I bought a Remington XR-100 Rangemaster. I LOVE IT! I was a little concerned with it being a single shot for 'yote hunting - but I found a solution.
I took a nylon/spandex cartridge holder (the kind you slide on your stock) that holds ten rounds. I wear that on my left forearm (I'm right handed) with the cartridges sitting upside down.
It is very natural and fluid to pop the bolt grab a fresh round and shoot again. I'm only a little slower than my 5 shot bolt action buddies!
For doubling on 'yotes - you won't miss the first shot. If shot on 'yote #2 is a running shot within 300 yards, you won't miss that one either!
I would say with practice you can pop off an aimed 2nd shot within 1.5 seconds.
When your attack is going well you are about to be ambushed.
Another rifle to consider that is a nice, light, accurate, walk-around rifle is the Browning A-bolt. Browning made some runs of this rifle in the .204 Ruger, but it is not catalogued in the normal product listings. You can find some of the .204s for sale on the internet. I have the Browning A-bolt Medallion in .223, and in only a year's time, I have probably shot over 1500 rounds through it. It has never malfunctioned, it is accurate, and it is fast handling. If it were available in a lefthand .204 I would have it, but it is not. It has taken many rockchucks, ground squirrels, and jackrabbits for me. It has a detachable box magazine so you can buy an extra to carry to reload quickly when you get into a firefight with the varmints.
For a scope, I have several of the Leupold 4 to 14s, and they are excellent. The Varminter reticle that they offer is great for longer shots.
Well I made a journey to Cabela's this morning to pick out my new .204. They were having a special on Remingtons and I ended up with a VLSS Thumbhole. Actually, I need to find a FFL close by. The state of PA has decided to upgrade its database for firearm purchases and shut down the whole system for a number of days. So I am still without my new purchase, but I bought all the other goodies and will now await my new .204. I was not very happy that I drove close to three hours only to find out that no firearms are being sold in the state of PA for the next 3-5 days. Cabelas did take care of me in the end. I can't wait to get her home and try her out. Thanks for the help.
I bought a Savage .204 16FSS early this year. Had to send it back to the factory because it key holed with factory ammo and had a too large a firing pin hole in the bolt. While it was gone I purchased a T/C Encore. It's a nice rifle and shot less than a MOA out of the box with factory ammo and now does just .5 MOA with handloads. Still not satisfied I have a Cooper on order.
NRA Endowment
Arizona Antelope Foundation
Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society
Irishfan, welcome to the club! As you can see in the the picture of me and my VLSS Thumbhole (eariler post) I'm smiling, that picture was taken after my first three shots, all kills, and now after several hunderd rounds later I'm still smiling. I'm sure you will be smiling soon too! Good hunting, Gary a.k.a. captqc
I am new to this forum and this is my first post. From my personal experience I would highly recommed a Howa 1500 TH with the varmint barrel. I have a 204 TH SS Remington 700 with varmint barrel and had two Savage TH SS Varmint. I got rid of the Savages and had my gunsmith do extensive work to the Remington to get it to shoot as well as my three Howa TH SS's, 204, 22-250 and 223. I also have a Cooper 204 and a Cooper 22-250 neither of which can outshoot the Howas which will all manage sub-caliber shot groups. The only modification I have made is to install Timney triggers in the Howas. My Remignton has a Jewel triggger. All of my rifles are checked and fired in a controlled environment so outside elements are eliminated. Thus, repeated accuracy can be determined without the influence of wind,hail,snow or temperature change! Neeless to say the results in the field are the same with the Howa winning the honors. My field testing is on "Biodegradeable Pop-ups", better known as "Prarie Poodles" to some.
The Howas are well balanced and are not subject to jamming which was the downfall of the Savages along with the joke of a trigger called "Accu Trigger". My scope preference for clarity and tracking listed in order are: Zeiss, Swaroski and Night Force. The three Night Force scopes which I have on various rifles are excellent scopes to say the least but do not have the clarity of a Zeiss or Swaroski. Friends who have hunted with me rank the scopes in the same order without any input from me; coincidence or just reality?
Everyone who has hunted with me and shot the 204's has purchased one. Good luck with whatever rifle and scope you decide to purchase.
A sub-caliber shot: For a 204 that would be a shot group under .204 measured from the center of the shot. For a visual description the second and third shot essentially feather the edges of the first shot by .102 or less. Under that circumstance the centers for shot two and three would be less then .204 from the center of the first shot. Any good varmint rifle should be able to shoot a .25 shot group or less. I hope this explains what a sub-caliber shot group is. Expert shooters can shoot .10 shot groups or less. That is close to putting each bullet through the first hole. All shots are at 100 yards. Good luck shooting.
Last edited by Sub-caliber on Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
i agree with sub-caliber on the howa 1500. 2 years ago i got a howa in 223. liked it so much i just bought another howa in 204 ruger. i put a timney trigger in the 223 after shooting it for about month, and was not satisfied with the factory trigger. when i got my 204, i ordered a timney for it before i even shot the rifle. i do not have bags to shoot off of but with a varminter rest which is not the best shooting platform, the load i worked up for my 223 will shoot under 1" moa. i do not shoot paper much and the weather around here is unpredictable, so i consider 1" moa for shooting pd's pretty good. i am in the process of working up loads for my 204. just got the barrel broke in. but i really love both of my howa's. when i got the 204, i asked the salesman about the savage, he just frowned and said " you don't want a savage. it costs more and it is accurate but it is kind of crude, and the accu trigger is a joke." he sells both savage and weatherby's and a lot of other manufacturers, but he said for the money the howa gets the nod every time.
just my 2 cents
NRA Benefactor Life member HOWA 1500 Varmint 204 Ruger, Bull Barrel, Hogue Overmold Stock, Leupold VXII 6-18x40mm AO LRV Custom Reticle Timney Trigger
Cooper Mdl 21 20VarTargW/Leupold VXIII, 6-20x40AO Varmint Hunter reticle.
Sub-caliber wrote:A sub-caliber shot: For a 204 that would be a shot group under .204 measured from the center of the shot. For a visual description the second and third shot essentially feather the edges of the first shot by .102 or less. Under that circumstance the centers for shot two and three would be less then .204 from the center of the first shot. Any good varmint rifle should be able to shoot a .25 shot group or less. I hope this explains what a sub-caliber shot group is. Expert shooters can shoot .10 shot groups or less. That is close to putting each bullet through the first hole. Good luck shooting.
Thank you for the explanation. That is some impressive shooting for sure! I'm glad to hear that your Howa rifles shoot so well.
WrzWaldo wrote:Sub .25 groups are common place on the internet.
LOL...!! That's a very true statement......
You see a lot more of them on the Internet than you can see at a top flight BR shoot... I think there's less wind and mirage for most folks to deal with on their keyboards...
That's a very true statement......