I was recently perusing the results from 1000 yard benchrest matches held this year at the North Carolina and Iowa 1000 yard benchrest assoc.facilities. Each club posts the results ofthe matcheson their respective websites. Looking at the results of these matches I found some interesting information (to me at least) regarding the powders that are being used at these matches.

For each relay of each match, I jotted down the powder brand and type that was used to produce the smallest group of that particular relay. Here are the results for the 230 relays I recorded.

Powder: # of winning groups % of winning grps

RL22 7532.6%
RL2559 25.7
H4831 41 17.8
H4350 9 3.9
RL19 83.5
VVN165 8 3.5
VARGET7 3.0
WMR 41.7
RL15 31.3
H1000 3 1.3
IMR4350 31.3
VVN560 3 1.3
RETUMBO 2 0.9
IMR40462 0.9
IMR4831 20.9
H380 1 0.4

I find this interesting because of the way Alliant powders seem to dominate these events. RL22 and RL25 account for almost 60% of the smallest groups recorded. Hodgdon is represented pretty well too, but is still a very distant second. I'm surprised that IMR powders produced so few winners. IMR7828, a favorite of mine, didn't show up at all!

I don't know what conclusions can be drawn from this limited bit of information.Most of us don't shoot at 1000 yards, but it would seem logical to assume that a powder capable of producing fine accuracy atthat distance would be a good choice for shorter distances too. Currently I don't have any Alliant powders on hand, but I think I'll be buying some soon, LOL.

I'd like to hear what others think of this data, especially those who might have experience shooting in these type matches.