SmallCaliberCentral

I'm a novice to reloading and would like some advice on what powders others have been successful with in their .204's. Has anyone reloaded the 26 gr barnes varmint grenades? I have been using H335 and H322 with 32 gr noslers and BL-C(2) with 35 gr bergers.

Welcome to the 204um. As I am sure you are aware every rifle will make it's own choice as to the load it prefers. I am shooting a stock Savage VLP using 26. Grains of Benchmark and 35 Grain Bergers. This is my most accurate load. I can stay in the .4s and have the occasional .3 and .2 groups. I had originally loaded to 26.6 which should be book max for this combination however, I was losing a little accuracey and only gaining 50 -60 fps. I am now at 3655 and at 26.6 I was at 3705. Not worth the extra speed for the loss. IMO of course. There is a section in the reloading section where you can look over various favorite loads. This one works for me and may work for you. Good Luck

My two favorites Win 748 and Benchmark.
Tried BM with the 26's. Burned a little clean which gave me copper at hyper velocitys.
Switched to N-133 and jammed em. Shot pretty well at 100yds.
Never made much of an attempt to tweak them in.

Try h4895.

I've had good luck using imr4064 with my Savage 25.

I would suggest Benchmark with the Grenades and H4895 for the 39gr Sierra Blitzkings. I have such good success with the Sierras, I have not played with the 32gr bullets as I like BC of the heavier 39s. I tried the 26gr Grenades on paper, but not on critters. I am not getting the accuracy out of the Grenades on my rifle.

Here's a couple of my favorite's.....35gr. Berger with 28.0grs. of H4895 and 7 1/2 primer in WW cases O.A.L. 2.260" and for the 40gr. Berger with 25.1grs. of RL-10X with 7 1/2 primer in WW cases O.A.L. 2.260" (different Comp. micrometer setting because of the slight difference in ogive shape).......Both bullets like to jump (love them Bergers) and dont want to be close to the lands. Both loads will shoot 3 shot clover-leaf groups (all holes touching) under .25" at 100yards and 5 shot groups under 3/8" in my Savage 12 VLP (internal magazine). The (lots of work) Winchester cases are (Forester) outside neck turned, primer pockets uniformed, flash-holes de-burred, inside/outside chamfered necks, sorted into lots of 20 identical weights then loaded with Redding Competition bushing dies. You could sort the bullets for identical dimensions and weights but this isn't bench rest now is it?

BOGGAN wrote:I'm a novice to reloading and would like some advice on what powders others have been successful with in their .204's. Has anyone reloaded the 26 gr barnes varmint grenades? I have been using H335 and H322 with 32 gr noslers and BL-C(2) with 35 gr bergers.

Here's some info on the grenades from a previous thread.
http://www.204ruger.com/forum/viewtopic ... ade#p43310

I have used them. They are accurate in both of my rigs and I still have alot of them to use up (about 10 boxes) but once they are done I probably won't use them anymore. They have a lousy BC and at 200 yds, the 39 gr BK catches up to it and royally kicks its butt in trajectory, wind drift, and energy. They are awesome out to about 250 yds and then they just run out of steam.

Thanks. Hope to get these grenades working before the critters wake up from their
winter sleep.

Reloader 15 & H4895 work very well for me in 2 rifles.

H4895 for 39 and 40 grain bullets; Accurate 2460 works well with 32 gr Sierras.