Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles IMR4198 - What Cartridges you guys use it in?

Don't know how things stand today but the 5.56mm round was originally developed with a stick powder very much like IMR4198. It was very clean burning and did not gunk up the gas tube, leading to the original reputation that the rifle was extremely reliable and really didn't need cleaning.

Then when the military adopted it, for production ease and who knows what other reason they switched to a much less clean burning ball powder like H335 or Win 748 which gunked up the gas tube and everything else. That was a good part of the reason why the "reliable" M16 turned into an unreliable weapon in the jungles of RVN.

At least that's the way I heard it back then.