SmallCaliberCentral

Just joined the forum! I wanted to sare my expirence with this fine little caliber. I harvested a deer with my sabre defense in 204 last season and it's performance was spectacular! I was planning on plugging a yote, but a nice buck presented himself insted. I capitalized on the situation and the performance of that little 32gr v-max sold me on the devastation that this round is capable of. It liqified the lungs and heart of the deer at about 100 yards. It even passed through a rib! Obviously no exit which is not great, but there was still a substantial blood trail for the thirty yards the deer ran. My family was so impressed with the damage it had done that my brother borrowed it to cull some pigs and it performed flawlessly, even with a poor liver shot on a 250lb sow. He used the 45gr soft points on it however and had through and through penetration. Save the this caliber is unethical bull for a different thread by the by. I have hunted with a 223 with a 1005 success rate for several years on deer sized game. The issue is the light bullet constrution of the v-maxes which is not ideal. A neck shot would have been preferable on the deer, but i was curiouse as to how the round would perform with a normal chest shot. Sorry no pics.

*100% succes rate not 1005.

Any body else have experience taking game larger that varmints with a 204? Performance? I will try to dig out pictures of the deer to post.

Glad you are happy with the caliber. Since my opinion is BS, I will say no more.

chicoredneck wrote:Any body else have experience taking game larger that varmints with a 204? Performance? I will try to dig out pictures of the deer to post.

I would suggest doing a search. This has been hashed out more than once and it ALWAYS goes in the direction that you're hoping this thread won't. Suffice it to say that the majority of forum members disagree with the use of a .204 on deer and other big game species.

Oh Goodness Gracious theres a storm coming. Get in the potato cellar Dorothy!!

I just left the building!

many people don't understand that bullet construction and shot placement have far more to due with lethality that the size of the caliber. My usual deer rifle is a 25-06. We have a property where we will take large numbers of pigs at once so I started hunting with a kel-tec 223 because i could change out the mags faster and therby take more pigs before they scattered. I have since replaced that rifle with an ar-15 that is more accurate. The point is that when we (the friends and family I hunt with) compare the wounds of the animals shot with a 223 vs the 25-06, 30-06 or 264 winmag that is often used on the same hunts there is not a noticable differance. At longer range there would deffinately be a difference as energy decreases, but anything below 300-400 yards is negligable. Modern bullets construted for hunting are amazing in what they can produce wound wise. I can safely say that the internal damage of the deer shot with the 204 was one of the most severe wounds i have ever seen on a game animal that size. It was amazing that the deer even ran. Externally because there was no exit and the caliber is so small you could barely tell it had been hit. I know that i was using a varmint bullet, which is not ideal. I prefer to take my game through the neck or front/upper shoulder to drop them in their tracks though, so for me this is not an issue so much. And on pigs we don't care what happens. We take a few little ones and maybe a nice sow for meat. The rest lay there for the yotes and vultures.

as a side not I respect your views if you feel this is to small a cliber and disagree with my methods. I just don't want to fight about it because we are both set in our ways

that's nice....yawn....

chicoredneck wrote:many people don't understand that bullet construction and shot placement have far more to due with lethality that the size of the caliber.

It's safe to assume that most people posting on this forum also understand a great deal about all of the factors that you mentioned. A lack of knowledge is not the reason that most forum members are opposed to using the .204 on big game.

I understand that you're new and want to talk about your experiences with the .204, but I'm afraid that this thread is not going to make you feel very welcomed. I understand that you didn't come here to pick a fight and I commend you for that. However, feelings run pretty deep on this issue and it would probably be best to jump into other discussions about using the .204 for varmints. You'll find a great group of guys here who love to share stories and help each other out.

as stated, i respect your hunting practices and beliefs and ask that you respect mine. thank you for keeping your responses civil. i was wondering if anybody else has had similar results using this caliber on medium game. There has got to be some people for the South, Texas or from California who have at least used this caliber on feral pigs? It has only been used on two outings so far and i don't want to push my luck becuase the bullet construction is marginal. The 45gr held up well though, it seems.

I am also new to this forum, and use an AR-204 platform.

My son and I are going hog hunting in Oklahoma very soon. He will be using the AR-204 and I am using a 45cal muzzleloader and........a CZ 527 Varmint in .17 Rem
Will be set-up on feeder locations, and will only be taking HEAD shots with the .204 and .17 Rem. No shots over 100yards. We keep and utilize all game we harvest.

That said, many folks in Louisiana Must use only rim-fire to hunt Hogs=Small Game, while the Big Game=Deer season is on-going. They regularly harvest hogs with just 22mags and the new weapon of choice= the .17HMR Almost all are head-shots from 20-150 yards. (That's with 17- 20g bullets with muzzle Vel= 2500fps)

We do not use our varmint rifles on deer here in Nebraska by law AND by our own choice/wisdom. (Nebraska actually will allow a .223 with the proper weight bullets to attain 900 foot-pounds at 100 yards)

And I didn't post this info to incite flame-wars, or to advocate (pro or con) the use of varmint calibers for big game/ big hogs etc...Just my opinion, some facts about LA, and the facts of our up-coming hog hunt

I plan on going Elk hunting this fall. Do you think my 17 hmr is adequate, or should I use my 204?