prm, You've done quite a bit of testing of various components with the 338 Fed now, so you must have formed some useful conclusions by now, as have I. Unfortunately, local availability of components often clouds the water! My favoured load lately arrived at is a 200g Woodleigh with 44 g Benchrest 2 and Fed 210m primers in Fed 338 Fed cases. The virtue of this load is that the powder just nicely fills the case up to mid-shoulder making seating the flat-base bullet a soda . . only slightly compressed. It produces 2690 f/s in my 22" barrel and the bullet opens-up reliably but also retains weight and penetrates well enough. However, I am almost out of Benchmark 2 and have been unable to get more at the LGS and have been told that it ( and a couple of other ADI powders ) is being replaced by Benchmark 8208 XBR which would seem to have some desirable characteristics . I have bought a kilo and have loaded-up some test rounds, but haven't had a chance to get to the range yet. It would seem that it fills the case a tad more than the BM2 and is thus, more compressed ( something you must find with the longer 200g AB?). It is interesting that your top loads in the Lapua cases produced slightly less velocity despite .5 grain more powder! Do they have greater volume? How did you find potential for accuracy with the 8208 compared to some of the other powders you have tried, given that velocities produced seem pretty close? I found the 200 NAB shot well and worked predictably well on game, but have swapped over to the Woodleigh due to supply issues and cost ($28.00 a box more here!) Looking forward to further progress reports, and will post my findings in the near future. Cheers, John
