.20 Caliber varmint guns (OTHER than .204 Ruger)

.22LRGUY

.22LRGUY

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Hey guys~for some time, I've been curious about some of the lighter varmint calibers...and even though my trusty .223 with hand loads is a groundhog's worst nightmare if I get within 300 yards of it...I'm contemplating putting together a custom rifle in one of the lighter .20 cal. options. I did own/run a .204 Ruger for a season and it did the job admirably..but I keep hearing great things about 20 Vartarg. Some of the .19 Calhoon stuff is intriguing too, but bullet availability (locally) is better in .20 of course. Among the stuff I'm looking at are;

20 Vartarg
20 Tactical
19 Badger
19 Calhoon
19-223

If I were to build it, or have it built~a satin black, very heavy barrel, as short as possible without compromising speed...but otherwise, very bare-balls. Prefer Savage action/synthetic stock, but a 700 would suffice. No Cooper desire/budget. My .204 was a Cooper...and was too snazzy to be laying in dried up cow patties with. Thought it wouldn't bother me...it did though. :p

Anyhow...I'd really like to start a discussion here...hear from people shooting .20cal varmint guns, specifically, the non .204 types. Lower report, less powder consumption...all pretty tempting. No desire for a fancy-looking rifle..just a heavy one that gets the job done. Detachable mag preferred, but not essential. Let me know what you're running, please post photos if you have them...accuracy reports, what you use it for, etc. Looking for ideas!

Zero .17 cal. desire at this point...but I'm all ears if you have something compelling to say about it. :)

Cheers,
.22LRGUY
 
A couple informative sites:

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

http://www.tripledeuce.net/Cartridge_Comparisons_0SJN.php

I would love a 20 vartarg some day. I had a 204 got 39gr blitzkings sub 1/2" around 3900 fps. I was hoping to see my hits with an 8lb rifle, but the report and recoil was not much different than my 22-250, which makes up for the lower BC with 200 fps. I would recommend the vartag from everything I have read, due to case efficiency. 3/4 of the speed of a 204 using less than 2/3 of the powder.
 
20 vartarg does look like a blast, there are some good YouTube gopher shooting videos out there. It's on my someday list as well.
 
I would consider a 221 Rem Fireball over a 20 Cal any day. I am not a huge fan of reloading small calibers (17/20) 17 is even worse than 20 - I guess my fingers aren't dainty enough. :) If you are looking for economy and not speed, I would look to either a 221 Fireball or 22 Hornet. If you are looking for performance than the 20 Tactical is a nice way to go (223 necked down) I think Lapua even made brass for it. The 19/17 Centerfire scene doesn't float my baowt at all.
 
i went with a 20 practical and i love it!!! its simple to form, brass is almost free and it is devestating on small critters. so far my furthest kill was a gopher all the way out to 550 yards although keep in mind it took a few shots to get there. i just threw a barrel onto a sav model 12 and have no problems feeding from the detachable mag.
 
20 extreme

I owned the first Calhoon 19 Badger that was registered in Canada, It was on a CZ 527 Kevlar with a 24" barrel that started at just under 1" and tapered to 0.65" at the muzzle. I found this rifle and cartridge to be awesome in all respects and killed many gophers out to 450 yards with it. It is nearly impossible to find a CZ 527 Kevlar but the CZ 527 Varmint will take a #5 Kreiger barrel and wind up identical to the medium weight barrel that it comes with. With a small 20 running about 22 grains or less you will not need a heavier barrel and you will start out 2" shorter than a SA savage with the same length barrel. The shorter COAL of a small 20 will gain you some barrel length advantage as well.
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A few years back, when the 20 VT came out we were tempted but I felt that it had some disadvantages in that the 221 FB brass was not great,, needed to be formed and fire-formed, was too short to feed well from a 223/204R length magazine and was just a bit too small to run the 32 to 39/40 grain bullets effectively. So I decided to do my own 20 caliber based on the 222 Remington trimmed to 1.575" and formed to "New Brass Dimensions" except for the neck being formed to 20 cal. while being moved down to form a 30 degree shoulder. This leaves a good length neck at 0.210" that accommodates all bullets, with the bearing surface ahead of the neck/ shoulder junction, when seated near or too the lands. Even the long 55 Berger VLD does not protrude into the case, taking up powder space, and fits in the magazines. The chamber is cut to match the formed case with no forward movement of the shoulder and minimal expansion in diameter at the neck, shoulder and base datum. A fired case is just run back through the dies to its original formed dimensions so FL and Neck sizing are eliminated. I have some cases that have been fired 8 times, sized, reloaded and fired again that are still the same dimensions as new brass, at the base and shoulder, and did not require trimming. I can run the 32 grain bullets at 20 VT velocities or 204R velocities and the 39/40 grain bullets from under 3500 f/s to over 3700 fps. This is truly a versatile and efficient cartridge as it does this with 20.3- 22.2 grains of powder. The 20 EXTREME more than filled all of my design criteria and I will post pictures of some targets that show it is very accurate with many different loads.

The developer of the 20 Practical claims to be able to form brass from 223 brass with Redding Type S FL dies that require no trimming or fire-forming. I purchased a 20 Practical to do some testing with. I formed some new LC 223 brass that fits the minimum Saami chamber with less than 0.001" HS. and loaded it with a 40 grain V-max to pressures that just fire-formed the shoulder, about 0.0065", and showed good spring back at neck ,shoulder and base datum. I Neck Sized the fired and found it to be 0.015" over the trim length so they had to be trimmed by that much after one firing. "No Fireforming and No Trimming? I do not have a case fired in an AR but bet that it would have to be trimmed considerably more after being formed with a FL die! The developer shows a load with the 32 V - Max and 24.1 grains of H 4198 doing 4025 fps. I can do the same with 20.3 grains, as this target shows.
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I have both the 20vartarg, and the 20 tactical. For shooting ground squirrels, the vartarg is a better choice since it burns about 30% less powder, and it doesn't heat up as fast. Forming cases is as easy as running 221 fireball cases through a vartarg sizing die. The tactical offers superior ballistics, but it does heat up quicker. Factory Dakota(Lapua) brass is available for the tactical, so no case forming is required .
 
20 SCC aka 20-221 AI

Or Vartarg Ackley Impoved would be another way of explaining the caliber/brass.
I'm using Lapua brass but reamer was designed for the Nosler 221 brass - either one works.
I just received this new build from the gunsmith last week and just started getting some brass prepped.
Made some loads up today using H4198 & RE7, once fire formed will be using AA2200 as it supposed to be the ticket for this caliber.
Word has it, it will shoot 1/2 MOA while fire forming - will be checking it out in the PD rat patch this summer :d
 
There's a Facebook page called 204 ruger room. Check it out. Although I'm a huge 17 fan,
Im also a 20 cal lover. Soon enough I'll have a 204 and 20 tac again (hard times come sometimes....) but a guy on the page built him self a 20-250. Built off a savage 111 action. With heavier billets, he seemed to get great accuracy with great speed. Something similar to what a 22-243 performs or a 22 CHeetah. I'll do some more reading and get back to you guys!
 
I'd think .204 ruger in a proven super accurate heavier rifle. Tikka t3 varmint and .204 I hear is a real winner. You can Def spot your hits/misses and handload to find its sweet spot. But also can buy factory loads to reduce pita factor.
 
cath8r said:
I'd think .204 ruger in a proven super accurate heavier rifle. Tikka t3 varmint and .204 I hear is a real winner. You can Def spot your hits/misses and handload to find its sweet spot. But also can buy factory loads to reduce pita factor.
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The 204R has two shortcomings, the rifles are usually throated so short that you have to seat the bullet so deep that it gives up case capacity, and Hornady brass isn't all that good.
 
chevy said:
Or Vartarg Ackley Impoved would be another way of explaining the caliber/brass.
I'm using Lapua brass but reamer was designed for the Nosler 221 brass - either one works.
I just received this new build from the gunsmith last week and just started getting some brass prepped.
Made some loads up today using H4198 & RE7, once fire formed will be using AA2200 as it supposed to be the ticket for this caliber.
Word has it, it will shoot 1/2 MOA while fire forming - will be checking it out in the PD rat patch this summer :d
Click to expand...

It will be very interesting to see how you make out with this cartridge. There are 3 20 EXTREMES built on the same Rem XR 100 action that do very well 11 twist Pac Nor and Kreiger barrels as well as one with a 9 Twist Shillen SM. The guy with the Pac Nor is shooting one Hole groups with both the 32 V-Max and Z-Max with IMR 4198 at just under 20 grains and likely doing over 4000.
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The following post is by a guy named Brad who called himself wirelessguy on Saubier.com. He started his own websight, SCC calling himself CRT, and began enticing the Saubier members to join as well as running down others including myself and Hornady Products, including the Hornady Lead tech. As a result he was banned from Saubier but unfortunately not before sucking a few people in.

Postby CRT » Sun Nov 24, 2013 2:19 pm

For anyone that is interested in the New 20 SCC cartridge please read up on it at our website or above in the Small Caliber forum section.
This super efficient cartridge has propelled a 32 grain 20 caliber bullet in excess of 4,100 fps during testing with just 22 grains of powder. With 18.5 grains of powder it still produces a very respectable 3,900 fps.
This amazing little cartridge is perfect for the high volume varmint hunters looking for the best in cartridge efficiency without sacrificing speed and performance.

It is really interesting to note that his 20 SCC, with 40 degree improved shoulder, does not hold a lot more than the 20 VT in the 221 FB Remington Brass and not likely any more in the thicker Norma and Lapua brass. If you click on the link to Western Powders Load data,http://www.ramshot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/WesternLoadGuide1-2016_Web.pdf, you will find loads for the 20 VT with AA 2200. The 32 BK with a compressed load of 20.0 grains of AA 2200 gets a very respectable 3758 fps while developing 60,928 PSI in a case that is rated for about 52,000 PSI. At 22.0 grains the pressures would have to be in excess of 67,000PSI. All I can say is be careful and good luck.
 
lclund1946 said:
It will be very interesting to see how you make out with this cartridge. There are 3 20 EXTREMES built on the same Rem XR 100 action that do very well 11 twist Pac Nor and Kreiger barrels as well as one with a 9 Twist Shillen SM. The guy with the Pac Nor is shooting one Hole groups with both the 32 V-Max and Z-Max with IMR 4198 at just under 20 grains and likely doing over 4000.
Click to expand...

I have to say I am pretty happy with my 204 Ruger Match chamber in a 1 in 10 twist Pac-Nor barrel. Shoots the 50 gr Berger (sadly no longer available) very well, but also the other, lighter weight bullets.
 
stubblejumper: "The 204R has two shortcomings, the rifles are usually throated so short that you have to seat the bullet so deep that it gives up case capacity"

My experience with two .204 R is just the opposite. They were throated so long that a 39 gr Sierra BK would fall out of the case to reach the lands. One was a M700 ADL and the other a Cooper. The M700 got re-barreled with a 1 in 11 PacNor as it shot very poorly with the Remington barrel. The Cooper is very accurate. In both rifles a OAL of about 2.39" produced the best accuracy, but was too long to feed more than one round from the magazine without modification.
 
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