SmallCaliberCentral

I'm getting a real bad desire to try the real shinny nosler 40 grain B.T., am I wasting my time ?? My gun likes the sierra 39 gr. , but I have always liked the ballistic tips in other calibers was wondering if its worth a shot , the other forums seem to be all over the place as far as what bbl. twist is best for the bigger 40 gr. bullet, I have seen everything from 14-1 to 9-1 , my bbl. is the 12-1 , it must be the cabin fever !! has anyone liked them better than the 39 gr sierra's ???

Contender hunter, I believe Silverfox is shooting that bullet. You might search his posts.

contender hunter--The 40 gr. Nosler BT shoots just fine in my Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger. It really gives a lot of "lift" to the prairie dogs. I have posted these photos in this Forum before, but I'll post them here again. My son took these photos before, during, and after I blasted a prairie dog witht he 40 gr. Nosler BTs. I can't remember the exact yardage, but I think it was somewhere between 100 and 125 yards.









My first choice for long-range and short-range prairie doggin' is the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing though. The 39 gr. Sierra has a better BC and thus has a bit less wind deflection than the 40 gr. Nosler and the 39 gr. bullet is a wee bit more accurate from my rifle than the 40 gr. Nosler BT, but not by much. It does a number on prairie dogs too, but not quite like my 40 gr. Nosler BTs. I am using 27.3 gr. of AA2520 with the 40 gr. Nosler bullets at the present time. The brass I'm using is WW and the primer I use is the Rem 7½. Muzzle velocity for my 40 gr. Nosler load is right around 3,870 fps.

The 1 in 14" twist you mentioned in your post is one I have never heard of for the .204 Ruger. I don't believe anyone has a .204 Ruger barrel with a twist slower than 1 in 12. The 1 in 9" twist is one I believe Berger recommends for the 50 gr. bullets they make. When I rebarrel my Savage 12VLP, it will be with a 1 in 11" twist SS super match grade Pac-Nor barrel with 3 grooves. I believe I will stay with the 26" length as well and have the barrel fluted as well. I think there are several shooters who are using the 45 gr. Hornady SP bullets in their 1 in 12" twist factory tubes with good results. I don't think you'd have good results shooting the 50 gr. Berger in a 1 in 12" twist .204 Ruger barrel though, but I haven't tried any of them in my rifle.

When I run out of AA2520 powder, I will be switching to 27.6 gr. of H4895. I get every bit as good accuracy with the H4895 and a tad bit more velocity--3,917 fps at 12 feet from the muzzle.

I guess the only thing you can do is test the 40 gr. Noslers in your rifle and see how they shoot. You really can't make a determination about how they'll shoot in your gun by checking on the way they shoot in mine. Buy a box of 100 bullets and try them out. Only your rifle can tell you if it will shoot them accurately or not.

Hi Silverfox , thanks for taking the time to post those pics. again it makes me smile everytime I see them

The reloading info is very helpfull also and makes me think the sierra 39 grainer IS a very good bullet for accuracy and performance and I probably should leave things be , but I love experimenting and my curiosity might get the best of me , glad to hear you like the nosler bullet also .

Thanks for the report , I will get back to you if and when I can;'t hold out any longer and give them a try !!

Hey Whistlepig how you doing ? where almost into feb. here and still hardly any snow in PA !!!

Thanks for sharing your photos SF. Impressive stuff indeed!!!

I use both the 40 gr noslers and the 39 gr sierras in my VLP for the smaller critters. H-4895 and RL-10X. The sierras have a slight edge in accuracy with mine. They both give great aerodynamics with the prairie poodles (especially when you hit em in the bottom 1/3). I tried the 40 gr V-max and was not happy with the results. Lots of flyers and accuracy rarely comes down under an inch at 100 yds. On the other hand I've tried the factory Hornady 45 gr soft points and the accuracy was just as good as any of my best loads.

SILVERFOX, I was wondering if you would be good enough to share with us your experience with the 204 on Coyotes??? What bullet/powder/weight / velocity combination you have tried and what you like best...........Thanks for your response

Love the photos never been pdogin looks like fun. I have done a lot of research on the barrel twist rates.I have found that 1in12 twist is in about all if not all factory rifles.What shoots the best every rife is different but the research I have found says that 1in12 will stabilize bullets up to 40grn.Berger says right on the box of 40grn bullets 1in12 twist or faster.On 30s and 35 in berger they say 1in14 twist or faster. The twist rates are the benchrest knowledge recommendation! I "had" a h&r ultra varmint in 204 that would not shoot any load I threw at it from 32 grn bullets to 40s. And three different powders had checked by bulls eye gunsmith in marshfield mo. And headspace was way off as you can imagine I traded that rifle for my new savage.Being so disapointed with the h&r I almost went with a22-250. Man am I glad I didnt savage204 out shoots my buddys 22-250 rem all day long. I think he will be getting a 204 before long. The brass I used in the h&r would not work in my savage even after full lenght sizing. Just if you wanted to know the savages are pillar bedded from factory but I glassed mine to just hopping for a little more accuracy. I was stuck at home in resent ice storm and that gave me a good chance to do this on 2 of my favorite rifles.

I'm glad some of you like the "Prairie Dog Acrobatic Troupe!" even though only one of the prairie dogs did his tricks for you. The one left alive on the mound when I launched the other one, must have seen his buddy coming down for a landing and the live one ducked down into the hole. Had he not ducked for cover, parts of his buddy would have fallen right on top of him. I love the .204 Ruger, if for no other reason, for the fact that I can watch the hits and resultant action through my scope even when it is set on 20x!!!!

ncvarhtr-- I purchased my Savage 12VLP the first week of June 2004. I shot lots of 32 gr. Hornady factory ammo at prairie dogs that summer. I hadn't finished working up a load for the 35 gr. FB HP Berger bullets that October, when I decided to see if I could call in a coyote around the first week of October. The only shells I had available were my 32 gr. V-Max loads that had a muzzle velocity of about 4,255 fps. I was fortunate enough to call in a nice male coyote to about 175 yards, where he stopped and was looking right towards me. I had the scope up on 20x, the safety off, and I succumbed to the temptation and touched off a shot. The bullet hit him dead center in the chest. Here is the result. The blood on the ground is what leaked out the little .204 caliber sized hole in his neck and out of his mouth and nose.



About 17 days later, I decided to try the 32 gr. V-Max bullets again:



This was another shot of about 175 yards and another shot right into the chest. There was no fur damage to speak of on either of these coyotes. However, I worked on my 35 gr. FB HP Berger load and finally got it perfected--at least to me it was perfected. Here's one of the first victims of the 35 gr. Bergers. Another chest shot!!!



My 35 gr. Berger bullets leave the muzzle of my rifle at 4,225 fps or so. I use a Hornady casings, Remington 7½ primers, and a VERY HOT LOAD of and H4895 powder. I would strongly advise you to start 5% to 7% below the maximum load listed by Hodgdon and work your way up slowly (like no more than .2 or a grain of powder at at ime). I sight the rifle in to be about 1" to 1.1" high at 100 yards and I can hold about dead on out to almost 275 yards. The trajectory is such that it is 1.5" high at 150 yards, 1" high at 200 yards, 0.3" low at 250 yards, and 1.5" low at 275 yards. The zero is 240 yards.

These 35 gr. Bergers are potent killers on coyotes and they do little or no fur damage if you can hit the coyotes in the right places. Fringe hits will tear them up just like any other bullet. My longest shot has been about 285 yards. I try to stop coyotes from getting any closer than 100 yards if I can.

Nice! Tell us about that interesting looking decoy you've got there. Why the reddish color? It sure appears it works!

Rick in Oregon-- The decoy is supposed to be a red fox! Hence the red primer color. Once a coyote sees that decoy, they are pretty much locked right onto it. The fact that I usually set my FOXPRO right by the decoy also helps rivet their attention at the decoy. I have a grouse wing fastened to the bottom jaw of the red fox. It is on a very fine wire and most any little breeze gets the wing moving to further attract the predators.

SILVERFOX, Thanks very much for the load/bullet and case information on the 204 as well as the pictures and your experiences......I have four (4) .223 Ackley impv. rifles and I use a 50 Gr. V-max at 3750fps and I like that cartridge a lot.......I have a feeling one of them is going to wake up one morning and be a .204..............Thanks again for your comments........George

Silverfox: I thought it was such an arrangement, but had not considered the red color. Seems like you've found the magic combination, and it appears it works very well indeed. Love your stories, and your photos leave nothing to be imagined. Nice work there, bud.

ncvarhtr: I also shoot the 223 Ackley, and also own a 204, and from my experience, once one of your 223AI's is "reborn" as a 204, neither you, or the rifle will ever want to go back. I still shoot my 223AI, but LOVE my 204.

Sidebar:
The 223AI has the advantage of being able to launch heavier bullets than the 204, and in windy conditions, or when you just want more 'smack', it's nice to have an alternative. Life is good with both!

RICK IN OREGON: Thanks for your comments about the .223 AI.....I keep running the numbers thur my Balistic Program using .223 AI data and the .204 Ruger...............With my >223 AI and a 40 Gr. V-Max I can easily get 4050 FPS and when sighted in at 240 yards, like the example shown above, the drop is exactly the same out to 300 yards or so.........After the 300 yard point, the .204 begins to show less drop. About 98% of my shots are 300 yards or less so I keep scratching my head and sitting on the Proverble Fence.........Since you own both maybe you can shed some light on a spot I'm missing..............

ncvarhtr: The short story is that I enjoy many varmint calibers, and shoot about a dozen different calibers including the 22-250, 220 Swift, and the 223AI.

When either running the ballistics on those three against the 204, or shooting them in the field, the drop and wind deflection of the 204 slightly exceeds those three fast, flat shooting calibers. I always thought the Swift was king of the varmint patch, but the 204 just barely beats it out at 500 yards, farther than most varmints are shot.

I'll never sell my other caliber rifles, every one of them has an "imagined need" in my battery, but when everything is said about the 204, such as: "see your hits & misses through the scope, not as loud as the other contenders, fast, flat, easy to reload for, lots of bullet, brass available, realatively cheap to reload for, very accurate, and a good array of rifles chambered for it from all the best makers".......it all adds up to a very favorable set of features that make it hard to resist.

The other three contenders mentioned above, all have more muzzle blast, more recoil, burn more powder to get the same velocity with the same 'bullet for caliber' popular weight range, so IMHO, there is no reason not to own a 204 for about 90% of most varmint shooting/hunting.

Again, just my opinion, and I love to shoot! Here's a couple of shots of both my Sako 204 and my Holland M700 223AI:

The Holland 223AI during a heated battle with chucks and ground squirrels:



A closer look (this rifle has accounted for over 3,400 varmints since built)



The Sako M75V in 204:



And right after coming home from combat with brass from the 'battle' right after I got her, and prior to installing the Leupold M1 elevation adjustment on the scope:



In the end ncvarhtr, I believe you need both!