20 cal Fireball?

[Sidewinderwa]

I am suffering from CRS! What is the wildcat name for the 221 Fireball case necked down to 20 caliber? Can anyone give me some information on it's performance? Thinking about the next project rifle. Is there any advantage of it over the 221 Fireball or 17 Remington?

[Tommy Longspurs]

The .20 VarTarg is based on the .221 Remington FireBall necked down to .20 caliber.

http://www.z-hat.com/Wildcat_in_GW1206.htm

[Rick in Oregon]

That would be the 20 Vartarg, excellent performance with 32 - 36 gr bullets. There has been much written about it in Small Caliber News, and is a great choice for a rebarrel project. There's one in my future too.

Kindler's book has this on the Vartarg:
36 gr Berger @ 3811 fps, warm load, accurate using H4198
36 gr Berger @ 3756 fps, warm load also using RL7

Those velocities from a 23" barrel.

Cooper chambers rifles for the caliber also.

[Sidewinderwa]

Thanks guys. I see that Silverfox has some experience with this round as well, maybe he will join us on this one. Is there much difference from loading down the 204 to the same velocities? I have shot the 221 Fireball and it is just plain fun to shoot so I was thinking about the Vartarg. Is there a feeding problem? I was thinking of converting a Savage since I have all the tools to swap barrels. Would the 308 be able to be converted for this round?

[Silverfox]

Sidewinderwa--Silverfox has absolutely no experience with the 20 Vartarg. However, I would be more than happy to test one out if you have one you can loan to me

[LeeC]

The current issue of Handloader mag has a pretty good write-up on the 20 Vartag.

[Glen]

The VT should feed from a FireBall. It won't feed from a 223/222/204 without modifications to the ramp. The shorter case flips up on the nose too high & hits above the chamber hole. HTH

[Vartarg]

As you might guess my from nickname, I'm a 20VT fan, and have two of them, both rebarrelled with Shilen from Rem 700's...one a VSSF and the other a Classic. Rather than just working down from .204, I'll point you to some good load data. In most cases the powders are different, faster. Good ones are H4198, RL-7 and AA1680, though that list is not exclusive.
A great round, and a real hoot to shoot. The 6mmbr website has links to a 20 cal. page that has good information.