.204 ruger

[Guest Jonny]

Hi,

 

I've been put on to this site,

 

What do you think to the .204 ruger calibre, no one seems to know much about them?

 

Thinking of investing in one.

 

Views please.

[craigyboy]

I have one and like it, it seems to be getting more popular now. I have shot probably close to 900 rounds down my cooper now and shot countless long range rabbits, crows foxes etc (though havent been getting much time in lately). I have found with the right bullet it is a great 300 yard rifle for foxes, I dont think I would go past 300 yards for foxes it seems a sensible distance, for rabbits and crows etc with the heavier bullets 450 yards would be about max (bear in mind I am basing this on my own abilities) I havent shot game past 320 yards with this cartridge but down on the range I can make reliable and repeatable kill zone hits out to 450 yards.

 

At the minute there seems to be a shortage of factory ammo so you may have to relaod for it. The cartridge seem to be quite easy to load and I have been able to get good half inch loads with most combinations, I have tried Alliant R10X, Vhit 135, H BL-C (2), H322, with 39g blitzkings, 32g v-max, 35g berger and 40g berger. The most accurate bullet in my rifle was the 35g berger but as a fox bullet I didnt like it, it just didnt seem to drop the foxes well it still killed them but they kicked a bit. The 39g bliztking was good on foxes dropped them on the spot but always exited and didnt do much internal damage. The best bullet by far was the 32g v-max, never exited no mess minimal entry wound and the hydrostatic shock turned the insides of a fox to water, a very efficent bullet, also it explodes crows like you wouldnt believe. For velocity you would need to use Vhit or alliant powders, hodgdons powders just dont seem to reach high velocities though accuracy is good. Also good brass is hard to get remington is far better than winchester and hornady is somewhere in between. Get remi brass if you can.

 

Trajectory is not quite as flat as some of the adverts make out, I found with a hot load in the 35g berger (4000 fps), drop at 200 yards from a 100 yard zero was 2 inches, and at 300 yards was 11 inches. Though the 35g berger was the worst for drop even worse than the 39g blitzking for some reason. The 32g v-max is much better with only a 1 inch at 200 yards and 8 inches at 300 yards (this is a resonably mild load). It does seem very good in the wind, I have connected at 300 yards with a 10mph wind blowing across easy enough.

 

Basically a good round if you want something different than a .223 and dont mind reloading, dont expect mircles though It doesnt really offer much over the .223 just a bit flatter and a little less wind sensitive. I love mine it does everything I ask from it, saying that I am having my rifle re barreled in 20 tactical, very similar just a bit less powder and velocity +I was able to get some good laupa brass. The only reason I am having a new barrel is that I feel I have reached the accuracy potential for this rifle and wanted some more and thought a pac-nor barrel would be the way to go, I may as well try something different while I am at it.

[325WSM]

Email me at mry716@hotmail.com and I will send you enough info to keep you busy for at least a fortnight.

 

If you dont have broadband (or if you prefer) send me your address and I will put it on a DVD and post it to you as it is quite a few MB

M

[Alycidon]

It really depends what you want the rifle to do and how you intend to use it. Assuming you want a medium weight varmint rig for crows, rabbit foxes etc out to about 300 yards then it will be fine. It also depends on if you reload or are prepared to set up and learn how to reload. If so teh the world really is your oyster with all sorts of 20s about but if sticking to factory ammo the 204 is Ok.

 

To start with have a look at 6BR

 

http://www.6mmbr.com/20Caliber.html

 

and Saubier

http://www.saubier.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1

 

there are some other links here but I have not looked closely at them,

 

http://www.smallcaliber.com/links.htm

 

The downside for the .204 is that there is currently no quality brass (Lapua etc) for reloading. This will not worry you if you are planning to stick to factory ammo but if you are reloading maybe TAC20 (.223 case necked down to .20 as opposed to the .222 Magnum in the 204) would be a better bet. Performance as you will see from the 6BR link above is very similar but in factory rifles you may be limited to Cooper. You will note that Craigyboy is now converting to TAC20 for exactly this reason. The cheapest way to do a TAC20 would be buy a shot out .223 and rebarrel it, probably get the rifle and the rebarrel job for 1K. Coopers model 21 kick off at about £1150 new for the synthetic, a better bet probably for the money. Warrentied .50 moa ( 1/2" at 100 yards) but should shoot in the .3s.

 

http://cooperfirearms.com/actions.html

 

 

http://www.foxfirearmsuk.com/mainpagefront.htm

 

Finally a little bedtime reading,

 

http://www.woodchuckden.com/catalog/catalog.pdf

 

I have done a lot of work on 20s over the last few months as I am looking to do a .20BR myself. Please shout if you want any more help.

 

A

[325WSM]

It seems as if you can now get Norma

 

http://www.airgunbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=218714

 

Although I found no problems whatsoever with Hornady

[SCW22]

You can also get Nosler brass.

 

Steve

[Guest rogern]

Agree with everything said about the .204.

I bought a Howa 1500 last July, after 'running' it in the accuracy is superb, regular 300 yard fox is no problem, I have zerod mine at 1.50 inches high at 100 yards and have shot 2 foxes at 300, both witnessed, anything under that range just hold dead on.

 

I have only used 32 grn Vmax reloads at the mo, Reloading solutions in Oxford have Remi brass & most of the other kiit for reloading, if you dont want to reload then the Hornady factory ammo 32 grn performs real well.