Hey guys well to start off im new here and am from Australia my name is Dayv.
I have just recently purchased a howa varmint barrel 204r, and ive been looking around for loads as I am planning to reload for it, and I keep seeing people saying they are achieveing muzzle velocities of around 4300fps (not on here) with hand loads now I cant find any load data to match a muzzle velocity this quick am I missing something or are these ppl stretching it a little?
Lighter bullets plus more powder = speed but most of us like to find the load that give us the best accuracy ( one hole at a 100 yards). Powder company data and other reloading manuals are only guidelines as they are liable for printing theses loads so what they say is max will be the max safe load they will print!! Having said that I know a few blokes that have loads over max and show no signs of over pressure or stress on primers and cases. Also know some can't handle safe max loads printed in manuals! So my advise in your hunt for speed is to start low and work up slow an always check for pressure signs and stress!!!
So once again welcome and we love pictures here so take lots and share!!!
hey boomer thanks for the reply and the welcome mate, its not so much a hunt for speed as much a curiosity thing I to will be looking for the best possible group I can regardless of muzzle velocity, but also thought it would be interesting to see how fast I could push a projy, safely of coarse that's all. I reload for a number of other calibers so im not new to it, but I am however totally new to the 204 world.
Well best of luck with it mate there is more friendly and most helpful people with a wealth of knowledge and first hand experience with this round than in any place. My rifles accuracy node is always at the higher end of the scale with a variety of different projectiles!
Yeah I hoped I would find some help here, hence why I joined im not new to firearms but am certainly new to this calibre and so far it would have to be my favourite.
boomer im down in Tassie, so I have really got the 204 for wallaby hunting I figure its the perfect calibre to cull a few back out on the farm. how about you where are you from?
Welcome aboard Dayv. I frequently go over max loads if I am not seeing excessive pressure. My 204s seem to be the most accurate at about a grain under max load so that is what I go with. Missing really fast doesn't do much for me. I doubt the wallaby would be be be able to tell the difference with a slower round.
Oh and we DO like pictures, especially from areas that most of us will never see first hand.
thanx for the reply, I also have no issue with slowing down for accuracy but I am curious to see what I can see out of this little calibre from the chronogragh.
p.s. I have a few pics so ill about putting some up somewhere on here cheers Dayv
Dayv wrote:Hey guys well to start off im new here and am from Australia my name is Dayv.
I have just recently purchased a howa varmint barrel 204r, and ive been looking around for loads as I am planning to reload for it, and I keep seeing people saying they are achieveing muzzle velocities of around 4300fps (not on here) with hand loads now I cant find any load data to match a muzzle velocity this quick am I missing something or are these ppl stretching it a little?
I load 30g bergers and I start seeing pressure signs at about 4100 fps. I settled on a load that runs 4025 fps. I guess you could try to 4300fps with the barnes 26g, but I wouldn't want to shoot that bullet in any kind of breeze, I am switching next year to 39 sbks because the 30g berger is almost useless past 300 yards if there is any wind at all.
Well after some trial and error I've settled on a load with the 32 gr bk of 28 gr of BM 8208 which gives me just under 4000 fps I can go faster but my 204 doesn't like it at all and start spraying them everywhere so after I use these bk I will try the vmax just to see if there's much difference
