204 Ruger vs small game
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:05 am
The middle of winter hasn't been without some fine weather and there's been plenty of days to get some trigger time. I do a fair bit of rabbit shooting, both daytime and night, and the 204 Ruger is proving to be a great rabbit gun for those longer shots the rimfires just can't reach. With careful shot placement there almost always no meat or pelt damage.
The tree slightly left of center is a 100 yards marker and the white patch is out at 200 yards. The ridge with the track leading to it marks 400 yards. The rabbits have plenty of cover in the long grass.
Since fitting a laminate thumb hole stock to the Remington SPS, the rifle is much more comfortable to shoot from a prone position, especially when the platform isn't ideal, which is often the case shooting in this area.
Recently, I've been putting some time into load development and after testing and re-testing some loads that were showing promise, settled on 32 gr. V-Max, Remington cases, 28.7 grains of H8495 and overall length of 2.260"
The winter sun sets on these two bunnies below. Against the 204 Ruger they never stood a chance.
The trusty Estwing knife points to where the little V-Max entered. The angle wasn't ideal so the exit spoiled some shoulder meat, but the shot had to be taken before the bunny took cover.
The rabbit below was ranged at 300 yards. My aim was off and the bullet entered between the neck and shoulder, but even so the exit wound was surprisingly light and there was still plenty of good meat left on this critter.
Overall, what was intended as a single purpose fox gun has turned out to be a great rifle for shooting edible small game, providing care is taken with shot placement.
The 204 won't be replacing my 22LR and 17HMR as the primary rabbit guns as it's too loud and powerful for some of the smaller properties I shoot, but it sure is capable of putting food on the table and collecting a few pelts along the way.
Thanks for reading
The tree slightly left of center is a 100 yards marker and the white patch is out at 200 yards. The ridge with the track leading to it marks 400 yards. The rabbits have plenty of cover in the long grass.
Since fitting a laminate thumb hole stock to the Remington SPS, the rifle is much more comfortable to shoot from a prone position, especially when the platform isn't ideal, which is often the case shooting in this area.
Recently, I've been putting some time into load development and after testing and re-testing some loads that were showing promise, settled on 32 gr. V-Max, Remington cases, 28.7 grains of H8495 and overall length of 2.260"
The winter sun sets on these two bunnies below. Against the 204 Ruger they never stood a chance.
The trusty Estwing knife points to where the little V-Max entered. The angle wasn't ideal so the exit spoiled some shoulder meat, but the shot had to be taken before the bunny took cover.
The rabbit below was ranged at 300 yards. My aim was off and the bullet entered between the neck and shoulder, but even so the exit wound was surprisingly light and there was still plenty of good meat left on this critter.
Overall, what was intended as a single purpose fox gun has turned out to be a great rifle for shooting edible small game, providing care is taken with shot placement.
The 204 won't be replacing my 22LR and 17HMR as the primary rabbit guns as it's too loud and powerful for some of the smaller properties I shoot, but it sure is capable of putting food on the table and collecting a few pelts along the way.
Thanks for reading
