Benchmark with vmax in 5.56

Hi all, hope you’re having a great day. Been reloading rifle since 1998 and have loaded 10s of thousands of vmax for 5.56/.223 but just started using benchmark in the last couple years and love the stuff! I only used vv n133 and vv n140 for vmax loads before the great component famine of 2020 but the supply ran dry in my area till 6 months ago when I got only 1 jug of n140. I did however score 24 lbs of benchmark and was told by a few old timers that it’s the next best thing for 50-60 gr loads. I tried 8208 xbr and it was good but in short supply as well so just went all in on benchmark with vmax and glad I did. Great velocity, great metering, clean, low sd, stick powder like I’m used to and it kinda has a different but good smell,lol! Been doing alot of load development lately as I finally have time to fine tune it and am impressed with the consistency and accuracy I get from my carbines, pistols, and precision rifles. I am using 1 fire LC 22 nato brass all trimmed to 1.748 and Ginex srp. The 60 gr loads started at 23.9 gr to 24.6 gr at 2.250. Noticed the sd and es numbers shrinking around the 24.2 mark and up so the next round of loads went from 24.2-24.6. I also tried over book max quite a bit after working with quickload and grt and had those suckers flying over 3000 fps and a 10 sd from a 16” carbine with no pressure signs except very faint swipe on case, but I do not recommend nor condone anyone trying this and should be approached with caution! Anyhow, finally dialed it in today at 24.4 gr at 2.250 with .3” accuracy at 100 yds and .7” at 200 yds with a 3x9 and a 1:7 basic carbine! 2900 fps avg/ es 20/ sd 7 and no pressure signs to speak of. This stuff rocks for vmax and can’t wait to try it in my 20” woa spr! In the 55 gr I started at 25-25.6 and same story, dialed it to 25.5 gr at 2.250 with .1”(single hole) accuracy at 100 and .5” at 200 yds. 3111 fps avg/20 es/ 7 sd with faint swipes but nothing to worry about. These numbers are 15 and 20 shot strings, now that’s consistent! Enough ranting from me, who else loves this stuff for vmax!

irishlad said:

I do. I use LC brass, 55gr VMAXs with 22.5 gr of Benchmark.

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Nice! I’ve been a vihtavori guy for a long time but benchmark is, in my opinion, just as good. I tested some 55 vmax along with the 60s and found 25.5gr at 2.250 got me even better accuracy than 60s. 3079 fps avg/ es 14/ sd 7.

kmw1954 said:

View attachment 1198553This is a practice target shot at 100 yds. the top two rows of targets were a test with the 60 gr. VMAX and TAC powder. The two center orange targets were sighters to readjust from 300yds shooting. The bottom row is my league target load and the large center was the very last 5 shots. Load is 60gr. VMAX over 24gr Benchmark seated to BTO of 1.886"

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This is the last league target I shot just last week. those are 4.75" circles shot at 300yds. Any shot into or touching the green is not scored.

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That’s great! I have a bunch of tac that I use for my 75 and 77 gr loads, might give it a shot with the 60s as well. I’ve tried it with lighter bullets before but the accuracy was mediocre and the es/sd was really high. To be fair, I didn’t dive to deep into load development because the vv n133 loads I have with lighter bullets are sub moa in all my guns but now that they’re so hard to get I might put a little more effort into it. Benchmark is everything I was looking for for vmax, really impressive how well it meters for a stick powder, just as good as my vv n320 9mm loads, less than .1 gr variance on drop charges. I almost always trickle rifle rounds but would be nice to rip through 556 progressively.

irishlad said:

I use the same load for both our ARs and Mini 14s. No doubt I could fine tune it for each gun but, we use em for plinking and jack rabbits 99.9% of the time.

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That’s what I’m going to do so I don’t have multiple loads for different guns. I used to have a mini 14, that thing was so much fun and was really accurate to 150-200 yds. I gave it to my brother and he still uses it. Irishlad, looks like your down in the southwest close to where I live in Arizona. Is benchmark as temp stable as hodgdon claims? My tac loads will show no pressure and expected velocity in the winter months and have swipes, extractor burrs, and flat primers in the summer months with the same load, want to get away from that in the summer months and still have great accuracy.

2ndtimer said:

I tested Benchmark beside two ball powders in a 26” Remington at 30 degrees F with a Nosler 40 gr Tipped Varmageddon bullet. (Above 70 degrees F, their velocities were quite comparable). I was amazed at how much better Benchmark held up at sub freezing temperatures.
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That’s really good to know, that’s a 40+ degree swing so that’s a indicator of great stability. We’ll see what the difference from 70 degrees to 110+ is this summer, I’ve found with other powders that cold swings have more effect than hot swings with stability. The loads I developed are right close to max and a few in 5.56 pressure and speed which are way beyond book is why I wonder how good benchmark is for stability. Hodgdons extreme powders are not all created equal in the stability department. With Tac and xterminator( I use both of those too) my cooler season loads go wild in the hot desert summers, my tac 62 gr fmj 5.56 mm load will go from 2930-2950fps at 70 degrees to 3080-3120 fps in summer and just hammers the brass with burrs, swipes and flat primers.