SmallCaliberCentral

Well I took out my first loads of 204 to the range. A little wind, but not much. I know these are not the best handloads man can achieve. I know the Dillon powder dispenser is crap. I know the way I shot them is not the most accurate way possible. I know that my Protektor bags on are their way from Midway via UPS and I have so little patience I would be measured in the negative numbers if you could measure that with a number. I know that I will no doubt be at it again when I get those bags and can build my front rest out of an old scissor jack. I know I haven't measured my groups. I don't plan on it either. I have shot bug eyes with this rifle from a more stable setup, and with factory ammo, so I know what it can achieve.

Anyhow...

28 grains of BLC2
40 grain V-Max
Once fired factory Hornady brass, FL sized

The first target in the upper left is factory 32 grain V-Max. My rifle when shot on a stable rest has consistently shot that stuff at .25"-.5" groups. Why are they so open? Maybe they were my first three shots and I wasn't on my game. Maybe it was getting used to the sandbags. Who knows. But they were supposed to be a baseline to offset the fact I am shooting off a sandbag. I should have shot those last two shots first. They are within spec, I just forgot what they were. But they were loaded at almost the lands...in fact, I think one was .002 from the lands. The other .004. But I mixed them up so I can't say which is which, other than we can see the .004 grouping was terrible, so maybe the .002 was close enough to re-stablize, maybe it was just luck. Beats me.

Anyone read all that?

In conclusion, I think I shot fairly well off the sandbags. I think that if I had a better powder dispenser I would be even better off. But when I get my new rest made I think I am going to be in for a treat.

I'll pass on what I learned from Rob at Cooper and my personal experience. Their .20 cal guns are built around the 32 gr bullet. My .204 Mdl 21 wouldn't shoot the 32 or 40 gr v-max's well at all (factory or reloads), should have called Rob first. He suggested Benchmark and my gun really likes it, but with 32 gr Blitzkings! He gave me their oal, which I will have to check my book to pass on to you. Now my gun shoots in the .2's and .3's, maybe better if it weren't for the shooter. I'm sure there are other combos that work well, but I quit looking. If you need that oal, I'll post later.

Yes, definitely.

Is Benchmark an extruded powder? I really need to invest in a BR-30. Dillon has an adapter for using 3rd party powder dispensers. I would go single stage, but I am more interested in the most accuracy I can get from a progressive (assuming I don't go over .5MOA) since I want fairly high volume from this...well, more volume than I care to load via single stage. But I am still interested in seeing what my rifle is capable of.

Benchmark IS extruded, but they are very small, almost ballpowder sized, and it meters almost as well, though not as well thru a Dillon measure. Still, it's pretty darned good stuff, and I use a lot of it.

So what do you mean by better powder dispenser? Do you not weigh all your charges?

Per Rob, oal at 2.235 with 32 gr bullet. Works great for me. My old Dillon 450 powder disp is very accurate with pistol powders, never tried loading rifle rounds with it. I use a RCBS chargemaster, for my loads. My load is 27.3 grs of Benchmark, not max, but start lower and work up!