yes to all of your questions....

it meters just as well as H335. If you are happy with H335 I see no reason to change. Both powders are nearly identical and around the same price. I was shooting with Varget and surplus powder so it was a no brainer for me to try it out.

The things I like about it is the carbon just seems to wipe off with a rag. No scrubbing of the bolt or internals is necessary. Another thing is it doesn't seem to work my brass as hard to achieve the same velocity. When resizing I use a small base X-Die and there really isn't much more than neck sizing being done with a slight push back of the shoulder. When I was shooting Varget and surplus the casings required more sizing. I don't know why this is just an observation over the last 1000 rounds I've loaded up.

And yes the Hornady 55gr sp I picked up at Wideners.com for about $80/1000. They shoot great and to the same point of aim as the 55gr FMJBT but are a flat base bullet so you have to chamfer the case mouths so you don't damage the bullet. I normally shoot the Hornady 55gr FMJBT but I found when shooting regularly at steel the soft points wouldn't beat it up as bad. If you are hunting I would recomend the soft points over the FMJ for a cheap accurate bullet....but remember there are better hunting bullets in the same weight but you will pay 2-3X as much for them.