Favorite Loads

[Trent]

All updated through page 8. If you open the spreadsheet and look on the bottom you will see a new sheet called Powder Comparison. Click there and you will see a bar graph depicting the powders used compared to each other.

I did away with the primer sorted link. Kind of seems unnecessary.

Organized by bullet weight
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2580584 ... m-19k?da=y

Organized by bullet brand
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2580585 ... m-19k?da=y

Organized by powder type
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2580586 ... m-19k?da=y
.
.
.
PDF format for those folks that don't have Microsoft Excel.
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2581701 ... m-12k?da=y

[DoubleUp]

Excellent work Trent! Thanks much.

[fishy]

Thanks for the hard work you've done here. Man that is awesome Trent

[ryutzy]

Wow nice charts Trent!

[Trent]

Thanks ya'll. What I did was easy. All the hard work was done by everyone that worked up loads and contributed the info here. While we all know that what works in one rifle might not work in another it is nice to be able to see what components tend to work best.

Also, MinotBob deserves most of the credit. I just took what he had done and gave it a face lift. He had done all the major grunt work back in 2007 though so he deserves the most credit.

I have three separate batches of 50 rounds each loaded up and waiting for the weather so that I can go out and figure out what bullets/powder my rifle likes. All the contributions to this thread helped me make my preliminary choices.

[DoubleUp]

Haven't seen any loads using A2230 which has worked very well for me. I believe it is the same powder as Ramshot X-terminator which only shows one load for the 39bk. This powder drops great out of a measure.

This is out of a stock Savage model 16 ww with 22" barrrel.
Win brass, Wolf 223 primer, coal of 2.345 using a 32g v-max.
A2230 at 26.9g=3,900 fps and shoots in the .3's consistently in this rifle.
A2230 at 27.2g=3,970 fps and shoots in the .4's in this rifle.
While this is safe for me in my rifle it might not be in yours. I generally shoot the 26.9 load when using A2230. As always work up slowly.

[Trent]

Are the Wolf primers corrosive? I don't think I've ever seen them on the shelves.

[DoubleUp]

No, wolf primers aren't corrosive. They have shot very well for me, and I've shot several thousand of them in both 204 and 223. Can't really tell any difference between them and Rem 7.5 BR which I usually shoot. Started using the wolf 223 when primers were scarce.

[clos]

Wow thanks Trent. I just started loading for the 204 so I will be back here more often and reporting my progress. I picked up some 10X and H4895 to start with. shooting a Rem VLS. just at paper for now. hopefully at Pdogs if i can find a place. Fairly close to Denver CO.

Carlos

All updated through page 8. If you open the spreadsheet and look on the bottom you will see a new sheet called Powder Comparison. Click there and you will see a bar graph depicting the powders used compared to each other.

I did away with the primer sorted link. Kind of seems unnecessary.

Organized by bullet weight
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2580584 ... m-19k?da=y

Organized by bullet brand
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2580585 ... m-19k?da=y

Organized by powder type
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2580586 ... m-19k?da=y
.
.
.
PDF format for those folks that don't have Microsoft Excel.
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2581701 ... m-12k?da=y

[Trent]

No problem Carlos. I'm still playing with powder as well. H335, H322 and RL-10x. I am considering going to Varget though since that is what I use in a couple other calibers and it works well with Colorado's rapid temperature changes.

I shoot pDogs up on the Pawnee Grasslands, but that season ends in 8 more days. After that I gotta start knocking on doors and gain some access onto private land.

[DoubleUp]

Trent, I have found Varget to be very accurate in my rifle, but somewhat lacking in velocity, usually about 200fps slower than most other powders used with 204 Ruger. Of course that might still be more than enough for what you need.

[Trent]

Trent, I have found Varget to be very accurate in my rifle, but somewhat lacking in velocity, usually about 200fps slower than most other powders used with 204 Ruger. Of course that might still be more than enough for what you need.

If I can stay around 3800-4000 fps with 32 grainers I'll be happy. I'm testing 10x and H322 as well so we'll see which powder wins. I've been very happy with Varget in my 7mm-08 silhouette rifle but I am not pushing for velocity there either. Just enough ummph to knock the targets down and also be accurate. No sense knocking the crap out of myself when shooting 100 rounds of 7-08 in a few hours time.

What velocity did you find was your sweet spot with Varget? What length barrel?

Cheers!

[DoubleUp]

28.8g Varget, 32 vmax, 3,700 fps, best 5 shot group at .191 moa worst at .538. Oal at 2.340. Savage 22" barrel.

[MDHogHunter]

This forum has been a huge resource for me in my 204 handloads. Thought I might could help return the favor and plug my favorite loads in for someone else to reference.

My Remington Model 7:
32gr Sierra SBK
Reloader 10x @ 26.1gr
Remington 7 1/2 BR Primer
2.250"

Shoots a consistent .5MOA or better if I do my part. A HUGE improvement from factory ammunition. Tried everything in this gun, and took over a year to find "the one". This gun is an excellent field carry gun for summer groundhogs.


Savage Model 10 Predator:
Nosler Brass (great stuff to work with, $$, but good)

This gun shoots everything, but I wanted to find something that I liked for the 35 Begers, and 39 SBK's. This gun was built for predator hunting, thus the reason I wanted to shoot 35's and 39's.

35gr Berger
Benchmark Powder @ 26.6gr
2.240"

39gr Sierra BK
Benchmark Powder @ 25.3gr
2.295"

Both loads shoot .2-.3 MOA in the Savage. Point of impact is amazing. 35 Begers are 1/2" high at 100yds, while the 39SBK are dead on. Makes it nice, I can switch up and not have to worry about where I am going to hit.

[DANJA]

The best load I've worked up is the 35 gr Berger with 28gr of IMR 4895 with an OAL of 2.24 using Federal Match 205 primers and Hornady brass. Never had an issue with blow back with these primers and I'm shooting .3 gr under max load, darn near compressed. I'm shooting and H-S Precision varmint rifle.

I found that the OAL makes a huge difference in accuracy with the 204. To save time and money I find it better to pick a powder that others have found to be accurate, pick a safe charge load based off the velocity you are trying to achieve and test you OALs' first. Once you find the best OAL then slowly increase your powder charge if desired.
Just my method but seems to work a lot more efficiently than messing with different powder charges first.