SmallCaliberCentral

With all this talk about the 20vt, you have me second guessing my last .204 purchase. Before buying my Phoenix .204, Todd Kindler and Rob Behr(sp) tried to talk me into the 20vt. My research at the time convinced me that the 20vt wasn't quiet on par with the .204 (for pd's). My situation: once a year trip to Montana, can carry TWO guns on the plane, and want to feel my guns are capable of shots to 400-500 yds. And, that Montana "wind" was another factor.
Rick, if you're in my place, would you take a .204 AND 20vt, or two .204's? You have much more field shooting experience than me and most of the board..........what are your thoughts? My first Cooper has over 2500 rounds thru it with a shoot coming up in June. Thinking about rebarreling to 20vt (if that's possible) when accuracy falls off. You guys sure make that 20vt look interesting! Thanks.......

Hello,

This is my first post in this forum. However, I've been reading a lot of the posts (all the different topics), on this forum. I have to say there's a lot of people on here that know there stuff. You see, I'm in the same situation with plans to go out west to shoot PD's this summer. I too, read the posts of the 20VT and found them interesting. The pictures show you what you need to know, by themselves. I read a posts some where, it may have been on this site. The post's author referred to the 20 VT as a 450 yard pellet gun. Another person referred to the 20VT as, the "Mighty Mouse" of cartridges. The one thing that stopped him from getting a 20 VT for now, is time. I didn't have the time to load enough ammunition for this summer's shoot. This doesn't mean I'm not going to get a 20 VT for future use. I live in rural Ohio and the long shots are not really long, as compared to the west and hunting, coyotes, groundhogs, (if a person can find any G-hogs any more), a 20VT would effective. As for the 20VT for coyotes, shot placement and distance would a key factors....but doable..

Good luck and happy shooting in Montana....

Bob

Keith in Ga wrote:Rick, if you're in my place, would you take a .204 AND 20vt, or two .204's? You have much more field shooting experience than me and most of the board..........what are your thoughts? My first Cooper has over 2500 rounds thru it with a shoot coming up in June. Thinking about rebarreling to 20vt (if that's possible) when accuracy falls off. You guys sure make that 20vt look interesting! Thanks.......

Keith: Well, thanks for the vote of confidence; not sure if I'm worthy, but I'll answer best I can.

The 20VT IS interesting. Imagine roughly 85-90% of 204R ballistic performance from roughly 30% less powder. Not only is the caliber very efficient, the added bonus of almost zero barrel heating/throat erosion and the long barrel life it offers, plus the lack of any real recoil, low noise factor coupled with laser-like trajectory of the fast 20's, it's a perfect 450 yard companion to a good shooting 204 Ruger in the PD or squirrel patch, or for gunning eastern woodchucks or western rockchucks.

So to answer your question, and remember this is JMO, I'd rebarrel your 2nd 204 to 20VT for next summers PD fun and take a 204 and a 20VT. There are two very good articles from Small Caliber News on the 20VT that virtually made a believer out of me. I took the plunge and have not looked back once. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my 204's, will always have some in the safe for varmints, but now I'll also have at least one 20VT to go along with them in the rat patch. Some varmint duties dictate using my 204's, such as longer range work, but for my rodent sniping duties out to 400-450 yards, the little 20VT does quite well as some of those recent rockchucks will attest to. As long as you don't need it for this summers PD trip, you should be in good shape for next year, but case forming and load development would rule out using it this summer I'd think because of time constraints.

When shooting mature ground squirrels, the "launch factor" with the 20VT is virtually identical to the 204 out to around 300 yards, and let's face it, most of our rat shooting, whether for squirrels or prairie dogs is usually around 350 yards and under. The little VT anchors even large chucks right in their tracks or blows them off their rocks out to as far as I've tried to shoot them here.

This guy was peeking over a rock with a profile view at around 200 yards, and I just clipped him under his chin using a 32gr Nosler BT and 18.5grs of RL-7......evidence enough?:



Another good thing that may come to pass soon, is that Lapua is rumored to be strongly considering offering 20VT brass very soon (thanks Todd). As they already produce 20 Tac brass, it makes perfect sense, and when that happens, you'll see a flood of 20VT's in the field when factory brass becomes available....especially Lapua brass.

Todd was right, and I wish I would have listened to his sermons back around 2000 when he asked me every time we spoke: "Got a 20VT yet? No, well you will." He was right.

I have seriously shot various 20 caliber rifles for a lot of years (long before the 20 VT became known/popular), and IMO, the 20 VT is the best of the bunch in terms of accuracy and what you get in velocity from such a small package.

You won't regret getting a 20 VT...

-BCB

Been doing some reading on this cartridge and its better than a Tom Clancey novel. I'll be keeping an eye out for brass availability.

Rick is right on. I will be taking a 204 and a 20VT with me next month for a prairie dog session in Montana. I love my 20 VarTarg. You can see all the hits in the scope due to the tiny recoil, even compared to the 204. The 204 will be for the longer shots. We found that it is better to shoot the prairie dogs between 300 and 400 yards as they do not go back into the holes near as much. They will be looking around to see what happened to Fred while you are reloading!

I would have to agree with Rick as well. I recently had a chance to get my 20 VT out and spend some time at the Range. To say i am impressed would be an understatement. My rifle was shooting half inch groups with fireform loads.