Bought can of Benchmark, worked up first loads

castnblast · December 8, 2006, 05:15 PM

I have not shot the test rounds yet, but I'm hoping it is everything I expect it to be. That stuff meters great! It is tiny, and you would swear it was ball powder until you look closer. Yes, it's extruded. As soon as this wind dies down, I'm going to the range. I got 7, 4 shot test groups to try out. Hopefully "the load" I've been looking for is in one of those test bags. I'll post results as soon as I get a chance. Anyone out there using that stuff for 22-250? Just curious. I'm testing it on 55 gr. Sierra Game King Spitzer Boat-tails.

mrawesome22 · December 8, 2006, 10:52 PM

I will be interested to know your results castnblast. I've been wanting to try Benchmark and RL10X for quite some time now. Lack of accuracy info from other shooters for the .22-250Rem has kept me from getting any though. Plus, .22-250Rem isn't even listed on the bottle so I figured it was mostly used for smaller cases like the .223Rem and the likes. Are you going to use a crono? Hodgdon's site shows a 50 grainer at 3900FPS! And that's with a 24" barrel! Another thing that has kept me from getting any was seeing how high it was on the burn rate chart. RL10X is right there with it. Maybe some good results from you will make me run out and get some. Good luck.

castnblast · December 9, 2006, 02:25 PM

It is fast. It also does not fill the case. The stuff is dense. I'm hoping it will do what it's supposed to. I'm having to take my 4064 0.5 gr. past max to get around a 1" group. I don't like that. I'm hoping the faster powder will correct that problem. I don't have a chrono. The one I used before was a friend of mine who was in the military and got shipped off.

If this stuff does not work, I think I will go w/ H4895 or Varget next. My first can of 4064 generated 3/8" groups. The second can had density issues, which is why I'm shying away from that powder. I'm not nocking IMR though. They have some good stuff out there. 4064 is a hollow powder and is prone to that sort of issue.

castnblast · December 12, 2006, 08:44 PM

Mr. awesome22...Loads worked great, especially given the circumstances.
.628 group w/ improvised rest. Left the lead slead at home. I used 33.5 gr. of Benchmark behind a Sierra 55 gr game king spitzer boat tail. POI was concentric w/ my over max load of IMR 4064 (36.8 gr). This load is .1 under max. I'll load a test group at max, and a couple below to see if I get a better group...and use the lead slead. This is my powder! The improvised rest was some towels, and 2x4's. There was also a quartering away northwest wind between 9-14 mph. I feel the gun and the load are capable of a much tighter group given the rest and slight crosswind. I'm VERY pleased with the powder, and the performance. I also got a decent group w/ 33.0 grs. So I figure the sweet spot is in there between 33.0 and 33.5. I'll run a couple of 3 shot test groups at .1 gr. intervals to see where that spot is, and see if we can tighten it up a bit. COL was at SAAMI Specs. of 2.350 COL.

mrawesome22 · December 12, 2006, 11:32 PM

Well I'll have to go get some then. .628 is a hell of a group. I'll be using 50gr V-Max's at 2.473" OAL and probably 1gr under max as a starting point. I might run out first thing in the morning and get some Benchmark and make a few loads and shoot them tomorrow if it isn't raining. Maybe if I get some good results we can start building a good reputation for this powder in the .22-250Rem. Were you using neck sized or FL sized brass? All my fireformed brass is loaded at the moment, so I'll just have to use brand new brass.

castnblast · December 13, 2006, 01:38 PM

I full length size all my brass. This gun doubles as a deer gun to many's dismay. I know this combo is capable of better groups. That group is about as tight as I could expect w/ the rest, and wind conditions. My start weight was 31.00 grs. It was about a 2.5" group, and just got tighter as I went up in .5 gr. increments. 33.00 and 33.5 were very similar. The 33.0 was around 1". As you know the 22-250 likes em hot, but since this powder is much faster on the burn charts, I started much lower. I could have saved the bullets, because my gut feeling was I'd have my round between 32.5 and 33.5. I'm just glad I'm not shooting an over max load. I really didn't like that.

mrawesome22 · December 13, 2006, 10:21 PM

I got a bottle today. Loading some test groups up right now with 50gr V-Max's. I'll shoot them tomorrow and report back. It's supposed to be a beautiful day here tomorrow. You were right about the short grains. I thought all of Hodgdon's extreme powders were all cut the same length but this stuff is like a stick of Varget cut in half. I'll let you know what happens.

mrawesome22 · December 13, 2006, 10:23 PM

Hey castnblast, what's the lot number on your bottle? Mines 10829064428. Just curious.

castnblast · December 14, 2006, 02:07 PM

1 0308003662. The guy at the gun shop said he hopes it works good. He said not that many people are using it yet. I'm tickled pink on how well this stuff meters and shoots. If I were a 223 shooter and using a progressive press, this would definitely be the powder to use. There just is no variation. Which is funny, because I'm using the lee perfect powder measure. You don't have to worry about cutting powder with it. It would be impossible.

mrawesome22 · December 27, 2006, 12:11 AM

Well I finally got to shoot my test loads today. I shot 6, 5 shot groups. My first 3 groups were with 35gr Benchmark. They all were around 3/4"@3900fps. Then I shot 3 groups with 36gr Benchmark. All groups had every bullet touching and velocity was 4000fps. This was with a Remington 700VLS 26" barrel and 50gr Hornady V-Max with a Win .22-250 case and CCI large rifle primer. No wind, wet and cold. Case length is 1.902" and OAL was 2.473". .030" off rifling. I'm going to try some Nosler BT with this powder because I could never get them to shoot worth a frog's snout with any other powder. We'll see what happens.

6.5x.284tony · December 29, 2006, 10:55 AM

castnblast, might be worth your time to try the H-4895 or
H-414. I use both of these with several 22-250's and if one doesn't seem to shoot, the other one does. I also agree with you about not getting the ballistic tips to shoot. I have the best luck with v-max's or speer tnt's. Also allmost allways have the best groups with cci br2 primers. GOOD LUCK!

Tony

dgc940 · December 29, 2006, 12:03 PM

Ok Im a sucker I bought some benchmark this AM and going to try it in 22-250 and .243

castnblast · January 1, 2007, 01:00 AM

So how'd it go? I'm still playing w/ mine w/ some other bullets. Mrawesome22, you talked me into it. I'm looking into some 50gr ers for my varmint rounds.

mrawesome22 · January 1, 2007, 01:21 AM

So far this Benchmark powder is great. Varget and H4895 are good, but Benchmark is great. I loaded up some more and will shoot them tomorrow just to confirm results. LOL, I read how you said you "found your powder". I think I found mine too. The sticks are so small it's really easy to get a precise charge.

castnblast · January 1, 2007, 12:55 PM

Yeah, santa got me a REALLY nice digital camera. I'll post some pix of the two powders so all can see. I can get really high resolution that should show on this forum. I just need to finish figuring out how to make it work. Should have the pix sometime tomorrow afternoon. Happy New Year Ya'll!

mrawesome22 · January 2, 2007, 01:23 AM

I bet you'll like the 50gr's castnblast. They give great velocity but still have a little heft to them. They've always shot the best out of all the weights in my rifle. I got a box of Sierra 50gr Blitzkings for Christmas and I'm going to try them out once this damn rain passes.

Ahhhhhh!!!!!! My dial-up and hi res pics don't play nice with each other LOL. The only downfall of living in BFE.... stuck with dial-up. Damn

dgc940 · January 2, 2007, 10:01 PM

I went to the range today and my best with a 50grn nosler was at 35grn's of benchmark with a .495 and I think I can tune on that and do a little better.
Where the benchmark realy impressed me was on my .243 with 58 grain hp's
and 36.6 charge I seen a .325 three shot group now if I can tweek that a little and get under .300 I'll be stoked!

mrawesome22 · January 3, 2007, 12:53 AM

I went to the range today too. Beautiful cool day here in Ohio. I shot one of the best groups I've ever shot with 36gr Benchmark and a 50gr VMAX. I also shot some 50gr Blitzkings and I'm going to have to tune them. Although I did shoot a decent 10 shot group with a couple of flyers that were probably my fault. Right now 36gr Benchmark and a 50gr V-Max is awesome. CCI Large Rifle was the primer.

dgc940 · January 3, 2007, 10:24 AM

Mr22 what did you start with on the 50's ( grains) any pressure signs at 36grns? I started at 33.0 and was shot at .703 and as I went up in half grain increments the groups grew and opened up to 1.325 at 34.0 and stayed above 1 moa till i hit 35grn then opened up again at 35.3 Im going to load some up to 36 and see what happens.
But where it realy shined was with my .243 with 58grn bullets it shot under half moa from 36.0grn through 37.3 but with 72grn bullets it did not do so well
groups grew to 1 moa so this makes me wonder if the benchmark would do better with a 40-45grn bullet in the 22-250?

castnblast · January 3, 2007, 11:16 AM

My 55 gr. really liked 33.5 gr. My fmj's did not. They were very wide. I have some remi 55 gr. hp w/ cannalure I'm shooting today. Benchmark is a fast powder. What kind of bullets were you shooting?

castnblast · January 3, 2007, 11:21 AM

BTW, what's your twist rate? A higher twist may demand a lower velocity.

dgc940 · January 3, 2007, 11:55 AM

shooting 50grn nosler balistic tip in 22-250 1 in 14 twist
58 and 72 grn Barnes varmintators hp in the 243 1 in10 twist
The varmintators was discontinued this year

mrawesome22 · January 3, 2007, 08:02 PM

No pressure signs at all at 36gr Benchmark in my rifle. I see your shooting NBT's. My rifle absolutely hates those bullets. Maybe try a different bullet? BTW my H&R Ultra Varmint .243Win loves 75gr V-Max's. Haven't tried the Benchmark with the .243 yet, but it's next on my list. I've never been able to get a good group with any bullet under 75gr in my .243Win.

December 8, 2006, 05:15 PM	#1
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	Bought can of Benchmark, worked up first loads I have not shot the test rounds yet, but I'm hoping it is everything I expect it to be. That stuff meters great! It is tiny, and you would swear it was ball powder until you look closer. Yes, it's extruded. As soon as this wind dies down, I'm going to the range. I got 7, 4 shot test groups to try out. Hopefully "the load" I've been looking for is in one of those test bags. I'll post results as soon as I get a chance. Anyone out there using that stuff for 22-250? Just curious. I'm testing it on 55 gr. Sierra Game King Spitzer Boat-tails. __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

December 9, 2006, 02:25 PM	#3
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	It is fast. It also does not fill the case. The stuff is dense. I'm hoping it will do what it's supposed to. I'm having to take my 4064 0.5 gr. past max to get around a 1" group. I don't like that. I'm hoping the faster powder will correct that problem. I don't have a chrono. The one I used before was a friend of mine who was in the military and got shipped off. If this stuff does not work, I think I will go w/ H4895 or Varget next. My first can of 4064 generated 3/8" groups. The second can had density issues, which is why I'm shying away from that powder. I'm not nocking IMR though. They have some good stuff out there. 4064 is a hollow powder and is prone to that sort of issue. __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

December 12, 2006, 08:44 PM	#4
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	Mr. awesome22...Loads worked great, especially given the circumstances. .628 group w/ improvised rest. Left the lead slead at home. I used 33.5 gr. of Benchmark behind a Sierra 55 gr game king spitzer boat tail. POI was concentric w/ my over max load of IMR 4064 (36.8 gr). This load is .1 under max. I'll load a test group at max, and a couple below to see if I get a better group...and use the lead slead. This is my powder! The improvised rest was some towels, and 2x4's. There was also a quartering away northwest wind between 9-14 mph. I feel the gun and the load are capable of a much tighter group given the rest and slight crosswind. I'm VERY pleased with the powder, and the performance. I also got a decent group w/ 33.0 grs. So I figure the sweet spot is in there between 33.0 and 33.5. I'll run a couple of 3 shot test groups at .1 gr. intervals to see where that spot is, and see if we can tighten it up a bit. COL was at SAAMI Specs. of 2.350 COL. __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

December 13, 2006, 01:38 PM	#6
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	I full length size all my brass. This gun doubles as a deer gun to many's dismay. I know this combo is capable of better groups. That group is about as tight as I could expect w/ the rest, and wind conditions. My start weight was 31.00 grs. It was about a 2.5" group, and just got tighter as I went up in .5 gr. increments. 33.00 and 33.5 were very similar. The 33.0 was around 1". As you know the 22-250 likes em hot, but since this powder is much faster on the burn charts, I started much lower. I could have saved the bullets, because my gut feeling was I'd have my round between 32.5 and 33.5. I'm just glad I'm not shooting an over max load. I really didn't like that. __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

December 14, 2006, 02:07 PM	#9
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	1 0308003662. The guy at the gun shop said he hopes it works good. He said not that many people are using it yet. I'm tickled pink on how well this stuff meters and shoots. If I were a 223 shooter and using a progressive press, this would definitely be the powder to use. There just is no variation. Which is funny, because I'm using the lee perfect powder measure. You don't have to worry about cutting powder with it. It would be impossible. __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

December 8, 2006, 10:52 PM	#2
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	I will be interested to know your results castnblast. I've been wanting to try Benchmark and RL10X for quite some time now. Lack of accuracy info from other shooters for the .22-250Rem has kept me from getting any though. Plus, .22-250Rem isn't even listed on the bottle so I figured it was mostly used for smaller cases like the .223Rem and the likes. Are you going to use a crono? Hodgdon's site shows a 50 grainer at 3900FPS! And that's with a 24" barrel! Another thing that has kept me from getting any was seeing how high it was on the burn rate chart. RL10X is right there with it. Maybe some good results from you will make me run out and get some. Good luck.

December 12, 2006, 11:32 PM	#5
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	Well I'll have to go get some then. .628 is a hell of a group. I'll be using 50gr V-Max's at 2.473" OAL and probably 1gr under max as a starting point. I might run out first thing in the morning and get some Benchmark and make a few loads and shoot them tomorrow if it isn't raining. Maybe if I get some good results we can start building a good reputation for this powder in the .22-250Rem. Were you using neck sized or FL sized brass? All my fireformed brass is loaded at the moment, so I'll just have to use brand new brass.

December 13, 2006, 10:21 PM	#7
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	I got a bottle today. Loading some test groups up right now with 50gr V-Max's. I'll shoot them tomorrow and report back. It's supposed to be a beautiful day here tomorrow. You were right about the short grains. I thought all of Hodgdon's extreme powders were all cut the same length but this stuff is like a stick of Varget cut in half. I'll let you know what happens.

December 13, 2006, 10:23 PM	#8
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	Hey castnblast, what's the lot number on your bottle? Mines 10829064428. Just curious.

December 27, 2006, 12:11 AM	#10
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	Well I finally got to shoot my test loads today. I shot 6, 5 shot groups. My first 3 groups were with 35gr Benchmark. They all were around 3/4"@3900fps. Then I shot 3 groups with 36gr Benchmark. All groups had every bullet touching and velocity was 4000fps. This was with a Remington 700VLS 26" barrel and 50gr Hornady V-Max with a Win .22-250 case and CCI large rifle primer. No wind, wet and cold. Case length is 1.902" and OAL was 2.473". .030" off rifling. I'm going to try some Nosler BT with this powder because I could never get them to shoot worth a frog's snout with any other powder. We'll see what happens.

December 29, 2006, 10:55 AM	#11
6.5x.284tony Member Join Date: December 26, 2006 Location: N.E. Colorado Posts: 15	castnblast, might be worth your time to try the H-4895 or H-414. I use both of these with several 22-250's and if one doesn't seem to shoot, the other one does. I also agree with you about not getting the ballistic tips to shoot. I have the best luck with v-max's or speer tnt's. Also allmost allways have the best groups with cci br2 primers. GOOD LUCK! Tony

December 29, 2006, 12:03 PM	#12
dgc940 Senior Member Join Date: September 15, 2005 Location: Graham Texas Posts: 258	Ok Im a sucker I bought some benchmark this AM and going to try it in 22-250 and .243 __________________ Some people say what they think! Some say what they know! Then there's those that think they know what they are saying!

January 1, 2007, 01:00 AM	#13
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	So how'd it go? I'm still playing w/ mine w/ some other bullets. Mrawesome22, you talked me into it. I'm looking into some 50gr ers for my varmint rounds. __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

January 1, 2007, 01:21 AM	#14
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	So far this Benchmark powder is great. Varget and H4895 are good, but Benchmark is great. I loaded up some more and will shoot them tomorrow just to confirm results. LOL, I read how you said you "found your powder". I think I found mine too. The sticks are so small it's really easy to get a precise charge.

January 1, 2007, 12:55 PM	#15
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	Yeah, santa got me a REALLY nice digital camera. I'll post some pix of the two powders so all can see. I can get really high resolution that should show on this forum. I just need to finish figuring out how to make it work. Should have the pix sometime tomorrow afternoon. Happy New Year Ya'll! __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

January 2, 2007, 01:23 AM	#16
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	I bet you'll like the 50gr's castnblast. They give great velocity but still have a little heft to them. They've always shot the best out of all the weights in my rifle. I got a box of Sierra 50gr Blitzkings for Christmas and I'm going to try them out once this damn rain passes. Ahhhhhh!!!!!! My dial-up and hi res pics don't play nice with each other LOL. The only downfall of living in BFE.... stuck with dial-up. Damn

January 2, 2007, 10:01 PM	#17
dgc940 Senior Member Join Date: September 15, 2005 Location: Graham Texas Posts: 258	I went to the range today and my best with a 50grn nosler was at 35grn's of benchmark with a .495 and I think I can tune on that and do a little better. Where the benchmark realy impressed me was on my .243 with 58 grain hp's and 36.6 charge I seen a .325 three shot group now if I can tweek that a little and get under .300 I'll be stoked! __________________ Some people say what they think! Some say what they know! Then there's those that think they know what they are saying!

January 3, 2007, 12:53 AM	#18
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	I went to the range today too. Beautiful cool day here in Ohio. I shot one of the best groups I've ever shot with 36gr Benchmark and a 50gr VMAX. I also shot some 50gr Blitzkings and I'm going to have to tune them. Although I did shoot a decent 10 shot group with a couple of flyers that were probably my fault. Right now 36gr Benchmark and a 50gr V-Max is awesome. CCI Large Rifle was the primer.

January 3, 2007, 10:24 AM	#19
dgc940 Senior Member Join Date: September 15, 2005 Location: Graham Texas Posts: 258	Mr22 what did you start with on the 50's ( grains) any pressure signs at 36grns? I started at 33.0 and was shot at .703 and as I went up in half grain increments the groups grew and opened up to 1.325 at 34.0 and stayed above 1 moa till i hit 35grn then opened up again at 35.3 Im going to load some up to 36 and see what happens. But where it realy shined was with my .243 with 58grn bullets it shot under half moa from 36.0grn through 37.3 but with 72grn bullets it did not do so well groups grew to 1 moa so this makes me wonder if the benchmark would do better with a 40-45grn bullet in the 22-250? __________________ Some people say what they think! Some say what they know! Then there's those that think they know what they are saying!

January 3, 2007, 11:16 AM	#20
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	My 55 gr. really liked 33.5 gr. My fmj's did not. They were very wide. I have some remi 55 gr. hp w/ cannalure I'm shooting today. Benchmark is a fast powder. What kind of bullets were you shooting? __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

January 3, 2007, 11:21 AM	#21
castnblast Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2006 Location: Corpus Christi TX Posts: 1,148	BTW, what's your twist rate? A higher twist may demand a lower velocity. __________________ VEGETARIAN...old indian word for bad hunter

January 3, 2007, 11:55 AM	#22
dgc940 Senior Member Join Date: September 15, 2005 Location: Graham Texas Posts: 258	shooting 50grn nosler balistic tip in 22-250 1 in 14 twist 58 and 72 grn Barnes varmintators hp in the 243 1 in10 twist The varmintators was discontinued this year __________________ Some people say what they think! Some say what they know! Then there's those that think they know what they are saying!

January 3, 2007, 08:02 PM	#23
mrawesome22 Senior Member Join Date: November 9, 2005 Location: Ohio, Appalachia's foothills. Posts: 3,779	No pressure signs at all at 36gr Benchmark in my rifle. I see your shooting NBT's. My rifle absolutely hates those bullets. Maybe try a different bullet? BTW my H&R Ultra Varmint .243Win loves 75gr V-Max's. Haven't tried the Benchmark with the .243 yet, but it's next on my list. I've never been able to get a good group with any bullet under 75gr in my .243Win.