SmallCaliberCentral

A little birdie told me that Nosler will soon introduce a new 204" bullet in Ballistic Tip Lead Free, weighing 32 grains. This should give the guys in Kalifornia condor areas (or soon the entire state) another option in their .20 cal rifles.

I was hoping for a 35 grainer as a neat mid-range weight, but it seems alot of shooters just want velocity over BC. Whatever, another .20 cal bullet option is a good thing.

Good news rick! Too bad my remington hates noslers! Although.....the inner madman will buy and try a box just for giggles.

I'll be sure to try them. Nosler products seem to work for me. It just takes time and barrel life to work up loads.

Just loaded a few of the new Hornady .204 30 grain NTX, these are lead free, polymer tipped, and boat tail to boot. They also seem to be very consistent in weight and dimension.

However, they are .742"-.744" long and when plugged into the Miller Stability Calculator at 4085 fps (average velocity of my loads) in a 1:12" or 1:11" barrel they come up unstable (Stability Factor .669 and .831 respectively) . They begin to be partially stable with a 1:10" twist (S.F. 1.006), and stable in a 1:8" twist (S.F. 1.572). Because the Miller formula has proven accurate with all my other experiments, I'm going to order a fast twist .204 Ruger barrel and see what happens. The failure of 40 grain bullets in some barrels and the problem of unpredictable fliers, is an indication that 1:12" is way too slow for this cartridge.

Nosler 40 grainers shoot excellent out of my Savage 12 BTCSS. 23.8 grains of RL10x shoots five shot clover leafs @ 100 yards off a rest, and I'm real happy with that. I'll have to work up a 32 grain load when these become available.