Staball Match very dirty?

[mbeavers1]

I have been messing around with Staball Match as a replacement for Varget in my 6BR so I can drop powder on my 750.

I have been finding it seems very dirty and carbon is building up FAST in my chamber. Groups start out good - at least 0.5moa and great SDs of around 8 on a clean barrel.

After about 150rds, brass gets hard to eject. Not heavy bolt lift, but hard to pull bolt back. I noticed that i get a carbon ring building up on the outside of my brass necks.



I stuck my bore scope in the dirty barrel/chamber and the carbon in the chamber seems crazy.





I never see stuff like this with Varget, even after long cleaning cycles of up to 500rds. I knew this stuff would be a little bit dirtier but this surprised me.

Load data:
Lapua 6br SRP
Cci 450
109 lrht
31.5gr Staball Match
MV 2815fps

 

[Shiftyk5]

If I’m not mistaken. Staball HD is meant for big magnums such as 300 WM/300 PRC and others in that class. You ate way outside the burn rate range using that powder.

As a replacement for Varget you should be using Staball Match powder. Or possibly Staball 6.5? On the tad slower end.

 

[XP1K]

This is interesting. I was thinking about switching to staball match after I run through my 2520 for 223 heavies. If this ist the case with staball match, probably not a good choice for high volume in an ar.

 

[Shiftyk5]

This is interesting. I was thinking about switching to staball match after I run through my 2520 for 223 heavies. If this ist the case with staball match, probably not a good choice for high volume in an ar.

He says he is using Staball HD, not Match. Which if he isn’t just mistaken on the name of the powder, the reason for the extreme dirtiness is because he is using the wrong powder for the application.

I saw none of the issues he is having when I used the correct Staball for the correct application.

 

[mbeavers1]

He says he is using Staball HD, not Match. Which if he isn’t just mistaken on the name of the powder, the reason for the extreme dirtiness is because he is using the wrong powder for the application.

I saw none of the issues he is having when I used the correct Staball for the correct application.

Uhh....re-read pls. Its staball match in title and post

 

[XP1K]

He says he is using Staball HD, not Match. Which if he isn’t just mistaken on the name of the powder, the reason for the extreme dirtiness is because he is using the wrong powder for the application.

I saw none of the issues he is having when I used the correct Staball for the correct application.

He said staball match HD. There seems to be a lot of confusion around the staball powders now that there's three of them.

I guess he could be using the HD. I doubt he'd be getting any kind of velocity though if he was.

 

[Shiftyk5]

He says both? Which is it?

 

[XP1K]

Uhh....re-read pls. Its staball match in title and post

I read it. You called it match HD.

Staball 6.5, green label.
Staball match, blue label.
Staball HD, reddish orange label.

You're using the the blue label correct ?

 

[Shiftyk5]

Uhh....re-read pls. Its staball match in title and post

You say both. So it’s just Staball match ? Not the HD?

 

[nn8734]

Uhh....re-read pls. Its staball match in title and post

There doesnt appear to be a powder called "Staball match HD". Just match, 6.5 and staball hd (magnums).

Post a pic of the powder bottle you're referring to.

 

[mbeavers1]

Ok...Im the retard. My bad. Its Staball Match w blue label. Totally thought it was "Match HD".

I corrected post to avoid any confusion.

 

[rustyinbend]

Back to the issue ... I use StaBall 6.5 (Green Label) and while it shoots great, I have noticed it will carbon a barrel faster than most other powders. I clean after every range trip to keep it under control. If you want to go a long time between cleanings, I'd probably use something else.

 

[XP1K]

Back to the issue ... I use StaBall 6.5 (Green Label) and while it shoots great, I have noticed it will carbon a barrel faster than most other powders. I clean after every range trip to keep it under control. If you want to go a long time between cleanings, I'd probably use something else.

This seems to be a trait of ball powders in general. I've used win760,748, blc-2, magpro, and staballHd. They all seem a little dirtier to me.

 

[Shiftyk5]

No biggie brother, just important to clarify with these Staball powders.

Haven’t used match in 6br.
Didn’t notice any of your issues with .223, .308, 6.5 Grendel’s that I have used it for.

The bore does seem to have more of that grayish residue when I clean it but if I’m remembering correctly it’s the decoppering agent they use that’s left behind?
Anyone correct me if I’m mistaken.

 

[mbeavers1]

Back to the issue ... I use StaBall 6.5 (Green Label) and while it shoots great, I have noticed it will carbon a barrel faster than most other powders. I clean after every range trip to keep it under control. If you want to go a long time between cleanings, I'd probably use something else.

I clean much more regularly now, but was surprised it did it in ~150rds. My goal was to be able to use it for loading for 2 day matches for loading speed but looks like I would have to clean between Day 1 and Day 2.

Cleaning is not an issue but it may swing me back to Varget for 2 day matches to avoid having to foul in. Besides, the addl time to clean may take longer than just loading w Varget and not worrying about it!

 

[Shiftyk5]

You could trying bumping up the charge just a tad to see if it seals your chamber any better to alleviate the chamber/neck issue?

 

[rustyinbend]

This seems to be a trait of ball powders in general. I've used win760,748, blc-2, magpro, and staballHd. They all seem a little dirtier to me.

Yup ... one that I love to hate is Accurate Magpro ... shoots awesome, super easy to meter for magnum calibers, but VERY dirty. It was easy to get during the "dark days" since Retumbo and H1000 were unobtanium. So now I have a bunch of it and don't need it since my Hodgdon go-to's are available again. Oh well ... I guess I'll save it for the next Pandemic.

 

[mbeavers1]

You could trying bumping up the charge just a tad to see if it seals your chamber any better to alleviate the chamber/neck issue?

I may play with it a bit more, but that speed is where my barrel likes to run plus recoil is very mild. I did think about the same thing tho.

 

[Evintos]

No biggie brother, just important to clarify with these Staball powders.

Haven’t used match in 6br.
Didn’t notice any of your issues with .223, .308, 6.5 Grendel’s that I have used it for.

The bore does seem to have more of that grayish residue when I clean it but if I’m remembering correctly it’s the decoppering agent they use that’s left behind?
Anyone correct me if I’m mistaken.

Yup, tin and/or bismuth compounds.

 

[TylerN]

Match doesn't seem to dirty to me. I'm shooting 22 BRA ladder test with Staball Match and n140. N140 is noticably producing much dirtier brass and SB Match seems comparable to Varget. That's my limited observations so far.

 

[OkieMike]

Yup ... one that I love to hate is Accurate Magpro ... shoots awesome, super easy to meter for magnum calibers, but VERY dirty. It was easy to get during the "dark days" since Retumbo and H1000 were unobtanium. So now I have a bunch of it and don't need it since my Hodgdon go-to's are available again. Oh well ... I guess I'll save it for the next Pandemic.

I found the same with Ramshot Magnum... Impressive velocity and decent groups but the cleaning patches look like they came out of my flintlock.

Mike

 

[Bobby Ball]

I've run roughly 2 lbs of HD while doing load development for my 7-300PRC, along with H1000, Retumbo, N565, and N570. I PERSONALLY did not find the results that they advertise regarding more velocity, and found it to be probably the most dirty of the above mentioned. My sample groups are are a minimum of 200 rounds per powder, a lot more with some of the other powders. I keep wanting to like it. And I keep coming back to see if I missed some sort of sweet spot. But I still haven't found anything that has shown me a reason to use it, which is kind of a bummer. Maybe others are having better luck.

 

[XP1K]

I've run roughly 2 lbs of HD while doing load development for my 7-300PRC, along with H1000, Retumbo, N565, and N570. I PERSONALLY did not find the results that they advertise regarding more velocity, and found it to be probably the most dirty of the above mentioned. My sample groups are are a minimum of 200 rounds per powder, a lot more with some of the other powders. I keep wanting to like it. And I keep coming back to see if I missed some sort of sweet spot. But I still haven't found anything that has shown me a reason to use it, which is kind of a bummer. Maybe others are having better luck.

I had the same results with staballHD in a 300winmag with 215 hybrids. Fell about 50 fps shy of n570 and magpro. And truth be told, I should back off a little more.

 

[towerofpower93]

I've run roughly 2 lbs of HD while doing load development for my 7-300PRC, along with H1000, Retumbo, N565, and N570. I PERSONALLY did not find the results that they advertise regarding more velocity, and found it to be probably the most dirty of the above mentioned. My sample groups are are a minimum of 200 rounds per powder, a lot more with some of the other powders. I keep wanting to like it. And I keep coming back to see if I missed some sort of sweet spot. But I still haven't found anything that has shown me a reason to use it, which is kind of a bummer. Maybe others are having better luck.

While I have not used StaBall HD or StaBalll Match, I have switched to StaBall 6.5 for my 6.5C reloading. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the main benefit of the StaBall line was better temperature insensitivity compared to some of the old go-to powders while also being an easy to meter ball powder. I no longer have to meter H4350 for 6.5C, but can run StaBall 6.5 in a Dillon powder measure on my 650.

Not sure if the PRC sized cases can be used on any progressive presses, but the ease of metering and better temp stability were always the big advantages I've heard/read about the StaBall line.