Has anyone had good luck with Benchmark? Just picked up some today to try in the 223. Will be trying 40 and 50 VMax.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
David

Bolt action or Auto?

It's a little fast for ARs.

Works great behind 50 gr Noslers and 52 gr MatchKings.
Doesn`t give the fastest velocity, but accuracy is excellent IMO.

Has been go to powder with 50 and 55s in my bolt guns. TAC does pretty well, but not as well as Benchmark

I only use bolt action rifles...

however, 28 grains of it behind a 40 grain bullet will get about 3700 fps or so, IIRC..

I use bolt guns only. I have been reading about it and it sounded good to try. I have been reloading for 53 years, just wanting to try some of the newer powders available.
I appreciate you comments and information,
David

You should pick up some IMR 8208 XBR and give it a try, too.

I think you will be very happy with it in .223 with lighter bullets.

There are a significant number of different powders that work with specific bullet/primer combo's. Benchmark is one of them.
For me in the 223, 25.0 + or - gns of benchmark and 50/52 gn Berger Varmints are very accurate, with Rem 7 1/2 primers; three shots at 100 yards into at least 3/8" groups, or 1/4" occasionally.

Don

Benchmark was not my best powder for the .223. The old standby H335 worked best for me. Trying a pound certainly won't hurt however.

wasbeeman,
H335 is a good powder, used many pounds of it over the years. Always will have it in stock. I have kept to the standards and was wanting to try some new ones.
Thanks for the reply,
David

And yes, there's that. The minute you feel that you have the perfect load, someone asks "have you tried some xxxx (fill in powder, bullet, case), and you're off and running again.

benchmark is a touch slow ..IMHO
i use h335 from 22hornet - 550 express .. it REALLY shines in big cases.

I use benchmark in 223. 26 gr in a Lapua case pushes 50gr SBK's at 3500 fps out of my 26" tikka.

Burns clean and less temp sensitive than other powders. Clincher is it meters to within +/- .2 grains in my LNL powder measure.

I also use BM for 6br and 204 ruger, buying in 8 lb jugs.

i think benchmark is the best powder out there for bolt actions shooting the 50 grainer. i use it with the hornady sxsp bullets, about 0.2 grains under hornady book max

benchmark is a good powder for 223, 27.3 with 40 vmaxes and 26.o with 50's, great powder clean and accurate

It's a good powder in the daylight, but for varmint hunting at night, it sucks. It gives a hell of a muzzle flash. Varget is mucho better in my twisted little world.

Although not a 223, I looked at Benchmark in my 204 Ruger just yesterday.

At max book loading, I acheived 3667 fps ave. of 5 shots pushing the 34 grain Dogtown bullets.

At max book loading of X-Terminator, I achieved 3913 fps ave. of 5 shots with the same Dogtown bullets. Plus, accuracy with the X-Terminator was better.

For this bullet and gun, I'll be passing on Benchmark.

Yeah, RL-10x was faster and more accurate for me than benchmark in my .204 as well.
Then temps changed 30 degrees and my .3" groups blew up to 2" - literally.

Benchmark is consistent at sub 1/2 moa and 3600 fps regardless of the time of year I'm shooting.

Nomo,

Interesting you mention RL-10x, I just made up a set to try next in the 204. TAC will likely be next in line.

Thanks for the info!

I've had a lb of x-terminator for over a year now but have never gotten around to playing with it - probably because it isn't mentioned in my nosler, sierra or Hogden printed loading materials.

Slight hijack on the thread.
Benchmark was the most accurate powder tested in my 22-250; three shots at 100 yards measured 1/4" using Sierra's 55 gn HPBT, and Fed 210's, with 32.6 gns of powder.

We use Benchmark with 63gr sierra's in the 223 for deer. It was more accuarte than the W748 loads we started with.

I have a Tikka T3 Varmint and didn't have much luck with Benchmark. I switched to Varget and am starting to see big improvements. Not totally happy yet but its starting to look up. Esox357.

If looking to try a new powder, try Ramshot's Xterminator. In my 223 bolt it gives better accuracy with 50 gr. bullets than H335, BL-C(2), RL-15, Varget, 748 and 2230.

Have gone through all these powders looking for good velocity out of my son's AR-15 and since I had them on hand,tried them in my 223 bolt rifle.

Should have started with Xterminator and would have saved lots of time and money.