A buddy of mine approached me for some help with his .204. He just bought a Kimber 84M fluted stainless and mounted a Nikon Monarch scope on it, he really wants this to be a shooter so wants some help finding an accurate starting load that we can fine tune to his rifle to be a great shooter.
I have lots of loading experience with many cartridges but all .223 and up, I've never messed with a .204 and don't know where to begin and I am pressed for time meaning I can't spend days and days of my time working a load up I have too many other commitments.
What powder do some show a preference for?
What bullet weights do these things prefer?
Any .204 shooters out there to lead me down the right path?
Thanks in advance
I also posted this in "Reloading" forum.

I like the 40 grain Bergers and 28.2 grains Varget. Use Federal 205M primers. This same load works for my A-Bolt and my buddies Cooper. I load them a little longer than factory spec. 2.373" oal for mine and 2.32" oal for my buddy. 1/10 of a grain can change your groups though. Check out the reloading section there is alot of 204 info there. God Bless, Louis

I also like the 40 Gr. Bergers with 25.0 grains of Benchmark. The benchmark loads nice and if you spend alittle time a few grains either way your Kimber should shoot real nice. Also there is a web sight just for 204's. It's 204ruger.com and has some good info. Good Luck

My .204 has a custom chamber with zero free-bore so my data doesn't count. So no numbers but mine as well as others I've shot with had a real fondness for RL10X with the 39 grain Sierra BlitzKings using 7 1/2BR primers. I load mine in Winchester cases if that matters.

Snell
Do Kimbers come with a factory test target? My HS came with one, the test load was 40gr ballistic tip over 27gr of 4895. For some reason I chose Varget for my initial loading with ballistic tips and 27gr seems to work very well. I have heard that some rifles don't like 40gr pills. My rifle shot the factory Hornady 32gr very accurately as well. I loaded to factory length as I had heard this round prefers some jump into the lands. The other bullet I have tried is the 26gr Varmint Grenade, also with Varget, and 26gr seem to give me the best group.
Adios amigos, as I'm off to Mexico for 7 days of sun.

Mine really likes 39 Sierra, Varget in Win. brass. Very accurate.
Good luck, it should be a shooter.
Larry