204Ruger

H335 & H4064.

And when will we see the rest of the story or question ?

I found some REL 7 locally from a guy that I'm trading some of my H335 to. I have a 35 Remington project going on at the moment and hoped to use the REL 7 on some lower velocity cast bullet loads, but am anxious to give it a try in my .204. I have a bunch of the 32 gr. VG, 32 & 40 gr. V-Max and 39 gr. BK to try. Wish me luck.

Anyone use Pro-Varmint with 39 or 40 gr. bullets?

From dinking with 204 powders since the cartridge came out in all four of my 204's, I've found that RL-7 is best suited for the smaller 221FB case....221FB, 20VT, 300BLK and the like. It is a bit too fast for the larger case capacity of the 204R.

My best performance with both 32's and the 39SBK has all been with RL-10X, Benchmark and similar burning rate powders. H335 is excellent in the 204 by the way.

Thank you Rick!!

H322 works very well with 40 grain Vmax in my Sav 110 Varminter. It meters very consistently through my Dillon 550.

I settled in on H335 with great results on my .204.

I have some fine and accurate loads in my 204r's with CFE 223.

Rick in Oregon wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:36 am From dinking with 204 powders since the cartridge came out in all four of my 204's, I've found that RL-7 is best suited for the smaller 221FB case....221FB, 20VT, 300BLK and the like. It is a bit too fast for the larger case capacity of the 204R.

My best performance with both 32's and the 39SBK has all been with RL-10X, Benchmark and similar burning rate powders. H335 is excellent in the 204 by the way.

Boy it's quiet in here.

Well I was thinking of revisiting my loading and trying different powders, but RL-10X is just what I have been using. I never really did any formal ladder testing, just fell into a load that worked, but I think I'll run a ladder just for good measure. I've not annealed in the past so I had fairly erratic SD, but that didn't seem to affect accuracy at 100yds.

I'm surprised to see CFE223 come up as a recommended since it's so much slower

I saw on a FB group some yo-yo was talking up his load of 27.3gr *208 pushing 39SBK's at 4200+ Those stupid FB groups have no moderation so I suggested the party that was asking come here to look.

I have had good luck with 8208XBR. Im not sure of the burn rate...

I've had good luck with Reloader 15, H4895, Varget, Benchmark, Reloader 10x, 8208XBR and many others in similar burn ranges.

I see a lot of reference to powders that have not been on the shelf or seen for 3-5 years. Not talking about finding NOS either, a gent found an 8lb of H4198 last week, happy for him but does the majority little good.

My question is do the VV powders fall into a fast to slow burn rate? I am seriously considering 133,135,140145,150 for some testing in things from 20 caliber to 6mm.

I have used 135 in years past and found it to act like a premium 4895. I was gifted a small dab of 120, used it and never persued it any further at the time.

I've used Vithavuori N-130 and N-133. Started using it because of rave reviews over on 6mmbr.com. I forgot to take into account that they were shooting 6mm BR or PPC. My rifle was 204R. Got much better results with Benchmark or Reloader 10X.

In regard to using VV powders, I found that N133 in the 223 using both 50gr and 40gr bullets for chuck and rat shooting gave me the smallest groups I've ever fired in those 223 rifles. One-hole groups in the sub .2 and .1 realm......fantastic!

Only caveat is the cost of the stuff at over $80/lb now, when I'm used to paying $25 or less pre Bidenomics. Not having a vast disposable income for such things, paying that inflated price for powder to shoot varmints is just not in the cards for me when a pound of H335 or the like can be had for much less, and bring almost the same results....almost.

We've got some very good choices in regard to available powders, but it pains me to pay the price for VV powders for what I do. I've still got a jug of N133 on the shelf for that time I want to impress myself (or my BIL ) with a target worthy of bragging rights in our small group. I wonder if the price of components will ever return to what we now fondly recall as "normal"?

Rick, I have not seen $80 lb VV powder. I just ordered some N150 and it was cheaper than a lot of the other powders. In years past I thought VV powders expensive, by today’s standard it is a bargain and seems more available. LT30 and 32 prices have went way up.

I am just pretty PO’d about the availability because of the “green” tree huggers. They are fine with it if they don’t see it on tiktok or YouTube. Do it over seas and pump out more crap than we ever did hear, but it’s not in my backyard it didn’t happen attitude. Sorry for the rant.

Dropping old stand bys, coming up with “new”, then dropping those a few years later.

My PCP air rifle looks better every day.