.204 or .22-250

[dorg]

I have played with most of the calibres mentions, I have found 22,250 hits alot harder but the extra 750 fps over a 223 will account for that, this means less runners if bullet placement is abit off. 20 tac is quieter, but you will get alot more runners and these take time to find. A 22br is a very good round basicly 22,250 performce with 223 noise and recoil, but can be a pig to get to feed, single shot actions when out foxing I think is a big no no, numb fingers and gloves don't help. Having shot alot of foxes and seen alot shot with various calibres stick to a 22 cal for the extra impact energy, foxes will drop on the spot usually and if noise is a problem go for a 222.

[247sniper]

How many .20 cals do you know with a 1 in 9 twist barrel?

You could equally argue the fact for the .224 family of bullets put a tight twist on a .22-250 and use 75gn A max or heavier and see how far behind your .20 cal falls then!

 

I have owned a.20 TAC with a 1 in 9 twist barrel and never found any advantage of the heavier bullets.

A bit of swings and round abouts, the 40gn V max was accurate and fast the heavier bullets were down on velocity.

Nothing wrong with the rifle but sold it to Gunnery on here a and he is now doing great things with it.

 

Personally me I'll stick with my .22-250 AI pushing 52 grain bullets at 4100 fps and the option not that I've bothered to shoot high BC heavies if needed.

Just my 2 cents

Dave

 

 

Hi Dave,

 

A .22-250 with a fast twist using 75 A-Max's was something that really interested me. If you do a search on here you should find a trend I started about that particular set up. Decent velocities with high BC bullets interested me that much I considered getting one.

 

I think from memory there were several comments made about barrel life, and the figure off around 1200 -1500 shots out of a tube was calculated. This put me straight off!

 

I came to the conclusion and asked myself the question, what do I shoot and how far and out to 500 yards the the .20s are hard to beat, in terms of point and shoot, good wind bucking abilities compared to most similar cartridges,low recoil and muzzle blast and low running costs, The .20 are just all that.

 

If I wished to shoot regularly between say 600 and a 1000 yards i would have gone with a a 6.5x47 or a .260 Rem or the likes as again these can produce good velocities with really high BC bullets. I would not opt for any .20 cal, nor a fast twist .223, nor a fast twist .22-250 or a .22BR, these calibers arnt best suited to this.

 

Keeping on topic the OP has a .22-250 already and states reason to change it. He asked the question "Ive been hearing good things about the 204. Would this be as good as the .22-250 dropping foxes etc at 300 yards ish."?

 

The answer is simply yes, Yes they may be a little lower on Muzzle Energy but that is obvious why, charlie or any other vermin wont be able to tell the difference, but out to the required OP's distance requirements, ballisticly in terms of flat shooting and windage they will be as good if not probably better then his current set up (Would he or anyone be able to notice the difference in the field....probably not) , even if it was a fast twist .22's and high BC A'Max's.

 

 

Steve.

[6.5shooter]

You still havent answered my question Steve.

 

How many foxes have you shot on the isle of man with youre .20?

 

The op asked about a rifle for foxing.

[6mmBR]

Your right out to 300 yards there's nothing to choose between .17/20/22

Put the shot in the right place and dead is dead!

I'm sure Charlie can't tell the extra 2-300 ft/lbs lol

I've messed around with all sorts of calibers and I know this is not strictly on the OPs subject, but 6mm's make the best all round sense.

A huge array of bullets to choose from 55-115 grains, they all have far superior BCs than any .20/22 bar specialist Berger 80/90 grain target bullets. I use as my go to gun now my 6BR shoots from 100-1000 yards with no problems! It has a barrel life of 3-4000 rounds and is blisteringly accurate. I took it to the States shooting prairie dogs and shot some 600 rounds in 2 days with kills from 100-800 yards. The 6.5's are ok but bullet choice is better in the 6's and to be honest if I was really going long range all the time I would skip from a 6mm straight to a 7mm and opt for a .284 shooting 162 Amax. The 6.5 is a bit of a tweener and I get ready to duck at that comment lol but my 6mms kick butt quite frequently at 600 yard F class matches. Both do struggle to compete with 7mm's ;-)

Cheers

Dave

[247sniper]

You still havent answered my question Steve.

 

How many foxes have you shot on the isle of man with youre .20?

 

The op asked about a rifle for foxing.

None on the isle of Man mate as we don't have any now, but there is a boat that travel's to the UK twice a day and I can travel to the UK as often as I like to friends who have plenty of foxes on their land.

 

 

Steve.

[6.5shooter]

None on the isle of Man mate as we don't have any now, but there is a boat that travel's to the UK twice a day and I can travel to the UK as often as I like to friends who have plenty of foxes on their land.

 

 

Steve.

 

 

Thought as much

[247sniper]

Thought as much

Shot plenty in the UK with it though!

 

Now if you can quit with the personal attacks please your making yourself look a clown!

 

Cheers

 

Steve.

[gaz6br]

2010= 207 foxes

2011=212 foxes

2012=194 foxes

2013=still going up

[247sniper]

2010= 207 foxes

2011=212 foxes

2012=194 foxes

2013=still going up

Good going that mate well done. Shame we dont have foxes here.

 

 

But we are allowed handguns lol ;-)

[6.5shooter]

Shot plenty in the UK with it though!

 

Now if you can quit with the personal attacks please your making yourself look a clown!

 

Cheers

 

Steve.

 

 

No personal attacks lad just proving my point.

[gaz6br]

Lol my 223 ackley has killed a lot but my old 222 I had for 7 years killed a lot as well, anything will do the job if put in the right hands

[6mmBR]

Guys both do the job perfectly well

I have shot hundreds of foxes with both a .20TAC and a .22-250AI

Most shots at night under a lamp are normally under 120 yards and no fox can tell the difference.

Personally shooting foxes at 300 yards under a lamp is dodgy to say the least. It's difficult to see the target clearly under lamp light and with skill you should be able to get them in much closer than that.

 

So to answer the OPs question, yes your .22-250 is ideal for the job and if you went to the expense of changing it to a .20 then you probably wouldn't notice the difference in performance. What you may notice is that the .20's moderate slightly better as they burn some 10-15 grains less powder.

 

So Xmas spirit everyone and play nicely as we all have our opinions we fiercely guard lol

Have a good one everyone

Dave

[247sniper]

No personal attacks lad just proving my point.

That we dont have fox on the IOM, whats that prove. We dont have large mouth bass either but I fish for them in Florida several times a year! Thats the beauty of traveling and transport.

 

 

Steve

[247sniper]

Guys both do the job perfectly well

I have shot hundreds of foxes with both a .20TAC and a .22-250AI

Most shots at night under a lamp are normally under 120 yards and no fox can tell the difference.

Personally shooting foxes at 300 yards under a lamp is dodgy to say the least. It's difficult to see the target clearly under lamp light and with skill you should be able to get them in much closer than that.

 

So to answer the OPs question, yes your .22-250 is ideal for the job and if you went to the expense of changing it to a .20 then you probably wouldn't notice the difference in performance. What you may notice is that the .20's moderate slightly better as they burn some 10-15 grains less powder.

 

So Xmas spirit everyone and play nicely as we all have our opinions we fiercely guard lol

Have a good one everyone

Dave

True true Dave just like I said earlier merry Christmas to all

 

 

Steve

[gaz6br]

Guys both do the job perfectly well

I have shot hundreds of foxes with both a .20TAC and a .22-250AI

Most shots at night under a lamp are normally under 120 yards and no fox can tell the difference.

Personally shooting foxes at 300 yards under a lamp is dodgy to say the least. It's difficult to see the target clearly under lamp light and with skill you should be able to get them in much closer than that.

 

So to answer the OPs question, yes your .22-250 is ideal for the job and if you went to the expense of changing it to a .20 then you probably wouldn't notice the difference in performance. What you may notice is that the .20's moderate slightly better as they burn some 10-15 grains less powder.

 

So Xmas spirit everyone and play nicely as we all have our opinions we fiercely guard lol

Have a good one everyone

Dave

What lamp are you using? And scope? Personally if we shoot a fox under 150 yards that's close I shot 5 the other week and the closest was 234 yards and the longest was 276 yards, only time we get foxes close is in the stubble and the odd soft one.

 

If you can't see a fox clearly at 300 yards your using the wrong set up or it may just be my young eyes I had one weeks ago with my 6br 312 yards sat on the side of a bank and I could see it fine

[6.5shooter]

That we dont have fox on the IOM, whats that prove. We dont have large mouth bass either but I fish for them in Florida several times a year! Thats the beauty of traveling and transport.

 

 

Steve

 

My point was,

The op was asking regarding a cal for foxing. In my humble opinion a .22 cal hits harder, penetrates deeper, carries more energy downrange than a .20.

You are trying to say the .20 is outright better but its not, it certainly has a place. Short range Crows, rabbits and a bit of foxing yes it is a great cal but as for a dedicated foxing round the 22 just does it better.

Dont get me wrong id love a 20 for crows but I choose 22 because I do more foxing with it.

 

As for youre perception of personal attacks, definatly not! I was simply proving a point that you dont shoot foxes all the time and youre .20 does youre job just fine.

As I said in my previous post 'Horses for courses'

You choose .20 and I choose .22 because as I said in my opinion the .22 is a better fox stopper than a .20 and thats the question the op asked.

[6mmBR]

What lamp are you using? And scope? Personally if we shoot a fox under 150 yards that's close I shot 5 the other week and the closest was 234 yards and the longest was 276 yards, only time we get foxes close is in the stubble and the odd soft one.

If you can't see a fox clearly at 300 yards your using the wrong set up or it may just be my young eyes I had one weeks ago with my 6br 312 yards sat on the side of a bank and I could see it fine

My optics are fine thanks ;-) just I like the skill of getting them up close and personal;-) and don't educate them :-) you seldom have to risk a 300 yard shot then.

As other parts of this post says each to there own buddy and vive la differance

Merry Xmas

Dave

[matchking]

Just buy a SWIFT lol. I had a 20br for a bit but found the 20's didn't kill em as well as the bigger 22's. I have used .20br/.223/.22.250/.22.250 AI/.220/6mm AI. Bigger is always better. A good big un will always beat a good little un. We lamp foxes on several estates where shots range from about 100-300 yards i found i had a few squirmers with the 20. The old swifty seems to roll over dead as a nit every time. I also shoot a 22.250 with 75gr A max. That flattens um. Shoot what your happy with. Before you buy a .204 ring a few dealers and see whats available in .204 or .22.250 also ask about ammo and reloading componants.

Cheers Sean

[Jamie]

Just thought I'd chip in.... After looking for something "flat" and fast, I ended up buying a .204 Ruger.

I then found that factory ammo was very expensive! My local RFD prices started at £1.00 a shot, to £1.68 per shot !!

I ended up getting into reloading. Which I'm glad I did, as I really enjoy all aspects of reloading for both my .204R and .223 Rem.

atb

Jamie

[soother223]

What lamp are you using? And scope? Personally if we shoot a fox under 150 yards that's close I shot 5 the other week and the closest was 234 yards and the longest was 276 yards, only time we get foxes close is in the stubble and the odd soft one.

If you can't see a fox clearly at 300 yards your using the wrong set up or it may just be my young eyes I had one weeks ago with my 6br 312 yards sat on the side of a bank and I could see it fine

 

interested to know your set up..

lamp wise.

[gaz6br]

What lamp are you using? And scope? Personally if we shoot a fox under 150 yards that's close I shot 5 the other week and the closest was 234 yards and the longest was 276 yards, only time we get foxes close is in the stubble and the odd soft one.

 

If you can't see a fox clearly at 300 yards your using the wrong set up or it may just be my young eyes I had one weeks ago with my 6br 312 yards sat on the side of a bank and I could see it fine

 

interested to know your set up..

lamp wise.

 

Light force 140 + 170 + 240 we use 140 with red filter for rabbits and spotting then 170 orange filter most the time for foxes but good way off 240 white light

[triple2]

Thanks for all your help and input.

I am edging towards the .204 as it appears the more versatile round.

[Alycidon]

I have owned a 22.250 in the past, for the last 5 years 95% of my foxes have been taken with a heavy (14lb) 20BR 1 in 9 twist.

 

I find the 20 much sweeter to shoot, less powder, see the impact without a mod, sub 250 yards my bullet of choice is the Sierra 39gr Blitzking, I have taken foxes front on at this distance and slightly further, dead as ticks, every time except one.

 

204 in a lightish rifle using the 39gr SBKs will do all you want out to 300 yards, no need to load it hot either, 3500 is more than enough.

 

On the lamp issue I have found as I get older my eyesight is getting worse. I use a 240 on the roof and a 170 on the scope, usually with green and amber lenses respectively. I do now struggle to get a positive quarry id at night at much over 250 yards, less when its a bit misty. As a consequence these days most of my lamped foxes are 80-140 yards.

 

A

[Alycidon]

.

 

Just buy a SWIFT lol. I had a 20br for a bit but found the 20's didn't kill em as well as the bigger 22's. I have used .20br/.223/.22.250/.22.250 AI/.220/6mm AI. Bigger is always better. A good big un will always beat a good little un. We lamp foxes on several estates where shots range from about 100-300 yards i found i had a few squirmers with the 20. The old swifty seems to roll over dead as a nit every time. I also shoot a 22.250 with 75gr A max. That flattens um. Shoot what your happy with. Before you buy a .204 ring a few dealers and see whats available in .204 or .22.250 also ask about ammo and reloading componants.

Cheers Sean

 

 

A 6mm does have more authority than a 20 cal agreed but I have only ever had one fox move when hit with the 20, that was my fault, cold night, front on shot, bullet hit low in the front chest, massive blood loss but charlie went 100 yards before keeling over. That was a 50gr Berger Match bullet.

 

 

 

A

[gunner]

Hi tripple , if it were me , like PC / (mr 690) id go 22BR as its one of THOSE calibers ! Better bullet availability than the 20s too