Who Needs a 26" Barrel?

[hemiallen]

Rick, I saw that you picked up that vartag.

My FIL's friend has a few coopers and his latest is the vartag. Beautiful guns and exceptional shooters, glad you got her. My FIL dislikes the small action scaled for these varmint calibers, guess his blood runs rem 700..lol


Any chance the 221fb brass was reasonable? I picked up a 527 in 221FB when Nosler had their gun auction, at a killer price. I had both a 10" 221 barrel and 256 win barrel for a contender many moons ago, foolishly sold both. I think Midway is around $40 a bag... need to get a mess for next spring.


After shooting a few 1" plus groups, and the factory saying, so....


I pillar bedded and glass bedded the action. Groups shrunk in half and I shot my best ever group of 0.335 5 shot group. Hopefully the new 204's and new 223 can get me to an overall average around half inch with practice and reloading.


Thanks again for the great pictures and information

Allen

[Rick in Oregon]

Rick, I saw that you picked up that vartarg. Any chance the 221fb brass was reasonable?

Allen: Yep, that Cooper 20VT is a sweetie, and one of the things that drew me to it was the small Cooper M38 action. Can't understand why your FIL prefers a M700 action to the nice very short Cooper M38....I have both, and it's a hands down easy preference for me in favor of the solid bottom, very stiff M38 action. Guess it's the old Ford vs. Chevy thing, eh?

As for the 221FB brass being 'reasonable'......NO, it was NOT. Anywhere I find it, it's over $40 a bag of 100 pcs. I sure wish some other makers would produce the stuff.

Good luck finding some of the stuff cheaper. I spent all day yesterday on 100 pcs of it, forming, necking down, neck turning, prepping, and today is "Annealing Day" here. The things we put ourselves through in the name of "fun"........

Thanks again for the kind words, glad you enjoyed the post. It was purty interesting to me also in regard to the outcome.

[Critter]

For all practical purposes, therefore: 24", 25", or 26" it matters little.

Exactly! Unless of course, you have a favored barrel length you just prefer for no other reason than you LIKE IT that way.

Not sure what barrel length you were using the day pictured below (24"?), but Skippy and his pals seemed to die rather well, whatever barrel length you were using on your rifle.

I had a Reminton 700BDL Varmint in .223 and never really liked it. When a member of another board got one of Kelly's new design stocks and decided to sell it, I ripped the action out of the BDL, purchased bottom iron for the new M40A1-3 stock from the guy in Southern Oregon and aquired a 24" 6 groove from Lilja in .204 and had it all assembled and bedded by the riflesmith. Fitted the unlit SN-3 with Horus H-25 that had formerly been on my 7WSM and ended up with a fairly accurate squirrel rifle. Rifle is capable of .25 to .3 moa all day long with 32 grain hornady. Hits skippy with solid audible wack. Generally see him exiting the field of view with great speed on impact.

[Rick in Oregon]

[quote="Critter]Generally see him exiting the field of view with great speed on impact.[quote]

Speaking of Skippy exiting stage right, my battery of 223's is getting smaller, as some of them are getting turned into .20 calibers of late. I'm thinking now of a .20 Duster to fill out the line. (20 VarTarg up to 204 Ruger) The 222 Rem case necked to .20 with blown out shoulder angle to 30*. No "need" at all, just another "want". Can't have too many rifles, right? Skippy should have choices for his final trip to the Big Alfalfa Patch in the Sky. Now if I could just find another Sako L461........

[Captqc]

Rick, being retired has thrown you totally out of control!!! I love it!!! Can't wait for spring!!! Gary

[Critter]

Can't have too many rifles, right? Skippy should have choices for his final trip to the Big Alfalfa Patch in the Sky

Let's see now, there's a few others:

.204-.250
.204-6mm Lee Navy AKA .204-.220
.204-.30 Win for lever fans
.204-5" 54 Cal

and for those that like their wild cats really hot:

.204-16" 50 caliber

for those Oregonians that wish to hunt Montana without all the driving.