SmallCaliberCentral

has any one tried this bullet and when will it be out in 204
New Varmint Grenade http://www.barnesbullets.com/products/n ... t-grenade/

I emailed Barnes bullets a month ago and asked when they were going to be offering a .204 bullet. Here is their response:

Hi Nathan

At this time we don't have plans for a .20 cal bullet.

Your comments and suggestions are appreciated!

Ty

We Aim to please, reloading is a great hobby, enjoy it.

Ty Herring
Barnes Bullets
Customer Service Director
P.O. Box 215
American Fork
Utah 84003
Tel 801-756-4222
1-800-574-9200
Fax 801-756-4222
Email: email@barnesbullets.com

i wonder if enough of us email them they might think a little harder about it

You can try; never hurts. I'm on their advisory staff, and have been pestering them now for two years for .20 caliber bullets....no interest yet, but none of the bullet makers did prior to the release of the 204 Ruger, except for Hornaday, that is.

I wrote the intro in their Manual No.3 on the .223 Remington (edited heavily), and told them I've got tons of info for the 204 I'd share, but so far I get the same answer..... Keep trying, remember the old saying: "The squeaky wheel......" Persistence is the name of the game.

furn7r wrote:i wonder if enough of us email them they might think a little harder about it

How about someone draft up a letter (hint, hint) and post it here and then we would have no excuse for not sending them the request.

I just e-mailed them and begged for a lead-free .204 bullet. There is concern over our conventional bullets. Consider what happened to waterfowl hunting---"non-toxic" shot.

Hey there all if they are like the goverment if they recive mass email they will look over it but if you send in just a quick note it has more affect . I found this out frm being a member of SFW here in Wyoming were it has been a up hill battel on wlves and bears getting delisted but the battle is comming to a great end

I heard about someone shooting them in a .223 or something similar and they shot like 4 inch groups But that doesn't mean they won't shoot in a .204.
Yeah, somebody needs to send a letter or something up there.

I picked some up for my Khornet and have not had a chance to try them on a pest or see how they group yet but I am getting about 150fps faster than I was with the 40 grain v-maxes.

One of the things that I did do was shoot a can of beans and even at the 2,700+ fps hornet speed it basically vaporized 3/4 of the beans in the can into pieces that I found scattered in the snow ( I know who is goofy enough to test bullets in the snow). The other thing I did was to take one apart and I was a little surprised to find that once the jacket is peeled back the core is pretty easy to crumble up into a powder

Hope to get out next week and see how well they will do off the bench. If the rain has stopped by then that is

that is hw they are made it is lead crumbs inside of the coper that is what makes them explode i have talked to some people shooting them here in wyo in 223 and 22-250 jack rabbits are vaporized at 100 yards im getting sme for my 22-250 tomorrow will let you know how they do i hear they are grouping better than the v max

There is no lead it is somekind of copper-tin composite.

Quote from Barnes site:

Celebrating its 75th Anniversary, Barnes Bullets ® is introducing the Varmint Grenade™, an all-new lead-free varmint bullet that delivers explosive results. Originally developed for military applications, the bullet’s copper-tin composite core is highly frangible,

As for accuracy issues they are the same length as a 40 grn Nosler so if your gun does not like the smaller stuff then it probably won't like these either.

This composite is the exact same technology that Homeland Security pandered the manfacturers to develop for the Air Marshalls, so that when the bad guy is shot, say in the head, the bullet will terminate the terrorist, but not exit to cause a danger to passengers or possibly the airframe or something worse (electrical, hydraulic lines, etc.) by way of over penetration.

This new development has been shown a few times on the History Channel on Modern Marvels, the "Bullets" episode. Cool stuff.

My mind may have changed. I am hoping that it is just the load that I am using and I plan on reducing the powder charge to see if the groups get better but ohhhh man.

Took the khornet 10" contender barrel out this weekend and after getting it sighted in using the ol tried and true 40 grain noslers I switched to the grenades to hopefully be happy, well I am not. At 50 yards off the bench five shots I could barely cover with my hand at 100 yards only had 4 hits out of 8 on paper sighting in groups with scope adjustment was not that large.

Anyway I will try some other loads this week and we will see but I have never had that problem with any of the bullets I have tried in the ol girl.

hey all i just got off the phone with Ty Herring if you want to see the varment gernade in .20 or a .20 cal email Ty at tyh@barnesbullets.com and he will give then all to the owners the more request he said the better he also said he may be comming to the site soon

My E-mail request has been sent.