SmallCaliberCentral

No pressure signs in my rifle at all but that may or may not be the case in yours. I was also under the impression that the max charge was 25.1 for that load.

The 24.8 gr charge was also the sweet spot for me using the 39 gr. BK. I would probably keep heading to max load if I were you .1 grain at a time to see if it may tighten up even a little more. (Keeping an eye on pressures of course)

Dave, I have had great success with the 39 gr. Sierra bullets and 10X powder in my encore. I don't have any experience with the v-max bullets though so I can't help you there.

You can get as close as you want to the lands and won't see any pressure signs. If however you are jamming a bullet into them you will see pressure spikes.

I'm shooting 24.8 gr. Of 10x with the 39 bk and getting 3850 fps out of a 28 inch encore barrel .

Definitely need to See some pics of that kind of carnage my 204 has yet to see any action other than paper, soda cans, and various pieces of fruit hoping to get after some groundhogs this summer(if little league baseball ever ends lol)

It sure is! I got to go out and kill some red clays and golf balls at ranges from 150 to 300 yards, needless to say I'm a very happy camper I'm ready to put some groundhog in the scope now there will be pictures coming soon!!!

Roadkill, My pain in the rear was mostly due to excessive headspace. After the first loading of my new Winchester brass I was shocked to see that Alot of my casings were stretching tremendously between the case head and shoulder. After good advice received from this great site I proceeded on over to...

I would highly recommend you try it. 10x was the last powder I tried, wish it had been the first. I read on here somewhere that if a 204 wouldn't shoot a 39gr bk and 10x powder then something is wrong lol.

Thanks! i have to admit i was about 2 seconds from sending this gun down the road lol. After a lot of reading and experimenting i think i can now live with the Encore.

This is a 3 shot group, couldn't bare to ruin it with another 2 shots lol.
39gr BK
24.8gr 10X
BR4 pr.
2.300 oal

I know im sorry about that trying to get it fixed.

I have finally found a consistant load for my 204 prohunter barrel i beleive not a real bitty litte group but i think i can live with it and i can reproduce it consistently

Gotcha, may just go to full length sizing seeing how I had no problem with the initial firing.

I'm sorry I should have provided more information. The brass was brand new brass that has been fired in my rifle only. The rifle is a encore and I really can't tell any difference on how it locks up but I can definately tell buy the way the primers are scored that some are chambering tighter than ot...