I always had the best luck with 35 grn bergers, hornady brass, federal 205m primers, and varget powder. It would shoot 1/2 moa or better at 200 yds all day. Never had much luck with the 39s being consistent.
What load you use. Powder and charge,bullet,brass,primer
2brothers641, I use varget as well...29.x gr and 39SBK but i am having trouble getting better than .4 or so at 100. So that's why i was asking for other peoples load data. This is an edit(I get .4s or so and thats 5 shot groups)
I use Win case 205 m primer 39g sierra and started With 23.5g RELOADER 10X and work load up using proper safety measures This combo shoots .3moa in my bone stock XR100
I have two 204 rifles, a CZ varmint kevlar and a PacNor super match 1 in 9 twist on a Remington action.
My load is the same for both:
27.8 Hodgdon Benchmark
32 Hornady VMAX
CCI BR4 primer
Remington brass
Hodgdon max is 28 gr. I dropped a couple tenths as I load them with a 550 Dillon. They are a laser in the Remington, often shooting hi .1" and low.2" at 100 yds (5shot). In the CZ it is usually a 1/2 minute shooter. I am off the lands at least 20 thou. It is a flat shooting prairie dog killer.
27.5 grains of varget with the 35 grn berger. I have shot a couple of hellish groups with other bullets, 39 sierra, 32 hornady, but they were not consistent enough for me. I will have to admit, berger makes about the best target bullets
As varminteruk said the 204 is fussy. 39 work better for me but 35 bergers don't(I love bergers though) IYHO would the best path to improvement be with different powders?
If you are going to mass produce then I have found that 28.0 grs of W748 works great in a Dillon. W760 also shoots very well but is 3-400 FPS slower.
Sierra 39gr or 40gr VMAX
28.0 gr W748
Fed 205m or Rem 71/2 primer
Win or Rem brass.
OCL 2.260" so it will run through AR Mags in a White Oak .204 upper.
Other powders to consider - Benchmark for 32gr bullets, Varget and R-15 work well for the 40gr bullets.
Note after some unscientific studies done on 1,000's of dogs last year the consensus was that the 40gr bullets have better overall terminal ballistics.
I shoot 32 grn bullets, I figure if I need heavier bullets I'd use my 223.
When I first got mine I tried the Accuracy Load listed in the Sierra Reloading manuel for the 32 grain pill. Didn't work too well using match primers and I went to CCI SP standard primers and now its outstanding.