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Old September 17, 2006, 04:50 PM   #1
mrawesome22
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Hodgdon Benchmark and Alliant Reloader 10x

Anyone tried either of these powders? If so, are they any more accurate than say Varget? I'm shooting .22-250 and was just wanting to get some input before I went out and bought these. Thanks guys.
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Old September 18, 2006, 12:35 AM   #2
Dave Haven
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I'm using Benchmark in my .222. It groups as well as I can hold it.
My Dad is sold on Varget for his .22 PPC and .22-.250.
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Old September 18, 2006, 01:23 AM   #3
mrawesome22
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Well I'm using Varget now and getting great groups. I just wanted to try something new. Varget also works well in my .243.
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Old September 18, 2006, 05:55 PM   #4
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Get one of those tester packs they sell now. You can get 4 4oz cans of powder. I saw one that had h380, varget, benchmark, and I forget what the other was. I like the burn rate of benchmark for 22-250, but have not tried it yet. I have a really great load using IMR 4064, but really want to try benchmark myself. It seems to really crank up the velocity, which my gun likes...
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Old September 19, 2006, 09:39 AM   #5
mrawesome22
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I want to try benchmark for the velocity also castnblast. The hottest loads in my .22-250 are always the best. I can't believe no one on here has tried this stuff. How bout Reloader 15? Been wanting to try this also. Anybody?
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Old September 22, 2006, 07:32 AM   #6
sjf
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Benchmark

Iv'e been using Benchmark in the 223 and 22-250 for some time now. Like it well enough that I buy 8 lb jugs of it. Gives great velocity in my 22-250 as well as accuracy. In my 22-250 I've been using 36.6 gr under a 40 gr ballistic tip and have been getting 4065 fps, have used that load at 400+ on pdogs. 35 gr of it under 50 rem sp run out at 3800 fps.

In the 223 26.5 gr under a 52 HPBT MK Sierra will run 3450 fps out of my cooper and will stuff them in one ragged hole consistently.

Great powder, clean burning, doesn't seem to be primer sensitive like some other powders are.
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Old September 22, 2006, 04:52 PM   #7
amamnn
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I've just shot the final load on my final ladder test with Reloader 10x. I can't say I'm impressed, although I have had good results with Alliant powders in the past. The 10x grouped fairly well with 40 grain sierra and hornady bullets, 45 grain hornady hornets and ok with 52 grain sierra MKs, but nothing spectacular, yielding about 1/2 MOA at 200 yards. Chrony data revealed about what I had come to expect, again, nothing spectacular, but ok data. I'd say if you're looking to make a big improvement in your groups, the 10x will not do that unless you've been using something that tends to yield significant variations in the .223, like Varget did for me and some other folks I know.
Actually, on looking back over old load data, I had better results in .223 rem with Reloader 15 in 52 and 55 grain bullet loads, though the best results I can attribute to a powder have come from using Vihtuvuori N133 although they do not recommend that powder for the 22-250, but instead N140.
Several of us at our club found that the Varget we were using (from 3 different lots) tended to have density problems. A grain of powder (the piece of powder not the weight) might vary as much as 40% which made measuring powder charges by weight hard to do and by volume downright impossible. We had all had the same problem and found out at a business meeting. Since then (about 2 years ago) It seems that the Varget people down under, have addressed the problem. We have one shooter here who likes to pursue these little quests. Personally, I just moved on to using Vihtuvuori.
I've also had some pretty good results using Winchester 748 in the .223, but I still have not found a powder to beat the N133 for consistency.
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