting. Thanks for your post.
 
Jerry H said:
No load shot really bad but I got the best groups @30.5 gr and also @ 32.0 gr. ... I liked the 30.5 load area as it seemed more consistant. The 32.0 dotted up better but tended to pitch a shot a little.
Click to expand...

That seems to agree with my experience this past weekend. Even the light load shot a decent group. I'm going to play with a wider range of loads this coming weekend. I tend to shoot the middle node with 133 because I don't get flyers...doesn't shoot as tight but more consistent. I'm just hoping I can find a load that will shoot above 80 degrees. I've had problems getting 133 to handle high temps. It will probably be June before I get a chance to test that.
 
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