Bullets

[Hedge]

I see that most .204 shooters use Hornady, Sierra and Berger bullets. Can't seem to find any comments about Nosler.
Anyone use them and, if so, how do they perform for you? I have some I'm planning to test and of Hornady, Sierra and Nosler, the Noslers are, by far, the most uniform in dimension.

[boomer84]

I also am interested in this as i was looking a trying the 40gn noslers and was wondering if anyone had any luck with them in 1:12 twist barrels?

Boomer

[Joe O]

In32 grain,I switched to the Nosler, in my 204,and 20 Ackley Bee.Haven't shot at varmints yet,but accuracy is great.

[Rick in Oregon]

All five of my .20 cal rifles seem to shoot both the Sierra BK and the Nosler BT very well, with the slight accuracy nod going to the Sierras. However because the high volume of shooting on ground squirrels and chucks we do here, I've standardized on shooting the Noslers, as they're right here in town and their seconds shoot just as well as 'firsts', and the cost is substantially less. Those Blitz Kings are getting purty spendy lately for high volume shooting. (The cost of raw materials is through the roof!)

My 20 VarTarg loves the 32gr Nosler BT, and my 12-twist Cooper MTV 204 does well with the Nosler 40gr BT, as does my 11-twist custom M700. This is a target shot during load development.....don't shoot much paper except for that, mostly just critters. The flyer was the first cold-bore shot.



I should note that all five of my .20 cal rifles all shoot the Nosler 32gr BT into .5" or less at 100 yards......definitely "minute of rat".

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

I like 'em.

These are a couple of my better 3-shot groups using 32-gr Noslers @200 yards:


The upper group measures 5/16" C-C, 0.15 MoA. The lower measures 11/64" C-C, 0.08 MoA.

[Valar]

Ihavent tried Noslers in my 204 yet. I have very good loads in 308 win and 22-250 with Nosler Balistic tips

[Hedge]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Way too windy the last few days to check out the loads. But, it's nice to know that Noslers are in the game.
I'm hoping they shoot well in my rifle.

Nice shooting, Rick! You, too Fred! That 200 yd. group is really sweet.

[Silverfox]

Hedge--I'm getting into this discussion kind of late, but I have been out of town for several days. Anyway, I have a Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger that I have shot quite a few 40 gr. Nosler BT bullets through. I had the rifle sighted in for the 39 Sierra BlitzKings and when I shot the 40 gr. Noslers it would shoot pretty much dead on for windage, but about a half inch higher than the 39 SBKs. I never bothered to change the POI, I just allowed for the higher point of impact. I did get some spectacular acrobatics out of prairie dogs with the 40 gr. Noslers, even a bit better acrobatics than with the 39 gr. SBKs.

The load I used for the 40 gr. Noslers was 27.6 gr. of H4895. Muzzle velocity with this load was 3,778. Not blazing speed, but very good accuracy. The 12VLP wouldn't shoot the 40 gr. V-Max or the 40 gr. Berger BT VLD bullets any better than about 1" to 1.5", but the 40 gr. Noslers worked fine. Your mileage may vary. I guess you just have to shoot some of the bullets to find out if they work in your rifle.

[Hedge]

Silverfox -

Thanks for the post. Initial tests with the Nosler 40s are showing promise with 27.6 of H4895. About the same velocity, as well.
I have some seating adjustments to check out and then a 10 shot string for speed data. Interesting that they shot higher than the SBKs.

I've got a string of bullet weights to run tests on...32gr Nosler, Sierra, Vmax, Hornady; 39gr. SBK; 40gr Sierra, Hornady, Nosler. I have a load for the 26gr VG that launches ground squirrels like a rocket. But, the coyotes are abundant around here and it's time to thin 'em out. With all the rain we've had, it's been a hard year on the pheasants. Too large a population of coyotes isn't going to help, especially since a lot of the farmers have cut their CRP.

[Hedge]

Just ran some tests on the SBKs - 39gr & 32gr.
Figure this one out; using H4895 and running the load gamut of 26.2 - 27.4 gr for the 39s and 27.4 -28.8 gr for the 32s, nearly every group showed signs of instability. Elongated holes and just plain ol' sideways keyholes.

But, with 40gr and 32 gr Noslers the holes are clean. There has to be something different with the SBKs.
At any rate, they just don't shoot in my rifle.

[204Shooter]

I also standardized on the Nosler 40 grainers because they were considerably cheaper than the Sierras. I shoot them in my Ruger 1-12 twist and they shoot great. Really could not tell the difference in accuracy between the Noslers and Sierras so, since the Noslers were cheaper, I loaded up on them.

[Hedge]

More testing to do with the Noslers. They cost more than the Hornadys but when I measure a batch from base to ogive, I get as much as +/- .005" with the Hornadys and Sierra. The Noslers run +/- .001 consistently.

[bow shot]

I've been shooting Sierra matchking (6.5mm) and SBK (.204), Berger varmint/target (.204) because it seemed to me that these were the preferred bullets amoung the big boys . I had equivalent success with Hornady 32 and 40 VMAx in my savage .204 bolt.

I've always wondered if the Speer, Nosler, etc. would shoot justa s well.

[sakofan]

How do the nosler 40 grain bullets shoot in 1/12 twist factory barrels ?
My remmy wont shoot the 40grain vmax but will shoot the 39grain sierra.
Just wondered if it would be worth giving the noslers a try.

[Hedge]

My Savage is a 1-12 twist and the Noslers are looking good. Haven't had time to really ring 'em out, yet. Right in the middle of my testing, my old scope lost its zero. Reticle wasn't stable. Should have known something was wrong with it because loads I'd tested before were not working out any more. Just waiting for new rings to mount the Viper on. Then, we start over.