I'm pretty unfamiliar with cast projectiles, but was wondering whether any cartridges in particular stands out for cast bullet use when competitive benchrest type accuracy is required. The 6mmPPC revolutionised centrefire benchrest but what are people using in the cast bullet benchrest competitions?
Cheers...
Con

Con, the 30PPC, 30BR, 308x1.5 and some .308 wildcats seem to be the most popular in custom bench guns. Production class is currently being dominated by Savage rifles in .308, but the Remington .308 varmint rifles do well too. A few folks shoot smaller or larger bore, but the .308 bore is the most popular for good reason.

I know you asked specifically about bench rest, but the .38-55 and the .32-40 were developed in the 1880's specifically for 200 yard off hand shooting matches. These were black powder loads, but the cartridges work very well with smokless powder.

Most of the CBA benchrest guns have custom chambers with snug necks and gentle throat angles (of course, the same could be said for jacketed benchrest guns). Typically they launch heavy-for-caliber bullets at about 1700 - 1900 fps, regardless of what cartridge it is chambered for. Obviously, that leaves a lot of empty space in the full size cases, so the trend is toward the smaller cases, as Mr. Pursell mentioned.

A few of the CBA boys are playing around with small calibers, but on a windy day the lighter bullets will be at a disadvantage on the 200 yard target. Wind is more of a factor in the cast game owing to the lower velocities and shorter ogives. For that reason, I suspect that the medium bores will continue to dominate.

Without a doubt at the present time the 30 BR stands out as the most popular cartridge in the Heavy and Unrestricted Classes, the 308 in the Production Class, and the 32 Miller Short in the Plain Base Class. I think one of the big reasons for the 30 caliber being so popular is that there's an abundance of moulds for it and that's where all the experimentation has been. For all I know maybe that is where you're going to get the most bang for your buck but it seems lately some people are trying different things with some success. As was stated though wind is a BIG factor with cast bullets and the smaller the caliber the tougher it is,especially at 200 yards.

Go take a look at the match results on the Cast Bullet Association web site and you'll see what's being used and the loads.

Pat