Here are my results with Staball powder in a 243 Win. Rifle is a Rem 700, 22" barrel. It is an older ADL in a wood stock that has not been bedded. It is usually good for 1/2 to 1 inch groups with Sierra 85 grain BTHP bullets under ideal conditions.
All loads were in Winchester cases, CCI 200 primers, Sierra 85 BTHP bullets. Loads were thrown from a 30 year old Hornady/Pacific measure after checking settings with a digital scale. This measure throws Staball to within .1 of a grain, with 9 of 10 charges being right on. Same measure with Varget varies .3 of a grain.
All these loads were fired in 3 shot strings with about 10 minutes cooling time between groups.
Day 1
41.0 Staball, average 2791, extreme spread 81.
41.0 Staball, average 2821, es 95.
Day 2
42.0 Staball, av 2947, es 39.
42.0 Staball, av 2919, es 44.
42.5 Staball, av 2934, es 6. Not sure how this velocity is lower than one of the 42.0 grain strings.
43.0 Staball, av 2958, es 26.
43.0 Staball av 2991, es 7. Best group of the day, .937", two practically in the same hole.
The wind was an issue today with a variable crosswind of about 5 mph or so. The shooter pulled a few shots here and there, enough to ruin a good group. Best group was with 43 grains, 15/16 or .937". Accuracy on par with loads using H 414 and Varget.
I had heard that this powder produces a lot of black, soot like residue. It does! Where I can usually remove powder residue from H414 with a couple of wet patches with 50/50 Kroil and Hoppe's #9, this took 5 cycles of 2 wet, 1 dry, total of 15 patches instead of the usual 3. Even then, there was still a little black on the patch. It may be temperature insensitive but the cleanup is a pain. I will probably stick to 760/H414, H4350 or Varget even if I have to weigh the extruded powders.
