reloading the ruger .204

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ruger22

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Anybody out there reloading the ruger .204?

I would like to but checked 1 catalog, SIR. They had only 1 brand of
204 bullets and were 2X the price vs bullets for a 223. I could not belive it.
Also a guy told me the tool for case trimming was either hard to get or not available yet.

Let me know if I am misinformed. Please provide links to any better info.

thanks
 
most likely misinformed

Sierra makes 2 diff bullets, Hornady makes 3, Nosler makes one, Berger makes a few

from what Ive read, H4895 is the powder to use, but anything around that burn rate should work good
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All the 204 bullets available so far are premium varmint ones, so if you;re comparing those to cheap-ass 223 FMJ's then sure, they'll be a lot more expensive. But so what?
 
i bought some hornadys for $18.00 per hundred for the hornadys at our local gunshow,.not sure what case trimmer part you are referring to,but the .20 cal pilot for the rcbs trimmer was $4.00 and not hard to get ,i just called rcbs and they sent it to me direct,but that was over a year ago,by now they should be available anywhere,the only part that was a custom order at the time was the factory crimp die from lee,but you can manage fine without that.
 
That guy you spoke to was definitely misinformed. There are quite a few bullets and reloading equipment available for the 204 Ruger, and more coming online all the time.

There are few places in Canada where new products are harder to get than there in Newfoundland, but even so myself and a buddy have managed just fine. We've reloaded 32 and 39 gr Sierra Blitz King, 40 gr Nosler, 35 and 40 gr Berger, and even the new 45 gr Hornady PSP. Favorite powders thus far are H4895, Varget and RL10X.

Just about everything you would want to know about the 204 can be found at ww.w.rugerhunting.com.
 
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I load lots of 204. My varmint round of choice! The only difficulty I had was getting powder through such a tiny case mouth, but i solved that with an ear-looker-inner thingy and using BLC2 powder. With 32 & 40gr vmax, who needs anything else?
 
SIR is way too expensive, too many hidden costs, packaging fees, I have given up on them. As CV32 mentioned, we have loaded around 400-600 rounds of .204 in the last few months, lots of stuff available, I have bought bullets on ebay, a ton of brass and bullets from Midway USA, They don't ship to canada, but if you have a buddy in the States to ship to you, it's still cheaper than SIR.

One other thing, stick to using CCI 450M primers, nice thick cup, stay away from the winchester primers, Federal 205M are ok but do not seem to like the hotter loads, especially 10X powder.

Great caliber, reloading, not a problem, Only fault with this caliber is the fact that there are NO retailers in newfoundland stocking factory ammo.
 
prosper said:
^Factory ammo?!? You were just complaining about the cost of components. Factory Hornady 204 ammo = $$$
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was not complaing about the cost of components, just the cost of doing business with SIR.

I was shooting this calibre before reloading supplies were readily available, factory hornady was cheaper to buy at 17.10$ a box from lebaron. I can remember when brass was close to 70 bucks a hundred and bullets as high as 40 bucks a hundred.

Bought a couple of cases just to get the brass, once fired, fire formed brass is better than new brass anyways...
 
where is the best place to buy 204 reloading stuff?

I live in alberta.

This will be my 1st rifle to reload for.
My tikka varment likes the 32 grain hornadys best so far.

What then would be the best powder, primers etc to start with?
Where is the best place to buy 204 reloading stuff?

thanks...
 
Russells in calgary stocks quite a bit of .204 stuff, I know they have the hornady bullets. I use only CCI 450 Magnum or benchrest primers, Get some H 4895, Varget, or reloader 10x, I've had excellent success with these.
 
gpracer said:
SIR is way too expensive, too many hidden costs, packaging fees, I have given up on them. .
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SIR is no more expensive then the rest of group. A box of 20 cal V-Max is $43.99 but its a 250 pack vs most which are 100 paks.
Also to point an error in your statment SIR's packaging fee is actually their term for shipping, you do not pay extra for packing.
If you can point me to a store that is always way cheaper then SIR, please let me know.

Cheers!!
 
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