Hodgdon CFE 223

Specifications

Contains Hodgdon's Copper Fouling Eraser additive, which the company says slows copper fouling and stretches the interval between barrel cleanings. Spherical, so metering is very consistent.

Burn rate

Medium rifle, between BL-C(2) and Alliant Reloder 15.5.

Chart agreement: MAJOR DISAGREEMENT - the single biggest conflict in this merged chart. Hodgdon and the Wolfe/LoadData compilation both rank Hodgdon BL-C(2) and Hodgdon CFE 223 as SLOWER than Hodgdon Varget, while Vihtavuori and Shooters World both band them FASTER than Varget (Vihtavuori bands BL-C(2) with N130 and CFE 223 with N133; Shooters World bands BL-C(2) with Accurate 2460/W748/N133 and CFE 223 with Accurate 2520/N140). The three powders are ordered here per Hodgdon. Treat this whole neighbourhood as unresolved. Ranked by: Hodgdon, Vihtavuori, Shooters World, Wolfe/LoadData.

Powders charted near it — neighbours on the chart are not substitutes, and adjacency tells you nothing about what charge either one takes:

• Winchester StaBALL Match (position 131)
• Hodgdon BL-C(2) (position 132)
• Vihtavuori N540 (position 133)
• Alliant Reloder TS 15.5 (position 135)
• Alliant Power Pro 2000-MR (position 136)
• Hodgdon LEVERevolution (position 137)

What reloaders say about it

Unverified community anecdote. The following is a summary of what handloaders report in public forums. It is not manufacturer information, it has not been tested, it may be wrong, and it contains no load data by design. Treat it as colour, not guidance.

CFE 223 is the community's standard answer for high-volume gas-gun .223/5.56 loading: a ball powder that meters well and is comparatively easy to find. The persistent complaint is that its copper-fouling-eraser chemistry makes it burn dirty, leaving noticeable black fouling.

• ball powder, meters very consistently through volumetric measures
• reported as dirty-burning; the copper-eraser additive is blamed
• favored for bulk/plinking and high-velocity loads rather than lowest-dispersion match ammo
• commonly available relative to extruded match powders

Availability: One of the powders users consistently report actually finding on shelves in 2025-2026, and one of the more affordable options.

Reported cautions:

• Several posters explicitly frame it as a bulk-ammo powder rather than a substitute for a temperature-stable extruded match powder when consistency is the goal.

Consensus level: widely held. Drawn from thread 1, thread 2, thread 3, thread 4, thread 5.

Sources

• Hodgdon product page
• hodgdonpowderco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Copy-of-2024-Smokeless-Relative
• hodgdonreloading.com/rldc/

Other Hodgdon powders

• Hodgdon BL-C(2)
• Hodgdon Benchmark
• Hodgdon CFE BLK
• Hodgdon CFE Pistol
• Hodgdon Clays
• Hodgdon H1000
• Hodgdon H110
• Hodgdon H322

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Verify the charge, not just the recipe

Good data gets you a safe starting point. It does not tell you what actually went into the case on stroke 340 — a bridged measure, a double charge, a squib. That is what an RCM Laser Powder Check is for.