Thanks,
Larry
New to the forum so i thought I should introduce myself.. name is Larry and located in NW Montana, Whitefish. Born and raised here in Whitefish but lived for many years in N. Idaho, Post Falls. Have been an avid gopher shooter since the late '50's. Mostly with my old Sears M46.. a.k.a. Marlin M57 in .22lr. Recently added a Savage 93 in .17HMR to handle the 125 yd plus stuff. I had a Rem 788 in 22-250 for many years but it went by the wayside for some reason I don't recall. ;0) It's tough in this area any more to find any place to stretch out any center-fire varmint round, tough enough finding a place to shoot the .22 or .17HMR. All my old haunts are now covered with houses or surrounded by houses. My uncle's 300 plus acre ranch is now even in the city limits!! Grrrrr!! Having been one of the man unemployed for some time it has given me time to work on projects etc and to think about getting something to really reach out with for gophers which also will warrant a trip to the east side to try some PD shooting. Anyway... saved up and bought a Rem 700 in .204 Ruger. No glass for it yet and in the interest of being able to shoot it anytime soon it may end up initially with an old 3-9 scope that I have had for years. Have in days gone by also used my 6.5x55 for gophers with 87gr Speer HP's... absolutely devastating on gophers out to my longest hit at approx 400 yds. That was many moons ago, 30 plus yrs!! I'm hoping the .204 will be as painless as my old 22-250 and 6.5x55 in finding a suitable load for it. Been reloading since the late '60's. M old M94 Mauser and the 788 would shoot most anything I tried in them, handloads, to half inch or less if I did my part. I've been reading all that is available here on bullets and powders for the .204 and am happy to see that Win 748, my favorite in my 22-250, is a favored powder by some. I'll start there with load development and then perhaps H335 and BL/C-2. Debated long and hard before getting the .204. Wanted to build a .20 Vartarg as I had a .221 Fireball in a Contender years ago and loved it. The small case capacity doesn't hamper it's performance at all and makes it very economical to shoot lots. Bad habit of mine!!
Enjoy reading here as there is a tremendous amount of expertise here on all facets of shooting and reloading etc. Thanks for the great reading everyone. Now back to some projects.... finishing the built and designed from scratch stock for my Savage 93 and working on the sporter stock for my M96/38 Mauser. (Bubba had already done his thing on it before I got it!!!) Then on to designing a stock for the Rem 700 and drooling over what wood to use!! So many decisions!!!!!
Later!!
Larry
