204 ruger to 20 vartarg, can you do it?

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gobigorgohome

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So, here's the idea. I take my factory CZ 527 varmint in 204 ruger, have the barrel set back a few turns and have he chamber cut to a 20 vartarg, swap my mags for 221 fireball mags and I should be good to go! Has anyone ever thighht of this or tried this? Or know a smith that has before? I'm just not a fan of the 204 ruger anymore, but the 20 vartarg seems very interesting.....
 
You might want to look a making your CZ into a 20 Extreme, great wildcat design by an Alberta boy. My Cz 204 is at the gunsmith's now to be converted to a 20 extreme..
20 extreme is a 222 case slightly shortened and with some more shoulders, very accurate with a tremendous variety of powers is one of the things I really like about it using about 20gr of powder.
 
I have a 20vartarg myself, and I find it more suitable than my 20 Tactical for high volume shooting as in shooting ground squirrels. The 20 extreme is an option, but the 20 vartarg is much more popular, resulting in a much better selection of dies being available. I prefer the Reddiing neck bushing dies, and they are available for the 20 vartarg. As well, 20 vartarg cases are among the simplest wildcat cases to make, you just run them through a 20vartarg full length die to neck them down, with no other work being required. The 20vartarg turbo is yet another option, but once again, it isn't very popular, so the selection of dies is also very limited. As far as rifles go, used Coopers in 20vartarg often appear in the EE for reasonable prices, but you could also rebarrel a 221fb to 20vt, and then you get to choose the rate of twist and contour. My own 20vt is a single shot Cooper, and when I was working up loads using the 32gr Blitzking, five groups of three shots averaged .265" at 100 yards. I would have used five shot groups, but at the time 32gr Blitzkings were difficult to source. As soon as they became available, I immediately purchased a few 500 boxes of the 32gr and 39gr Blitzkings, as they have proven to be more accurate than the v-max in my rifles.
 
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Fassteel said:
You might want to look a making your CZ into a 20 Extreme, great wildcat design by an Alberta boy. My Cz 204 is at the gunsmith's now to be converted to a 20 extreme..
20 extreme is a 222 case slightly shortened and with some more shoulders, very accurate with a tremendous variety of powers is one of the things I really like about it using about 20gr of powder.
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Another vote for the 20 Extreme here. Awesome cartridge, dies are readily available, no fire forming needed, just shorten the case a bit and run it through the FL die adjusted to fit your chamber - load and go shoot. As Fassteel said it uses quite a bit less powder than a lot of the other comparable 20's which is a good thing in my opinion, more loads per pound of powder.
 
gobigorgohome said:
So, here's the idea. I take my factory CZ 527 varmint in 204 ruger, have the barrel set back a few turns and have he chamber cut to a 20 vartarg, swap my mags for 221 fireball mags and I should be good to go! Has anyone ever thighht of this or tried this? Or know a smith that has before? I'm just not a fan of the 204 ruger anymore, but the 20 vartarg seems very interesting.....
Click to expand...

As Fasteel said he is having his CZ re-chambered from 204R to 20 EXTREME. It has a 25 5/8" barrel that David Henry is going to cut to 24", which is optimal, and re-chamber to 20 EXTREME. After New Years he will have an awesome 20 caliber rifle at about 1/2 the price of a Cooper and a cartridge that is much more versatile than a 20 VarTarg in that it is capable of running 32 grain bullets from about 3800 fps to near 204R velocities with less than 21 grains of H 4198. The 20 VarTarg does not have enough case capacity to get the 32 grain bullets, safely, to much faster than 3700 fps and is not well suited to the 39/40 grain bullets, especially in a 12" twist barrel. The 20 EXTREME can push the 39/40 grain bullets to 3600-3700 fps, with 22.2 grains of powder, which seems to stabilize the heavier bullets in a 12 twist and is not far behind the 204R and 20 Tactical. However the 6 to 8 grains less powder reduces recoil, muzzle blast and barrel heat which is great in the gopher patch.

I have dies that are designed to size Winchester 222 brass to perfectly fit the 20 EXTREME chamber, after trimming to length, and once fired brass are simply returned to their original dimension. Neck sizing dies are not needed as my design eliminates fireforming, and the new brass never stretches as long as the pressures are kept low enough to not fully firearm the base at the .200" datum. Another design feature advantage of the 20 EXTREME is that it is properly throated, unlike the popular 20 caliber cartridges, so that most bullets can be seated near the lands, ahead of the neck shoulder junction and still fit in a Saami Max 2.26" magazine like on your CZ. This is even true of the 55 Berger Varmint which will stabilize in a 9" twist barrel should you decide to re barrel to make an even more versatile varmint rifle.
 
Blind in the right eye and shooting left, re barreling a 221 fb is out of the idea and I will not be re barreling my beloved LH 17 fireball. 20 extreme is something I read about but not something I care for at all. If I wasn't going that rout I'd Ben shooting a 20 tac, but the 20 vartarg is such a small and nice performing little cartridge. Redding makes dies Nd they're readily available. I'm just curious about turning the barrel back vs just re barreling completely. LH actions and donor guns are very hard to find at a reasonable price.... especially if a removable mag is desired.... and all my guns are hunting guns, not bench shooting guns....
 
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