Battle of the 20s

I couldnt find them there on the site. I have time as ive decided to shoot out the 223 barrel first before i rebarrel. Im leaning more for the 20 tactical as theres more load data for it than the 20 practical. I just want to source everything to make sure everything is available first.
 
brybenn said:
I couldnt find them there on the site. I have time as ive decided to shoot out the 223 barrel first before i rebarrel. Im leaning more for the 20 tactical as theres more load data for it than the 20 practical. I just want to source everything to make sure everything is available first.
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They have had the 20 tactical cases in stock on and off for years. I bought 400 cases when I bought my rifle, thinking that they might be difficult to find in the future. If you want some, contact Prophet River, and see if they can still get them, Lapua did one run for Dakota, and there may never be another run.
 
I don't ever look at "how hard is it to find dies." Dies can always easily be had, but they will test patience at waiting and tesr how deep your pockets go.... Brass can't aleays be sourced though and having only 1 company that makes .20 Tac brass I see as the only downside to it. If you aren't an in-depth reloader, the .204 ruger is a perfect choice. Ruger hit the ball out lf the park with the marketing on that one. It is also the only factory available .20 cal on the narket currently. But as for a custom? I would put it between the .20 Practical and .20 Vartarg. If you wanted to target specifically coyotes/fox I think your added powder capacity/speed from the Practical would help. It also allows you to form off of readily available .223 brass. If you're more into high volume gopher shooting, the 20 vartarg offers a lot of fun and it doesnt take a lot of powder to load for. Brass can also be easily formed from .22FB lapua brass or you could buy form dies and form down .223 into .20 vartarg. Either way, they'd all be fun. I've been throwing around the idea of a .20 vartarg on a CZ 527 action for a while now. It would make a very fun gopher/varmint rig!
 
204 is the logical choice no doubt but ive never been one for doing things the logical way. And the 20 practical is well just practical lol. Im skipping the vartarg because i want positive reliable feeding from mdt poly 223 mags.
 
.204 Ruger is a solid home run in my opinion, Girlfriend has one as do a couple of friends all are accurate but a little fussy on loads. I'll stick with my .22 centerfires for the same purposes.
 
I just bought a Rem M700 LVSF in 204 R Real Nice rifle and Balances Well - I installed a Bushnell Elite 4-12 on it - and did a trigger lighting job to 2.5 lbs Loaded up some pills and just gotta shoot it - Priv owner said it shot WELL with factory Hornady 40 gr V Max ammo . Its got the J LOCK which will go into the G can soon and replaced with a GRETAN if it shoots Good ! Prob will have the Bolt fluted too as I Like it for Cosmectic reasons ! RJ
 
Im still thinking 20 tac but i shouldnt have shot it as a 223. Im gettin .3" to .5" three shot groups with my sierra gameking loads. About .8 to 1" groups with vmax handloads and i havent played with seating depth yet. Only one powder weight with the sierras to. I may spend some time with thisbarrel before i swap. I still have a pile of bullets to try.
 
I’m building a 204 very soon to replace my current. I’m going with a 1:11 twist vs the standard 1:12 so stabilizing 40s will no longer be a hit or miss proposition. Also sourced out a drawing for a Zero Free Bore reamer design that I’ll be employing for chambering of the new pipe. It’ll end up at roughly 0.015” of FB as a final but this will give me an opportunity to really play with seating depths in relations to the lands and a lot more room to chase them as erosion does its thing. Trade off (if it is one) is shooting factory ammo in the chamber will be a big no no. I’ve no desire to run factory offerings anymore so it’s a non issue for me.

I looked really hard at the 20 Vartag and would still like to try one at some point. Personally, I think all the 20 offerings listed are winners. But I’m in the 20 Cult so my opinion could be slightly biased.
 
The 20s intrigue me. I don't have a particular use for one, not much varmint shooting around here, but that's hardly a reason NOT to get one right? Lol

What's barrel life like with the Ruger? Do the practical or tactical make much of a difference with that? I'm assuming the Vartarg is easier on barrels due to its lower velocity?
 
Was looking through the current Redding catalogue and notice dies for a 20Nosler. I thought hmm interesting! A little googling and it seems it first surfaced late 2017, so I musta missed it somehow. Looks like it might be pretty interesting if it’s indeed twisted to stabilize 50gr’s as a couple sites seem to theorize. Which would be a pretty deadly if it comes to be true. Case capacity appears to be about 8gr more than the Ruger which isn’t huge but if they twist it right it might be pretty cool new cartridge.
 
204 is one of those rare cases (no pun intended ;)) 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!
 
remington jim said:
I just bought a Rem M700 LVSF in 204 R Real Nice rifle and Balances Well - I installed a Bushnell Elite 4-12 on it - and did a trigger lighting job to 2.5 lbs Loaded up some pills and just gotta shoot it - Priv owner said it shot WELL with factory Hornady 40 gr V Max ammo . Its got the J LOCK which will go into the G can soon and replaced with a GRETAN if it shoots Good ! Prob will have the Bolt fluted too as I Like it for Cosmectic reasons ! RJ
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I have the same rifle. I just love it. Mine has a Zeiss Victory 4-16 and new Triggertech. I was able to shoot 3/4" groups with the factory trigger and I'm sure I can do better with the new one. I'm handloading 40gr Bergers on top of Varget. The bullets are hard to find but worth it in this rifle.
 
matthewpauls said:
204 is one of those rare cases (no pun intended ;)) 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!
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I would mostly agree with you all the way. Until I started reading about launching .20cal 50-55gr bullets at 3800fps and then I believe there’s room for something wether wildcat or a new factory round to fill the niche. Otherwise I’m 204Ruger all day.
 
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