Superformance Powder

Tex51

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Feb 28, 2019
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My Lyman 50th Edition Reloading Manual says that Hornady made this powder for their Superformance loads. Has anyone tried this powder with a 6.5 Creedmoor and had any luck with it ? Just looking to see if it would work as good as H-4350 and give the same or better groups. I have not used any of the Superformance factory ammo.
 
.8 Moa at the moment using 147 grains and magnum primers in a Semi. The velocity from it is fun as well. ... makes a decent thump of noise indoors, and pisses anyone in the room off quite well. mine is super clean, but I under load by a lot.

Better groups, not really. Faster, yes. An under loaded Superformance case seems to act like an overloaded 4350 case.
 
Hornady has/had? a 6.5 Creedmoor load with 120gr GMX and Superformance. roughly 2900-3100fps. Not very accurate out of my factory remington. roughly 1.5" groups @ 100yards.
 
I've used a couple jugs of it in a 7mm wildcat similar to the 7mmSAW/ 7mm-08 Ackley; no 6.5 Seymore experience. Dense powder, slower burn rate than H4350, good velocity, low SD/ES at pressure, meters great, not especially temperature sensive that I've noticed. I did try a freezing/ambient/hot loads over a chrony and wasn't too concerned with the outcome but lost the data somewhere. It does burn pretty dirty for use in suppressors but I never noticed any excessive carbon fouling of the bore/throat.

There is noticeable lot-to-lot variation in my experience.
 
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Just keep in mind it's not the same powder Hornady uses. Theirs is is blended by the train car load and has different characteristics than the bottled stuff. Do not expect factory performance from it. I've used it for several calibers and remain unimpressed at best.
 
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i have some 147s loaded up (first reload) as bass pro had a very limited selection of powder and i didnt wat to pay for hazmat shipping.

hope to shoot them this weekend.

hope they group ok as i used coal not ogive for measurments, the more you know... will be ordering the tools to use ogive for the next load
 
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ok so here are my results with super performance. keep in mind this is my first batch of reloads ever, i used coal not ogive, and i probably mucked something else up that i dont even know.



all are 3x shots as i was expecting worse results and was kind of hoping to just find a node and then reload 5x groups in those areas.

first and last group is hornady factory 147eldm loads, last group is a 5x group
everything else is my loads all 147 eldm

factory/ 2679, 2662, 2692 / av 2678, es 29.61, sd 15.03 / group .758"

41.5 / 2535, 2532, 2523 / av 2534, es 22.83, sd 11.57 / group .412"

41.8 / 2546, 2532, 2523 / av 2534, es 22.83, sd 11.57 / group .771"

42.1 / 2545, 2565, 2550 / av 2553, es 20.54, sd 10.39 / group .315"


42.4 / 2538, 2543, 2538 / av 2540, es 5.33, sd 02.82 / group .634"

42.7 / 2629, 2579, 2588 / av 2598, es 49.87, sd 26.64 / group 1.20"

43 / 2604, 2598, 2604 / av 2602, es 6.71, sd 3.46 / group .493"

43.3 / 2640, 2633, 2628 / av 2634, es 12.04, sd 6.00 / group .376"

43.6 / error, error, 2660 / chrono didnt read first 2 shots / group .817"


44 / 2689, 2665, F2F bad primer / av 2677, es 24.87, sd 16.9 / group .702

factory/ 2669, 2666, 2683, 2659, 2648/ av 2665, es 35.22, sd 12.88 / group .802

20191128_084935.jpg


looking at the results im thinking reload 5x in the second green area. ive seen recommendations of .1 grain increments. possibly between 43 and 43.5, thoughts?

also as far as speed there were no signs of pressure, im thinking i should keep pushing and try to find another node or 2.

also is there any benefit to staying at a slower node besides barrel life, and maybe less adjustments for ballistics. once you have your dope chart you should be set no matter the speed right? less wind calls?

over all im happy with the results, should i be?
 
I've been unable to find data for Superformance powder at all anytime recently. I looked in Hodgdon Annual manual going back to 2007 but didn't see data in any cartridge I load for. Is this powder still out there?
 
So would you guys think use max load from the bullet manufacturer or the powder manufacturer. I'm already over max according to hornady. But no heavy bolt or case head swipes.

Just found the hornady data, I was using the Hodgdon data before.
Screenshot_20191128-205256_Drive.jpg
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Tried it in 6.5 Remington Magnum and .30-06 Springfield. Don't have a velocity on either, but accuracy in the 6.5 was just so-so; terrible in the .30-06. Got swipe marks with the load in the .30-06 at 88 degrees, tried again on Wednesday a 53 degrees - no swipe marks, still 2 inch groups. I got a larger than usual fireball and blast. I'm not impressed with this powder for either of there cartridges.

Good Luck

Jerry
 
I've been unable to find data for Superformance powder at all anytime recently. I looked in Hodgdon Annual manual going back to 2007 but didn't see data in any cartridge I load for. Is this powder still out there?
Superformance is a fairly new powder and Hornady and Lyman both have loads for it in the 6.5 creadmoor. These are the main two loading manuals that I use and right now the 6.5 Creedmoor is the rifle I am working up loads for, but I am sure there are other calibers that use this powder.
 
I have found Superformance to be the only solution for stellar performance from the 6.5 CM's I built this summer and the two 6 CM i built last summer

It begins with 2 Bolt Guns in 6 CM and I Found an RL 16 Load that was fast and very consistent and .4 100 yard groups before they were even
through the break-in process.
I fell in Love with the 6 CM and decided to reach out to Bartein to spin up a couple of Drop in 26" .936 SS pipes for a couple LR-25 builds i wanted to do for Gas Gun in PRS. I could not wait to try them out.... Much to my surprise the same load that was amazing in the 2 bolt guns with Zero pressure and no bolt lift resistance and, left the Peterson SRP brass looking like new with mostly flattened CCI 450 primers.... well it was so hot it in the Gas Guns flowed the brass into the ejector recess in the Bolt and primer pockets were stretched :(

So Back to the Drawing Board

Fortunately i still had all the excess load test rounds to play with Tried a bunch with no accurate options and or performance to get excited about. RL 16 RL 23 H 4350 AA 4350 Sta-Bal IMR 4451 and last but not least Superformance. Folks we have a winner

44.2 Brought in the hay !!! I was able to match the performance of the RL 16 and 23 in the Bolt Guns with no pressure issues. 3165 FPS
with my favorite 6mm pill the Hornady 108 ELDm and .5 at 200 yards and constant.

Fast Forward a year and i decided to build a couple of 6.5 CM's and went first to the Superfomance and right out of the Shoot 45.5 Gr
with the Hornady 135 A-Tips is .3 at 100 with only 50 rounds down range I'm hoping it will speed up a bit once I clear 200 rounds but as lon as it shoots ill be happy. BTW it shoots well in the Bolt guns too but not as tight as the RL 16 & 23

May the Lord Bless you and God Bless America Stay safe ...
 

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This is a very interesting powder, I just bought some superformance and ran a 14 shot satterlee test with eld 130s all shots would just about fit in a half dollar with loads from 43.5 to 46.7 I see no reason to got to the upper limits of the velocity but looks promising around the 2845 FPS range.
 

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SuperPerformance is my goto powder for 6.5 Creedmoor. Using WLR primers, I am getting the best velocity out of the two rifles I have used it in and getting sub .5 three shot groups in the RPR. Works well with the 143 gr. ELD-X and the 144 gr Berger Hybrid. No issues with WLR or CCI 200. The Berger is giving about a tenth inch better group size over the ELD-X when I do my part. Both bullets hit very close to the same point of aim. It works for me.

Am quite pleased with the results. I have not had issues with temperature sensitivity but that is my shooting situation and not a true reflection. (Living in the sunny south, the temps are usually pretty close to hot).
 
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