Need loads for my first .204

[broncsandwhiskey]

Hi I am new to the world of the .204 but not to the world of reloadind and shooting. I have an extensive colection of dog rifles but I just bought my first .204 and I did not skimp on equipment in my opinion. I bought a Savage modle 12 LRPV and placed a 6.5x20 Burris on top and I shot some of my Father-in-laws loads and it grouped .375" and .419". Of course that was after a propper barrel break in. The load was 39 gr blitz kings with reloade 10X at 24.7 grs. Now I have some componets and I would like to get some feed back from you the experts on .204's. I would like to know a load for the 32 gr V-Max and reloader 10X. If any you have thoughts on the subject I would be very thankful. I work a rotating schedule so if I don't get back to you right away I am sory about that. Thanks for the help. By the way I am a huge Savage fan and own 15 rifles of various callibers but this is my first and not my last .204.

[Hotshot]

Welcome b&w. Sounds like you are on the right path with your loads and equipment. When I was shooting 32 SBK's my Savages shot little tiny groups with 26.3 of R10X, 27.8 of Benchmark, 27.5 of Xterminator. All of these loads were over 4100fps on my chrony. After having some strange fliers on a pd hunt in Montana I checked the loads on paper and my favorite rifle was keyholing about 1 out of 10 shots. I never did notice this problem with 32 vmax bullets and the same powder charges. Groups were very good with the Hornady's but not quite as small as the Sierra's. I switched to the 39's as per advice on this forum and have been so happy with them I never went back to 32's.

Seems like you scored a borderline brilliant father-in-law to teach you to shoot Savage rifles and 39sbk's.

[skipper]

26.0 gr. RE-10X, CCI BR-4 Primers, WW or RP brass and the 32 gr. Sierras always worked for me. Until I got my custom rifle, RE-10X was my go to powder for almost everything I shot.

32 gr. Sierra - 26.0 RE-10X
35 gr. Berger - 25.5 RE-10X
39 gr. Sierra - 25.1 RE-10X
40 gr. Berger - 25.1 RE-10X
45 gr. Hornady - 24.5 RE-10X

It's nice to have a powder that does the job across the spectrum.

[Frank]

The 39gr Sierra B.K. & RL10X powder for the 204 is darn near impossible to beat in terms of both accuracy & velocity combined; & is my favorite load (w/25grs @ 3700+ fps).

I say this after close to a thousand rounds & litterly d o z e n s of various loads tested in my 204. The poor / limited bullet choices that "work well" is also one of the things that I don't like about the 204 (but still love it anyhow. lol)

The 32gr bullets are well known for keyholing... The barrel has to be kept constantly cleaned to help prevent this... which of course is a pain in the rrr'ss. Especially on praire dog hunts or even target shooting for that matter.

Regards

[broncsandwhiskey]

Thanks to everybody that responded to my post and for the load info. It has been a very big help in my quest to put a massive whipping on those little pasture ratts.