My New 204 Meets Skippy Part I

[Rick in Oregon]

The 204 thing is contageous. Case in point, apparantly three 204's was not enough, so being severely tempted by a nice Cooper M21 Montana Varminter in 204, it just had to come home with me for our spring ground squirrel (aka Skippy) season.

A few days at the ranch to break in the barrel on rats seemed like the perfect way to start out her new life. Weather was not the best, but hey, any day behind a rifle shooting rats beats a day at work or home, right? Here's a few pics of our recent outing to thin out the rats for our favorite ranchers alfalfa fields.

Morning sun on the snow capped mountains to our south:



Flags flying proudly:



Here's my new girl, yet to be named. The first shot at squirrels was a double after barrel break-in, and the last shot (number 100) launched a squirrel about 12' in the air. She's a keeper, now being bloodied and having proven herself in combat:



Flip side (scope is a Leupold VX3 6.5-20X LR M1 with VHR):



Here's Rat Force One making a hit on Skippy:



Rat-O-Batics = flying rat parts:



I decided to shoot both Coopers on this trip, "Rosa", my 223 got lots of action, as I had 400 rounds with me for her, but only 100 for the new yet un-named MTV. Here's Rosa letting her barrel cool:



One of our setups. Amazing the amount of gear "required" just to do quality bench sniping of rats in an alfalfa field. Talk about logistics!



Yours truly making my contribution to rat elimination:



Here's the terminal effects of a Nosler 32gr BT at 4,100 fps on Skippy after doing a 3-1/2 triple gainer:



END OF PART ONE....MORE IN PART II if you're interested......

[kenbrofox]

Keep em 'em coming Rick, they're always most welcome.Ken

[acloco]

With the pattern in that stock.....Wirly Girl or Marbles comes to mind.

[futuretrades]

Guess the guys got to meet the new addition that you told me about!!!
Hard to keep my mouth shut, but I did it Rick!
Looks like, and sounds like a keeper. Congrats RIO

[Rick in Oregon]

acloco: Yep Tom, it's got some figure. According to Cooper's literature, the Montana Varminter comes with "AA+" wood. It's got both the swirls and figure I wanted, and has noticably more figure than my 'standard' Cooper M21 Varmint in 223. Still working on her name though, but thanks for the suggestions. She needs something "deadly" sounding.

With lots of synthetic stocked varmint rifles, the feel and look of nice walnut is a very pleasant change to my eyes. There's just something about a rifle with a nice stick of wood.......

futuretrades: Thanks bud, she's a keeper for sure. It's hard to keep up with Gary...that guy has a new toy about every time I see him. By the time he got to my place to meet for the shoot, he about had it figured out.....great minds think alike? Won't be too long now until the Annual Rat Rodeo! See you in June!

[TD-Max]

Rick,

Do the Coopers more closely match your reamer specs or are they "way out there" to the lands like most others?

[Rick in Oregon]

TDM: No, the Cooper chambers are cut properly, not like the mass-produced SAMMI factory chambers found on most guns. I load the new MTV 32gr Nosler BT's .017" from the lands......the way it should be. No silly rediculous jump to the lands in Cooper chambers. Same goes for my Cooper Varminter in 223....nice properly cut chamber to reach the lands if wanted.

I pre-loaded 100 rounds of the Cooper test load prior to the rifles arrival (H335), seated them only about .075" into the case. When I checked the chamber with my Stoney Point tool, I found I was .017" from the lands, just left the bullets alone and did not seat deeper and it worked out perfectly both on paper and on Skippy.

[TD-Max]

And the magic .017 was derived from? How would this differ from .010"?

Just asking as I have worked up a batch of test loads for my 22-250 and am running at .010" shy using the Hornady Lock-n load comparator device.

Sounds like the Cooper is much better, but still a bit on the long side.

[Rick in Oregon]

No magic at all. As I mentioned, being pressed for time, I pre-loaded 100 detailed WW cases with the same load Cooper tests their rifles with. Not having the rifle in hand yet, I just loaded up 100 rounds of the factory test load, seated the bullets with my Redding Comp Seater just into the case enough to properly hold the bullet. Remember, these are single shot rifles, no thought whatever to any magazine or feeding issues.

When the rifle arrived I checked the chamber throat dimensions with my Stoney Point tool and found that my pre-loaded rounds were .017" from the lands. I had zero time to dink around with re-seating to another imaginary "ideal" seating depth, so just took them to the ranch and broke-in the barrel on rats all day. Groups on paper confirmed that both the rifle and load shoot quite well.

After our rat season, I'll play with different combinations, but for now, I've got a sub 1/4 MOA rifle for shooting squirrels. One thing for certain, the rifle is more capable than I am.

[TD-Max]

With a chamber built with your reamer though and touching the lands you would have quite a bit more bullet in the case correct?

Looking at teh Cooper if you tried to just touch you'd be pretty minimal on seating depth at .053" wouldn't you?

[acloco]

Vampirella? The Sun Goddess Death

[Rick in Oregon]

With a chamber built with your reamer though and touching the lands you would have quite a bit more bullet in the case correct?

Yes, correct, but I don't plan to mess with this chamber until it's rebarrel time. My custom M700 11 twist was chambered to touch with the bullet base at the neck/shoulder junction.

Looking at teh Cooper if you tried to just touch you'd be pretty minimal on seating depth at .053" wouldn't you?

The number I gave earlier was just a guess as to how much was in the case. It's enough to hold the bullet axially straight (TIR=.001 - .0005") and is actually more like .120" as it turns out (silly guess on my part) so with no time available to tweak anything (just hours from leaving), I boxed them up and shot them. If I wanted to reach the lands later, there would be plenty of bullet in the case for the type of shooting I do: load and box them up, take out of box and shoot, put back into box. No worry about being in pockets or feeding through a magazine. Perfectly adequate seating depth for a single shot rifle and being able to reach the lands and still have plenty of bullet in the case.

This arrangement would not work through any 204 magazine though; only single shot rifles or a magazine-fed rifle that was fired single shot only.

[Rick in Oregon]

Vampirella? The Sun Goddess Death

Hey, we may be getting closer!

[Glen]

Cool pics once again RIO!! Thanks for sharing!!

If the naming of that sweet little rig is open for suggestions I like AnnA. AnnA seems to have that AA+ sound to her.

[6.5swede]

MTV..... Misty... Terminal Vindicator



Larry