I agree with tominboise, I to use these charts. Knowing a powders "relative quickness" is useful. In defense of Chuckhawks there are a few powders that have varied positions depending on the chart you refer to, and some that shoot well in calibers in spite of being outside of the optimum burn rate. However that does not make the charts something to ignore. Like allot of the information out there, it's there to help us make decisions, come to our own conclusions, use our brains.
If I had a pet peeve it would probably be that too many of us are too quick to share our opinions on forums, without the experience to back it up. I can respect "I tried that and it didn't work out for me" allot more than an opinion. Forums are a good resource, to share experience, and failing that, to at least get some varied opinions.
My opinion and experience is that burn rate charts are useful, perhaps not gospel, but useful all the same.
I do wonder where CFE 223 would be in "the" chart, my opinion is that it is close to BLC-2, requiring a bit more powder to achieve the same pressure, usually giving the same or slightly more velocity. I've used it in the 22-250, 8x57 and 350 RM, can't say Ive noticed any less copper, but it does give uniform velocities, and some pretty fast load without excess pressure.
Time to step off the soap box.
