SmallCaliberCentral

I went to sportsmans warehouse(AKA $100 store) today for some powder and bullets. As usual I found myself in the firearms dept. looking and maybe drooling over all the nice pieces they had there. Well my buddy and I start jawin' with the counter person about this and that and as usual the conversation started leaning towards what our favorite varmint rifle might be. At the time I was fingering a Savage LRPV in .22-250 and and the counter guy says "that there is best dogone cartridge ever made for varmints". So I asked him if ever he had tried a .204. First he called it a peashooter and the he said the other reason he wouldn't own one was that it was a barrel burner . Now you gotta understand that my buddy has 4 22-250s but he has seen first hand the devastating efects of my .204 on P-dogs. Now I tried but I couldn't make him believe all of the very good reasons to go with the deuce nada quatro. I told him that I had 1500 rounds through mine without even a hint of erosion, that my buddies 22-250 is in need of a barrel after that same amount even though he shoots mollied pills, and that a lb of powder goes a lot farther.


He told me I was nuts.

O will hozz57, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. Some people get set in there ways and thats that. You did your best to show him the good points of the 204 and if he dosen't want to here there ain't much you can do about it.

Bring the conversation up again once you have 3,000 rounds thru the pipe still shooting 1/4 moa.

The BIG problem is that he is the one that is supposed to know about these sorts of things. It's hard to find someone behind the counter now days that has any real knowledge about what they are selling.

What skipper said^^^^. The local Gander Mtn here had a young fella that kept showing me their HMR lineup a few years back when I was looking for a 17Rem. I finally had to tell him to just stand there & I would be right back in just a few seconds. When I came back totin a box of HMR ammo & a box of 17Rem ammo he finally said,, "I thought you wanted a 17 HMR since we've been selling so many of them lately."


The debate will always be there & so will the nay sayers. I don't have a 22-250 & don't want one. But someday I will own,,,IMO,,, the best all around varmint rifle there is,, the good ol Triple Duece.

As fond as I am of the .22/250, and I'm a HUGE fan, I use the .204s now, easier on barrels and ears, and wallets, too. Recoil isn't much of a problem with either, but the .204 is gentler there, too. I like about anything that goes "Bang" but as I get older, I tend to like littler stuff better. I've had nothing but good experiences with the Varminter cartridge, but I can say the same thing about .204s and it's nice to have both options. That said, I think I like the rifles available in .204 (CZ 527s, for example) better than the heavier rifles in .22/250.

I have both and i wish i had 2 .204s now .They have just as good of launch factor( i think it matters much more on shot placment then cal.) less recoil,less powder ,easier on barrels. Theres no ? which one i perfer.204 RUGER . Also the people at Sportsmans are IDIOTS!!. I know more about there store than they do. Half of them dont know were anything is.

[. But someday I will own,,,IMO,,, the best all around varmint rifle there is,, the good ol Triple Duece. [/quote]

Glen , it took me 35 years of varmint rifles to finally own a 222 and you are right on. I thoroughly enjoy every varmint rifle I own or have ever owned from 17 Rem to 25-06, but there is something special about the old classic 222 Vixen that makes it the first gun that is uncased in the pd towns. I do enjoy the 204, but if I had to choose (God forbid) the 3 duece would still be in my gunsafe.

I think that I made it clear to him just how nuts I was when I told him that I had just purchased a 220 Swift. I wanted something with more pop out at longer distances and I always wanted one since was a kid. So far I have learned that it makes a great way to get rid of large quantities of gun powder and that H380 goes high pressure when left to sit in a hot chamber in the Arizona summer.

majcl5 wrote:I have both and i wish i had 2 .204s now .They have just as good of launch factor( i think it matters much more on shot placment then cal.) less recoil,less powder ,easier on barrels. Theres no ? which one i perfer.204 RUGER . Also the people at Sportsmans are IDIOTS!!. I know more about there store than they do. Half of them dont know were anything is.

Yep. Our store just opened the end of last month and I am not impressed with 99% of the folks behind the gun counter (including optics). I was looking at the scopes and this (fairly young) sales person said I would get free mounting with any scope or mount system purchase. I said "no thanks I mount my own", he said "you know mounting scopes is an art". To which I replied "yeah but it ain't rocket science". Then I asked about a 20 MOA rail, all I got back was a deer in the headlights.

A whaaaaaaaaat? I love it.

skipper wrote:The BIG problem is that he is the one that is supposed to know about these sorts of things. It's hard to find someone behind the counter now days that has any real knowledge about what they are selling.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!

As Glen Asher said, I like anything that goes bang! And, in my book, that includes .22's on up to the .375 H&H. I dearly love both my .204's and they get a lot of work fending off the sage rats, badgers and rock chucks. However, some of my other rifles get jealous, so they have to come out once in awhile. Last week-end the Sako Vixen .222 REM HB had a workout as well as a custom built .223 on a Rem 722 action.
My current "favorite" rifle (favorite changes weekly ), is a rifle I just put together. I took a Stevens 200 in .223, threw the stock, barrel and trigger away and installed an Adams & Bennett 24" HB in .221 Fireball. The stock is a B&C Duramaxx and a Timney trigger. The rifle seems to like most bullets as long as they are pushed with IMR4198. I shot a 0.110" 5 shot group at 100 yds with Nosler 40 BT's and a 0.203" 5 shot group at 100 yds with Hornady 40 V-Max's. All that with just 200 rounds down the tube. Gotta love it .

Rgds, Gerry

Gerry, try some Re-7 and Lil Gun in your Fireball, too, just for giggles, my little CZ loves that Re-7. My buddy's rifles like anything at all.......

Hi glenn asher
Thanks for the input on the Re-7. I did buy a jug of it last week; just haven't had a chance to try it yet. The heat we're having out this way is slowing us up at the range.
And the smoke from all the forest and range fires is not helping either.
My FB must be kinda like your buddies, so far it seems to like just about everything you feed it. H4227 works quite well; just not quite the tight groups I'm getting with IMR4198.
What a fun rifle to play with. I also tried AA1680. Velocity was up to 3625 with 40 Nosler BT's. But the group sizes were around an inch. I will try some Sierra or Hornady bullets to see if they work better.
Rgds, Gerry