Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles .308 Win and CFE223

Anyone have any experience with CFE223 and 130 and/or 150 gr. bullets in the .308 Win.? The only data I’ve found is on the Hodgdon site.

I have a.308 that's prone to copper foul. I get decent results with a 150 gr Accubond over 50 gr of CFE 223. WW cases, WLR primer.

I have 2 .308's, match rifle and a sporter of proven accuracy. CFE223 checked all the boxes except never quite was an accuracy winner. Perfectly adequate, just...yawn. Bullets used were 155 Palma and 155 SST's. I never pursued it thoroughly, there being so many powders that work well in the .308, it was pointless. If you are looking at hunting loads I'm sure you will be satisfied.

I use it exclusively in my Ruger American, under Hornady 150s in Hornady cases. I load it to over 2900 fps and it is 1/2 moa. Smacks deer real well. My load is just under max, I believe without looking for sure.

I used a max load of 51gns CFE223 and a 150gn Accubond in my Rem 700 .308. Velocity averaged around 3000fps from a 22" bbl. While CFE223 gave great velocity in my 308 I prefer VarGet because it's a lot easier to obtain on a regular basis.

I wish that was the case here. It's been a long time since I've seen Varget on the local shelf, but I picked up a fair bit of CFE223 there recently.
I keep thinking about the 8# jug of Varget that just sat on the top shelf there for a long time back when "the troubles" were just starting. I thought its $274 price tag was outrageous, even considering my 10% veteran's discount. I'd scarf it up in a New York minute if I saw that today.

Cheers,
Rex

In the .308 with 165 grn Ballistic Tips I get 50 fps increase over my Varget load but no where near the accuracy. I suppose 50 fps may make a difference sometime somewhere but not for what I do.

Hodgdon’s Max charge with 130gr Speer is 54gr of CFE 223.

I’m getting 0.65” 3 shot groups in my Tikka Superlight .308 Win.(22.4” barrel)

Load:

130gr Barnes T-TSX
CFE 223 52.5gr
Sig Sauer Brass
Fed 210 Match primer
Bullet seated to last groove = 2.725”

Vel. = 3100 fps (chronographed)
ES = 7
SD = 4

No high pressure signs that I can see on brass and primer doesn’t look flat.

Gonna try 53.0gr and 53.5gr to see what I get. But, I like what I see so far.

Temp was 64 deg. when shooting.

Leftybolt

I've run 54.0 gr of it with the 130 TTSX.

V = 3,130 from my 22" bbl

My notes indicate I was getting 45 fps per additional grain of powder.

I've tried CFE in 308 loads. Got very good velocity but wasn't impressed with accuracy using several brands and weights of bullets.

Just goes to show….every rifle is different.

I own 2 Tikka T3Xs. Both are shooting phenomenally with Barnes T-TSX. Come to think of it, most every rifle I’ve loaded Barnes T-TSXs in has shot them very well. Just seems to be an easy bullet to get to shoot accurately. Have loaded in several calibers w/different powder combinations.

Leftybolt