Summer Shooting with the 204

[FireBallGuy]

Sadly where I live the prairie dog and ground hog do not dwell. We must content ourselves with skunks, badgers, crows, pigeons and various other vermin to pass our summer weekends. After much thought, debate and re-reading of reloading notes, I have settled on the following load for the summer: 26.0 grains RL-10X, hornady case, 205M primer and the 32 grain sierra BK seated to 2.325" AOL. Puts 5 into just under 1/2" religiously and is a lot of fun to shoot! SPend a lot of time at the range with my 3 girls as well....usual targets may include golf balls, clays pigeons, water filled 500ml pop bottles among other things. This load was selected for it "splat factor" used it before and was very pleased. With a 100 yard zero it is less than 6 inches down at 300 yards and drifts less than 10 inches. At our usual summer shooting ranges this will be a wicked load for all intended purposes. once the crops come up shots will likely not come past 100 yards so that makes this choice even better! Got a skunk or 2 last summer with this load and at 50 yards or less it puts a skunk into MULTIPLE pieces....LOL! Have fun this summer everyone and take your kids shooting with you!

[remy3424]

Not a lot of vermin in my backyard either. Maybe some 13 line ground squirrels if you can find pasture ground, most everything is row crops here(corn & soybeans). 17HMR is plenty for them! I am blessed with excellant pheasant populations usually, not sure about this year after the winter we just came through. Decent whitetails can be found within short driving distances also. Not much to shoot the high-powers at except we have great access to printers and paper for printing off targets. 4-5 hours west and I'm in the sod poddle territory, I guess I'm lucky. My father was a farmer, so I have a quick 5 mile drive to private shooting and 15 miles to a county range so going out for a quick shoot with my son is pretty easy for me.

[FireBallGuy]

That is what it is all about my friend!

[TD-Max]

I had a few of my 26gr 10x loads pierce primers a while back. I never noticed when or why, but do keep an eye on them. These were with CCI 450 thick walled cups. Figure it was probably heat related, but again I did not realize that it was happening at the time.

[FireBallGuy]

Interesting....these loads were worked up in the heat of last summer and had no issues. I am using the 205M's...have been for this gun from day 1 without a primer issue to date. And, I might add, have put loads through it that created a VERY sticky bolt as well. Very strange. Thanks for the warning.

[TD-Max]

I'm hoping mine were just flukes. Made no sense to me either. No sticky bolts, just noticed them in my ammo box that way. Pretty sure these were from 39BK's if memory serves.

[FireBallGuy]

All I know for sure is that this load in my remington is like a laser beam and the splat factor is OFF the scale!

[TD-Max]

Same in my Sako. Surprising to me the same loads worked in my Remington too.

Too bad it's over sugested max it would be a great factory load.

[FireBallGuy]

Sure would be! I am finding a lot of common ground with other shooters in the 204 with 10X.....25.1 grains with 39 or 40 grainers appears to be a superb load for many guys in here, myself included. Maybe we have finally found the "Wonder Powder".....LOL! Going to get my hands on some of that new IMR stuff on the weekend. From what I have read so far the velocities being turned up by this stuff looks REALLY promising! We shall see.....

[TD-Max]

New IMR?

[FireBallGuy]

IMR 8028XBR, sorry was not specific.

[remy3424]

I guess I intentionally avoided 10x in working up a prairie dog load. It has been over 110 degrees on shoots before, it is in the 60's now when I'm developing a load. I have been led to believe Hodg. Extreme powder lines are not sensitive to temp, makes me they are going to shoot closer to the same in any season. Might all be an advertising gimick, but I bought it!

[futuretrades]

For my two favorite loads for the 204, I am using both RE10X and Hodgdon Benchmark. Benchmark is one of Hodgdon's extreme powders. Here is a tip for shooting in the heat. I keep my ammo in an ice chest, so it is not exposed to the heat of the day. I learned this tip from a friend of mine, the hard way!
It was 90 degrees, and I was working up loads for my 223, using H335. Kept my ammo in the shade. Started piercing primers in a load that was in fact 2 full grains of powder under max charge! So now when shooting in hot temps, I keep my ammo in an ice chest, and that includes loads with Benchmark.

Just my 2 cents

[remy3424]

I usually like to keep the sandwiches and drink in the cooler but hey, tighter groups, drink it warm!!! Well that would help keep the temp part of the equation in check. I was just reading about the new IMR 8208xbr powder, not senstive to heat, burn rate is shown next to H4895. Has anyone cracked a can of it yet??? I just saw Hotshot's thread.

[FireBallGuy]

Getting mine tomorrow.....first test mule......17 furball! I mean fireball.....LOL!