IMR 4166

[1sakonut]

Good morning,

like a lot of us on this forum I am looking for a replacement  for VARGET powder which I use in my 6 BR to drive 105 bergers

has anybody tried the IMR 4166 powder , I have been told it is a good alternative to Varget  but have not found any load data 

for this  as of yet .

  Thanks in advance for your help. 

               Steve.

[Laurie]

IMR-4166 falls between IMR-4064 and H4895 in burning rate terms. It does the same jobs as IMR-8208XBR and H4895 (but not IMR-4895 which is slower burning). It has been tried in the US by 6BR and Dasher shooters, but is regarded as inferior to VarGet, producing pressure signs at lower velocities. I've used it in 308 as have some others here and it produces excellent results with 155s, can't speak about heavier bullets.

For a Reach compliant VarGet replacement for the 6BR with 105-108gn bullets, my top choices would be Viht N150 (which most northern 6BR shooters have moved to), or Reload Swiss RS52. (Only, don't trust QuickLOAD for RS52 - the program underestimates pressures and maximum safe loads badly. Use VarGet starting loads and work up - you'll likely end up at the same charge weight as you currently use for VarGet or even a little higher and can see slightly higher velocities if desired.)

Whilst N150 is a superb powder in the 'straight' 6BR, for some reason it doesn't give great results in the Dasher.

[1sakonut]

Thanks Laurie, 

was told about N150 , at the moment I use 30.5grn of Varget which gives some good results can’t give you any velocities never run them through a chronograph but had some good and constant groups.

[rhhudson]

I use imr 4166 in my 6.5x47 and found I am getting good accuracy with it. But as Laurie said I am getting very low speeds. I was pushing 123g bullets to 3100fps with a hot n150 load. 

I switched over to 4166 because it was too hot with the n150 and couldn' get the accuracy any lower. And I'm only getting 2664fps and I'm at the top of my powder load. 

I think the reloaded Swiss powders are very good from what I hear but I am yet to try them because know one stocked it around me. 

Such a shame varget and the other good powders have been banned it's messed a lot of shooters up!

 

[Catch-22]

1 hour ago, rhhudson said:

I use imr 4166 in my 6.5x47 and found I am getting good accuracy with it. But as Laurie said I am getting very low speeds. I was pushing 123g bullets to 3100fps with a hot n150 load. 

I switched over to 4166 because it was too hot with the n150 and couldn' get the accuracy any lower. And I'm only getting 2664fps and I'm at the top of my powder load. 

I think the reloaded Swiss powders are very good from what I hear but I am yet to try them because know one stocked it around me. 

Such a shame varget and the other good powders have been banned it's messed a lot of shooters up!

 

Sorry, slight hijack. 

Have you tried N140 in the 6.5x47? 

I was getting 0.2 / 0.3MOA with 38.4g N140, Murom SRM primer, 123g Scenar from a 24" 1-8 twist barrel. At the top end of pressure without seeing the over pressure signs. Velocity was 2930fps - seems to be a common accuracy mode at similar velocities.