SmallCaliberCentral

Hey folks, I'm brand new here but have 2 buddies now with 204's -- both experiencing a little difficulty finding an acceptable shooting factory round. The one guy, with a Remington rifle, may be on his way now. But the other with a Ruger M77 Standard has tried Hornady 32's, 40's, Rem Premier AccuTips in 40 (which is a boat tail bullet I'm pretty sure), and maybe even Win 34 HP's. But NONE of these have been great for him. This thing has a Nikon Monarch UCC 4.5-16.5 44mm scope on it, and I have this same scope - bought at the same time - on an old 222 I have. But out of his we see 3-shot groups at 100 yards spanning 2.5-3", consistently. When we can occasionally get 2 shots to pile up within say 1/2" of each other, the 3rd shot always strays off in some unpredictable direction - by a mile. I have yet to see this Ruger deliver one even marginally acceptable group, 3-shot, 5-shot, whatever.

Now the barrel doesn't appear to be free floated at all from what I can tell. But the trigger is actually pretty good. I would guess maybe 3lbs, and breaks clean.

If there are any of you out there with this same rifle, please let me know what factory round may be out there that has worked well for you. Reloading is definitely an option, but I would be interested in other opinions of what might be wrong here, including what other fundamentals we may want to consider - even if having to take this thing to a smith.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

I have a little experience with this rifle..but in 223. Remove the pressure points on the stock, or, add some tape to the barrel AT the pressure points to make sure it is contacting both points.

I removed the pressure points and had to remove a little bit more of the barrel channel in the stock to make sure it is free floating.

Ruger's are kind of a funny animal...they either shoot well...or not! Seems to be no in between either.

Sometimes wonder if they don't let their stocks dry to long and have a slight warp to them. Always a nice finish on them, but seem to always have a slight warp in the barrel channel or the action is not centered in the stock.

Also ended up bedding the action in the 223 as well.

Sounds reasonable. So what did you use to smooth out the barrel channel on your 223? I would like to understand more about this process, including how to properly seal the wood again afterward. If it comes to bedding though, I would almost certainly have somebody else do that for him. Glass bedding, pillar bedding, whatever. I don't understand this well enough to even begin to tackle it, at least not on someone else's rifle.

Thanks for your feedback. With winter coming on strong now, we're in no rush. More interested in getting it right and I still want to make sure that we have the complete list of factory ammo available in 204, and that we've sampled all of that first before moving on to more drastic measures.

Used a variable speed dremel with the coarse paper sanding drum to remove the pressure points and provide room to free float the barrel. Start with the middle sized drum (1/2" outer diameter) towards the muzzle end of the barrel. When you have enough room, switch to the larger (7/8" OD) drum.

I seal the barrel channels in wood stock with varethane or eurathane clear (does NOT allow water to soak in).

Bedding is not that hard, but it IS a little more prep time on a Ruger action.

Search on google for bedding rifle action or bedding ruger action for some good directions. READ the directions on the bedding kit several times. Do a dry run a couple times.

If possible, practice on a 22 bolt action or a CHEAP rifle...

Hey sbranden, I have a ruger m77 ultra light and my gun really likes the federal 39 grain sierra blitz kings. If i was you i would give them a try i bet they will shooter better groups then the others. they also put the yotes down good too my farthest dog so far is 450yds.

Thanks acloco.

Ultralightshooter, you're the second person who told me to try the Federal 39 BK's. The other fella I mentioned earlier who I thought might be on his way, just tried some of these this week too and he said they are by far the best performing factory 204 round he has found yet in his Remington. He was shooting 1" in wind from just a bipod - no bags. So these are high on the list of things to try now. Thanks.

A couple of the sites that carry these appear to be on backorder now. Anyone have some quick links to good prices on the Federal Sierra BlitzKings (in stock) ??

sbranden wrote:Thanks acloco.

Ultralightshooter, you're the second person who told me to try the Federal 39 BK's. The other fella I mentioned earlier who I thought might be on his way, just tried some of these this week too and he said they are by far the best performing factory 204 round he has found yet in his Remington. He was shooting 1" in wind from just a bipod - no bags. So these are high on the list of things to try now. Thanks.

A couple of the sites that carry these appear to be on backorder now. Anyone have some quick links to good prices on the Federal Sierra BlitzKings (in stock) ??

That makes 3 of us then, because mine shoots them real well also. Sportsmans Warehouse is where I buy mine at. Oh, and mine is a Ruger Ultralight also.

K22

sbranden wrote: A couple of the sites that carry these appear to be on backorder now. Anyone have some quick links to good prices on the Federal Sierra BlitzKings (in stock) ??

Gunbroker.com has them....

Very nice markislive78! I found some, thanks everyone.