Hi, greetings from Scotland.

I normally use Hodgdon varget in my .22/250
Winchester varmint rifle. I have had some quite good success with this powder and find it especially useful here in Scotland because of the wide temperature variations encountered here.

I see that Hodgden now produce a powder called Benchmark.

Could anyone tell me if this powder produces good results in the .22/250 and if so how much better than Varget?

Does it have the excellent resistance to temperture change that Varget is famed for?

Is there any posibility of an increase in velocity if I used Benchmark rather than varget?

I would be very grateful for any advice on this subject as my knowledge is limited.

thanks for any replies in advance.

Benchmark as you know it, is manufactured as BM2 by ADI in Australia. They also make 2208, which is sold in the US as Varget (the name sucks).

BM2 is a faster powder than 2208, their equivalents being roughly:

BM2/Benchmark - IMR3031 - AA2015

2208/Varget - IMR 4064 - AA2520

The Benchmark series (there is also a BM1 which is faster than BM2) are very fine grained, and meter exceedingly well. I use BM1 in my 223 for 40 grain projectiles, BM2 for 50 and 55 and 2208/Varget for 60 grain.

The ADI loading guide gives loads for Benchmark in the 22/250, for 55 grain and lighter. But, in all cases the velocity is lower than that achieved with 2208/Varget.

Hi there oop north!

Interesting question and it relates to some load development I'm in the process of doing.

I shoot good groups through my .22/250 driving 55gn V-Max with 38.4gn of H380 which gives me 3603fps at the muzzle. Habitually I load and test during the daytime - sometimes when there's a heat haze over the ground - but then shoot my foxes 100% at night so I too have thought about temperature driven pressure/burn characteristics. In fact at my normal killing range of 220 metres or less, any shift in point of impact is due to operator error and so I've stopped worrying about the right powder for the ambient temperature.

On the other hand, I am now making up some loads with Varget and am looking forward to seeing how these perform.

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tikka 3 barrels

John Bartels,

ADI - do they have this information at a website? Do you have the url plese?

(I just searched on ADI Australia and got zillions of hits, the first 50 of which didn't get near powders!)

Pete
There is no e-mail or web address on their book but here is the postal address.

The Chief General Manager, ADI Ordnance,
PO Box E349, Queen Victoria Terrace,
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia.

Phone: (06) 2706711
Fax: (06) 2706739

Their loading guide is free they should be able to send you one if you contact them.
Bakes

V-MAX,
I've played with both of these powder and a few others as well. Benchmark, according to Hodgdon, is primarily intended for the .222 Remington case size family. In my .22-250 Varget has given me the best results of all the powders I tested. I'm using the Nosler 55 grain Ballistic Tip bullet and CCI BR 2 primers. After working with the brass, five shots at a hundred yards measure .147". An aside on Hodgdon powders. Hodgdon has reduced the size of all their extruded powders. All, including H-4831SC are much smaller than they used to be. As a result they all meter much better than they once did. All of Hodgdon extruded powders are "EXTREME" powders and NOT sensitive to temperature changes. I experimented with Varget for three years. The average temperature variation was less than 20fps. Test were conducted in temperatures from the single digits to over 100 degrees. I now load only Hodgdon extruded powders. I hope that this will be of some help. Good luck, from a half Scot to a whole Scot.

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BigBob

Sorry about the delay in a reply but check out

http://www.adi-limited.com/handloaders-guide/index.html

for their online reloading manual

When compiling information on powders and bullets for the AccuLoad databases, I found that the folks at ADI, Woodleigh and VhitaVuori were very quick to respond and extremely open about their products. Just wish information was as readily available for Lil' Gun and Retumbo.
'puck

What bullet weight are you shooting? If you are shooting light bullets like a 35-45 then the faster powders work better most of then and the opposite is true. My rule of thumb is fast bullets fast powder, slow bullets slow powder. I shoot 60g bullets and really like the W760 in my 22-250 with a 28" barrel.

For lighter bullets 40 and 50 grain the Benchmark has some awesome loads. My 22-250 is shooting 50 Gr. bullets at 3950 fps. Take a look at Hodgdon data here.

http://www.hodgdon.com/