SmallCaliberCentral

I picked up a new Savage 12 with a ton of goodies with, all new. Norma brass, RCBS Comp dies, Sierra bullets,etc. I get it home and start setting up to build some reloads when I measure the chamber. Take a factory 40g Vmax load and chamber it, run a cleaning rod down the barrel and touch the bullet, mark the rod. Then drop a 40g Vmax bullet down into the chamber and lightly tap it down seating into the lands, cleaning rod in muzzle end again and mark the rod. The difference between the 2 marks is how much farther out you should seat the bullet less about .010. Mine the difference is .190 or in other words the max. OAL for a .204 Roger round is 2.260 and in my rifle it is 2.450 before it touches the lands. Now, does the rifle group well, why yes it does. I have tried 4 different bullets both 40 and 32 grain, seated them max. OAL and then out to 2.400. Shot them side by side and off course the longer rounds group better than the short rounds. The only problem now is that the bullet that groups the best is a 32 grain Nosler Varmageddon seated at 3.335 and there isn't much holding on to that bullet, I now have a single shot. It gets better, I have a T/C with a .204 barrel and I can slide those long rounds right into that chamber and shoot 1 hole 5 shot groups at 100 yards. Now the question is do I have some short brass or some deep throats?

Think you will find, especially if you run or make a chamber/lead cast, that like most factory 204R they have very long throats. On the order of what Weatherby did with his rifles, so he could get the FPS up. BIll K

as Bill mentioned the 204 ruger factory chamberings do typically have very long throats. Go with what shoots best for you and use it as a single shot if need be. If you want to improve things you could get a custom reamer made with zero freebore and send the barrel off to be setback and rechambered. For whats its worth i found the Nosler Varmageddon bullets were very easy to find an accurate load with and none of them were seated out that far in any of my Savage rifles. If you haven't tried any Ramshot Xterminator powder yet i high recommend it in conjunction with the Varmageddon bullets. Just my 2 cents.

I have 8 pounds of Xterminator and 1000 Noslers so I can experiment alot. I understand bullet setback up to .100 like Weatherby but out to .200 seems abit extreme. I couldn't beat the deal I got on the rifle so I will let you guys know how I do. Thanks for the help.

17hm2lover
Like you I too have just started to play with my Savage 12 in 204 Ruger and had concerns about the COAL. 2.260 seamed a long way from what I have done in the past. But I'm no expert so I decided to give that length at try. To my surprise, with Accurate powder and Sierra 39gr. Blitz loaded to COAL of 2.260. So far I have 5 shot groups of less than 1/2".@ 100yds. I'm still experimenting but so far it's working out. As the old saying goes "I didn't like ice cream either till I tried it"

Back to my starting load of 2.260 OAL, IMR 4064 at 25.5 grains,WSR primers, and Hornady brass loaded with 40 grain V-Max bullets. I sent over 150 gophers to the land beyond today with shots exceding 300 yards. What inpresses me how far they fly when hit and the slap sound, something my Savage 112 .223 with the same load and 50 grain V-Max doesn't do. Wow! I am sold on this .204 Ruger round.

I rebarreled my Savage 12 with a Pac-Nor Savage prefit 1:11 twist chambered with a .204R Match chamber.
Definitely cut down my OAL and allows me to seat both the 32s and 40s with plenty of bullet left in the neck.
Something to consider.

I did shoot the factory barrel for a few thousand rounds and had them seated way the heck out there.
With BL-C(2) and 32gr SBKs I killed a LOT of PDs until the barrel started eating bullets.
Mine is a single shot though so I wasn't too worried about feeding issues.

About 400 rounds down the pipe and I love the .204 . Any gopher I put my dot on (Leupold FX3 12X) within 400 yards is gone. But last Saturday I had one stand up in front of me at about 50 feet. And behind him about 25 yards was a very large pond. Needless to say it rained gopher all over that pond. I just have to find a place that sells V-Max bullets cheaper.

Another 140 rounds down the barrel and still hits most anything I put the dot on. Yesterday was a normal spring day here in Montana. Freshly plowed field,rain,20 mph wind,sunny,snow, and a whole lot of gophers running around. And the local birds just love it when I leave the fields.