OK…..Stepping on a land mine with this question BUT…..using my handy dandy IMR RELATIVE BURN RATE chart and reading every thing I can on optimal powders to use in a bolt action .223, I see that most of you very experienced shooters prefer powders with burn rates that fall in the middle to third quarter of the this chart. The opinion expressed that caught my eye and is the primer for this conversation was that IMR 3031 was generally considered to be a bit fast burning for the 223 cartridge for optimal accuracy.
However when using this chart, I see IMR3031 is ranked 78 while a very well regarded .223 powder (VihtaVouri N133) is ranked 79, while CFE223 is ranked 103 out of 145.
So I pose this question not to flame or embarrass anyone, but instead to gain some valuable knowledge from you more experienced shooters so that my next powder purchase…should any come onto the market before the Zombie apocalypse arrives, would be a little more intelligent.

For shooting in a varmint barrel model 12, what and why is a good powder for 100 to 300 yards target shooting, not necessarily competition shooting?

Oh, and since I am here in Austin Texas, let's add some high ambient temps and humidity to the equation to represent average summer conditions.

Thanks again for all your help and willingness to share your vast knowledge with this still "wet behind the ears" newbie.

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