Anyone loading 30gn Bergers?

[bow shot]

My favorite supplier (Biekirch's in Rochester NY) has these as well as the 40 gn. Anyone give them a try? I'll be shooting them out of a 1:12, 24" bull'd Rock River AR

The 40gn Bergers do well in this rifle, but not quite as good with the Sierra 32gn SBKs, which they don't supply.

[Tokimini]

I was at Biekirch's last week looking for 40 gr BTHP and they are no longer going to carry Bergers. I had to order a box from Midway.

[bow shot]

Oh sick . My son will be returning to Rochester soon from Ft Benning, so I plan to zip over to Biekirch's then (I'm 1.5hr away). He lives next door to the Genesee Conservation club there. I call it the holy land, LOL!! I love visiting him and hearing the guns crackin' all day. What a great thing !!

Any idea what they are left with for 20 cal then?? Man, I just got the 40 Bergers tweaked in... hate to loose 'em .

[Tokimini]

I think they have 35s and 50s left in the Bergers. They will still be stocking Sierra and Hornady. What powder do you use for the 40s? I'm in the process of working up loads for them using RE 10X and 8208XBR.

[bow shot]

I'm using Benchmark for all my .204 loads, that'll be 32 and 40 VMax's, 32 and 39 SBKs, and 40 Bergers for both a Savage Varmint Low Profile (VLP and a Rock River ARms AR-15 Varminter. Benchmark has been good for me, but I've not tried anything else other except for IMR 4064, which printed well for me also. I'm actually sick of load testing, so although another powder may do better for me, I've decided to stop obsessing at this point. My 3-shot group @ 300y with the 40 bergers turned in @ 1.2" today... I was scared to push things, LOL!! The savage gave me 1.0" @ 300 if I was shooting well. I'd expect 1.5-2" with the AR if I went up to 10 shots, but there would be a darn good cluster within the group. I think have all my loads and group sizes listed in the "favorite loads" thread.

W/the 40 Bergers, I have a 50/300Y zero, with a 1.75" rise @ 100y, and a 3.5" rise @ 200y. I was finessing the arc so to speak today, tweaking the scope to bring the zero to optimum. As I recall, with my bolt gun If I bring the zero closer to 100, the spread between the 50, 100, 200, and 300y hits tightens quite a bit more. I ran out of time...

I'll post a pic of today's target if I can get my act together...

[Tokimini]

I've heard a lot of good things about Benchmark. I'll have to give some a try after I get my loads down for RE 10X and 8208XBR. Load testing is the part of reloading I enjoy the most.

[bow shot]

I enjoy it when my stupidity doesn't get in the way...

[Tokimini]

LOL When my stupidity gets in the way I just hope nobody is watching.

[bow shot]

LOL, here's me learning something:

And here's the 40gn Berger range test result (1 shot ea @ 50, 100, 200, 300y):
This was a great day, very faint wind, 75 degrees


1st try:


Then moving the scope 2cl left, 2 clicks down. I shot 2 more at another bull, and marked 'em as "X"s in the pic. What a cheater ...: