I have had various 204 Rugers and had varying degrees of success but due to the Saami 12" Twist and 1 degree 30" throat angle with 0.100" Free Bore I found loads hard to develop and nearly impossible with the 40 V-Max. While the 39 BK did quite well in the 204R and 20 Tac with RL 10X I believe that pressures were quite high at the velocities that they worked good at. This did not make them practical for sustained shooting in the gopher patch on a hot day. The 20 Tactical did have some good Dakota brass, made by Lapua, but that is no longer available and making brass from 223 Rem requires the shoulder to be pushed back and fire formed which results in formation of a donut if the neck is not turned. Like the 204 R the 20 Tac and 20 VT, which have the same throat with about 0.050" less Freebore do not allow bullets to be seated to the lands at Saami Magazine length. While the 20 VT is much better, in the gopher patch, it is limited to 32 grain bullets and has to run quite high pressures to get them to 3750-3800 fps where many like to run them. Brass for the 20 VT was a problem for many years and still is if you try to run the Lapua brass in a rifle chambered with the original 20 VT reamer design especially without turning the necks.
I solved all of these problems by designing my own wildcat 20 based on the 222 Remington case with the neck trimmed back to 1.575" and run through the custom Hornady Die designed to fold the shoulder to 30 degrees while lengthening the neck to 0.211" and leaving the shoulder dimensions unchanged. I had a reamer cut that left the shoulder at the same length as the new brass while allowing 0.003" neck expansion, and 0.0015" at the shoulder and base diameter and throated properly for the 32,39,40 and 55 grain bullets. The new brass can be formed to fit the chamber exactly and once the round is fired it is simply run back through the dies and formed back to its original dimensions. This completely eliminates fire forming and virtually eliminates case stretch if pressures are held low enough to run the 39-4-0 grain bullets to 3500 fps in the gopher patch. Of course I can run these bullets to 3600-3700 fps, like the 204R and 20 Tac, but with 3-4 grains less powder and some case stretch. I run an 11" twist barrel for everything but the 55 Berger which requires an 8" twist but does well in a 9 Twist which works great for the 3240 grainers as well.
Much like the BR cartridges and the modern Precision Cartridges the 20 EXTREME is very efficient in that it gets very close to the same velocities with less powder than the 204R and 20 Tac. These drawings showing Western Powders loads with Ramshot Exterminator and the 40 V-Max compared to the same powder in the 20 EXTREME illustrate that.
204 R with 40 V-Max actually about 0.150" OFF THE LANDS with 26.0 grain load and one at 26.5 extrapolated up.
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20 Tactical likely about .050" - 0.100" off the lands in a fire formed brass.
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20 Var-Targ Turbo with Ramshot load:
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20 EXTREME 40 V-Max 0.010" off lands on a hot day with Quick Load Estimation below:
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20 VarTarg with 40 V-Max that would require an 11" twist barrel running 0.050" 0.100" off the lands:
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20 Practical with 40 V-Max and H 4895 showing primers flowing to the max at similar pressures to the 20 Tac/20 VTT and similar to EXTERMINATOR.
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After about 8000 rounds through my original 20 EXTREME barrel I ran a minimum spec, 20 EXTREME, reamer 0.170" deeper into the chamber end and created a 20-223 EXTREME. What I found is that I created a 20 Practical that did not require moving the shoulder back or fireforming and was throated properly for the 32,39 and 40 grain bullets and still have them fit in a saami magazine. I know that the designer of the 20 Practical did this so he could use 223 Remington HS gauges and Bushing dies but can't understand why the designer of the 20 Tactical did what he did?
20-223 with 40 V-Max in a Lapua Brass. X-Terminator loads below show that 24.1 grains would be nearly equal to the 20 Tac Load and that 23.1 grains give a nice safe gopher load at 3546.
The X-Terminator loads showing that the 23.1 grain load is the best and a ladder with RL 10 showing that 21.7 grains running 3509 was generating more pressure than the 32.1 X-Terminator load.
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I have tested 16 different 223 brass in this 20-223 and am amazed that the 40 V-Max will shoot under 1 MOA with 25 grains 4895 in spite of getting velocities ranging from about 3600 - over 3700 fps. Here is picture of 14 different brass, mostly 1X fired, 223 annealed formed and loaded:
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Center target with 16 different brass loaded 40 V-Max and H 335 ladder on left showing potential for 3650 fps:
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Unfortunately the 55 Berger has been discontinued but I still have a few left for the 9" twist 20 EXTREME:
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Fortunately the 9" twist does very well in the gopher patch or on larger vermin as well:
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I solved all of these problems by designing my own wildcat 20 based on the 222 Remington case with the neck trimmed back to 1.575" and run through the custom Hornady Die designed to fold the shoulder to 30 degrees while lengthening the neck to 0.211" and leaving the shoulder dimensions unchanged. I had a reamer cut that left the shoulder at the same length as the new brass while allowing 0.003" neck expansion, and 0.0015" at the shoulder and base diameter and throated properly for the 32,39,40 and 55 grain bullets. The new brass can be formed to fit the chamber exactly and once the round is fired it is simply run back through the dies and formed back to its original dimensions. This completely eliminates fire forming and virtually eliminates case stretch if pressures are held low enough to run the 39-4-0 grain bullets to 3500 fps in the gopher patch. Of course I can run these bullets to 3600-3700 fps, like the 204R and 20 Tac, but with 3-4 grains less powder and some case stretch. I run an 11" twist barrel for everything but the 55 Berger which requires an 8" twist but does well in a 9 Twist which works great for the 3240 grainers as well.
Much like the BR cartridges and the modern Precision Cartridges the 20 EXTREME is very efficient in that it gets very close to the same velocities with less powder than the 204R and 20 Tac. These drawings showing Western Powders loads with Ramshot Exterminator and the 40 V-Max compared to the same powder in the 20 EXTREME illustrate that.
204 R with 40 V-Max actually about 0.150" OFF THE LANDS with 26.0 grain load and one at 26.5 extrapolated up.
20 Tactical likely about .050" - 0.100" off the lands in a fire formed brass.
20 Var-Targ Turbo with Ramshot load:
20 EXTREME 40 V-Max 0.010" off lands on a hot day with Quick Load Estimation below:
20 VarTarg with 40 V-Max that would require an 11" twist barrel running 0.050" 0.100" off the lands:
20 Practical with 40 V-Max and H 4895 showing primers flowing to the max at similar pressures to the 20 Tac/20 VTT and similar to EXTERMINATOR.
After about 8000 rounds through my original 20 EXTREME barrel I ran a minimum spec, 20 EXTREME, reamer 0.170" deeper into the chamber end and created a 20-223 EXTREME. What I found is that I created a 20 Practical that did not require moving the shoulder back or fireforming and was throated properly for the 32,39 and 40 grain bullets and still have them fit in a saami magazine. I know that the designer of the 20 Practical did this so he could use 223 Remington HS gauges and Bushing dies but can't understand why the designer of the 20 Tactical did what he did?
20-223 with 40 V-Max in a Lapua Brass. X-Terminator loads below show that 24.1 grains would be nearly equal to the 20 Tac Load and that 23.1 grains give a nice safe gopher load at 3546.
The X-Terminator loads showing that the 23.1 grain load is the best and a ladder with RL 10 showing that 21.7 grains running 3509 was generating more pressure than the 32.1 X-Terminator load.
I have tested 16 different 223 brass in this 20-223 and am amazed that the 40 V-Max will shoot under 1 MOA with 25 grains 4895 in spite of getting velocities ranging from about 3600 - over 3700 fps. Here is picture of 14 different brass, mostly 1X fired, 223 annealed formed and loaded:
Center target with 16 different brass loaded 40 V-Max and H 335 ladder on left showing potential for 3650 fps:
Unfortunately the 55 Berger has been discontinued but I still have a few left for the 9" twist 20 EXTREME:
Fortunately the 9" twist does very well in the gopher patch or on larger vermin as well:
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) where I see no major reason to go to a wildcat. For those unaware, it’s basily a 222 rem mag necked to .20 cal and ackley improved. Can’t think of a better way to do it. IMO the only thing that makes choosing a practical varminter in .20 a hard choice is if you have a pile of 223 brass available, which opens up the .20 prac, or tac if you like time on the bench. And yes I have a pile of 223 brass which is why I’m still on the fence LOL!
