Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 22/250, 75 gr BTHP, IMR 4166

I am looking for data for the 22/250 using the Hornady 75 gr HPBT bullet and IMR 4166 powder. I know 4166 has been discontinued but I have a couple pounds of it and have the bright idea to use it in conjunction with an already established loads using Varget and 4064 to clean out copper fowling.

Any help for a direction to look would be greatly appreciated.

Hodgdon lists 70-grain IMR4166 data for the .22-250--which indicates it's a little slower-burning than Varget, at least for that application.

I did a lot of work in various with 4166 when it appeared, while doing an article for Hodgdon's Annual Manual. In general it does work a lot like Varget, which isn't surprising since 4166 was developed as a sort of Varget substitute when Hodgdon was having difficult obtaining Varget from Australia during one of the previous component "shortages."

Thanks John, that is what I was thinking but wanted to see if I was maybe missing something. 4166 will probably work better than anything else I've tried as it has been discontinued.

I hope to find a load that closely matches the Varget load I'm using so I can substitute a few 4166 loads every now and then to knock down any copper fouling. I have a bit of time to play with loads as my hunting this year was cut short by a fall.

Again, thanks for the info.

You're welcome!

4166 certainly does knock down the copper fouling, along with grouping very well in several rounds--one reason I'm pretty happy to still have an 8-pounder.

Also suspect it might show up again once the present military demand for powder (and primers) abates, as it hopefully will.

I have 3-4 jars on the shelf but not enough to trust to last until 4166 is brought back. I like it for the Savage 99 in 250 Savage as it makes cleaning much easier.

If a load using 6.5Stabil came to be I would switch to that in a heart beat. I use Stabil with 52-53 gr plastic tips in a Savage Axis with very satisfying results.

It's supposed to rain and snow the rest of the week so I hope to get some reloading done. I'm about half way through a couple thousand 223 rounds which I hope to make a dent in prairie dog shooting next summer. The above 22/250s will go with but in a more limited use.

What I noticed about 4166 was that it’s shorter cut than Varget so could get a little more in a 5.56 case and squeeze out a little more velocity without compressing the load. I’m at basically 100% case fill at my target velocity with 75gr bullets. The short cut also made it meter better. It also rolled really precise ammo. Add to that the copper remover and temp stability and I’m kicking myself hard for not buying more than 9lbs.