Tell us about yourself...

[Glen]

Welcome to the Forum & Thank You kindly for your service. My Brother in law just retired from the Army too.

[Millsy]

Hi from down under in Australia. I've fallen in love with the .204 without even shooting one yet!
Just by reading about the performance of this caliber I have decided it will be the first centerfire I buy.
We dont have the abundance of ground based varmints like the US, but there are plenty of rabbits, foxes and flying pests that are just waiting to be "touched" by the .204
I look forward to learning the hobby of reloading with the help of the many knowledgeable reloaders on this site.
Now I just have to decide from so many great models which is the one for me.

Happy hunting

Millsy

[jo191145]

Welcome to the forum Millsy.

You''ll never forget or reget your first love

Just ask the folks on the forum for an opinion on a rifle, you'll get plenty.

1 vote for a Savage. Sporter or Varmint your choice.
FWIW I prefer Savages stainless tubes.

[greystone]

Dave here. I'm kind of an older guy but still having fun. I live in kind of SW Minnesota. Viet Nam Vet. When I was younger I hunted absolutely everything. I was a very avid fox hunter and got to very good at it. We don't seem to have much for fox around here anymore-I probably wouldn't shoot one anyhow. Coyotes have taken over. To be honest-over the years I have gotten tired of shooting animals. However I'm still an avid pheasant hunter and I'm going to take up coyotes-hence the 204. I used to reload a long time ago and am getting back into it. I love to shoot. The 204 is a Remington VTR. Its light enough to hunt with and provides decent accuracy. I'm a CNC operator and part time truck driver. Hobbies include canoeing, canoe building, Harley's, fishing, my dogs, shooting rifles and shot guns. Any how I'm a member of the Redwood River Sportsmen Club. Anyhow here's a pic of my 204 and my typical shooting set up on the 100 yd range on Saturday.

[mrmarmota]

Hi Gang,
New to this forum but been shooting pasture poodles and reloading for about 35 years.I was 12 years old when I shot my first ground hog with my dads 30.06. That was it for me. I had the bug.I am retired military aircraft mechanic.Served 41 years,retired last year at age 60.
My wife and I have 10 varmint rifles. 4- 223"s, 2, 22-250,s and 2-220 swifts and just recently two new Ruger 204's.We like all of them and use the swifts mostly in Ohio for ground hogs and the 223,s on SD prairie dogs.We are interested in the postal shoot but don't even have scopes for them yet.
We are looking forward to learning about these sweet little 204s.So, keep the info coming. Thanks for allowing us into your group.

Ed



Breathe and sqeeeeeze

[Rick in Oregon]

Welcome aboard Ed! You've found the 204 Sweet Spot for sure, and just let us know how we can further your enjoyment of your 204's, 'cause we're ready to help.

Thank you for your service, enjoy your retirement......I'm enjoying mine!

[mrmarmota]

Thanks for the welcome Rick.Yes retirement is very good.Haven't had much trigger time though this summer.I was chief cook and bottle washer for the three grand kids all summer.Swimming lessons, bicycles,ect.You know the drill.Sometimes I felt more like a referee and their jailer.We had a good summer and everyone survived.They all got their swimming badges and my 7 yo grand daughter learned to ride her bike without training wheels.My 6 yo grand son is still perfecting falling off.Maybe next year.
Now that the kids are back in school ole grandpa has some time on his hands and hopefully can start the barrel break in process with these two new 204 's.
Ed




Breathe and squeeeeze

[WaltherP99]

Welcome to those who have joined after me!

[WYLDRUCKUS]

Howdy y'all my name is Ryan and I am married and we have 2 wonderful boys and let me tell you THEY ARE BOYS. I live in northeast Ohio and the ground hogs are plentiful in this area. I use my 17HMR pretty regular around here on the farm and I have taken 2 coyotes with it this past winter and numerous hogs but there comes a day where a man needs more power so I recently bought a Remington VTR in the 204 that I topped with a Burris 4.5x14 tactical. I have not shot it yet but give me a couple days and I'll get her zeroed in. My friend has the same rifle and I was really impressed with it. I absolutely love this site it is the best I have found. I look forward to talking to you all and gaining some more knowledge. I would like to get into the reloading end but I don't have the time or money to invest. One of my good friends handloads for his 220 swift and he said he would load for my 204 so we'll see how it goes. Anyway hi again out there to all of you and happy hunting!

[greystone]

Howdy y'all so I recently bought a Remington VTR in the 204 that I topped with a Burris 4.5x14 tactical.

Welcome to the forum. Which VTR do you have? The 700 or the R-15. I have a 700 VTR in 204 and just love the gun. Its a nice shooter. Dave

[WaltherP99]

Welcome!

[WYLDRUCKUS]

I got the 700! have not shot it yet but I think the winds are pretty calm today so I think I'm gonna let her bark! I also have a 25-06 in the 700. I'll post some photos in the next couple days.

[BabaOriley]

Hi everyone!

My real name is Dave, but you can call me Baba (BabaOriley is a WHo tune). I figured it may be a good time to officially introduce myself, because as far as I know today, I'll be taking receipt of my first 204 this coming saturday morning. I've been reluctant to post much, because I feel opinions need to come more from experience rather than what one has read. It's been hard not to jump in a few of the conversations here, and preface my comments with "from what I've read", but that doesn't work.

I've been waiting on this rifle 6 months+ now, as apparently Shilen was slow to send Mike at Dedicated Technology a 1:10 twist that was the required 23" for my barrel.

My 204:

• DTech AR-15 w/DPMS lower, standard A2 buttstock (not Mike's standard Olympic, only because I was born in St. Cloud (DPMS). Thought it'd be something unique about it.)
  DTech tuned Rock River 2 stage trigger
  23" 1:10 Shilen, with DTech integrated compensator
  Magpul Winter trigger guard
  12-25" Harris bipod
  Armalite 30mm one piece scope mount

Those are the specs as provided by DTech, but I'll want to take a look at the bipod before I stick with that. I'll be picking it up at a gun show, so if there's some option I want, I'm betting it will be available. I already have a soft Ergo grip to add to it, and will be starting out mounting a 4-16x50 Millett TRS-1 scope. I also have a couple Aimpoint red dot scopes I may try on it.

It's kind of funny, how I've waited so long for this rifle, and have never owned an AR, I now have every trick piece of reloading, cleaning, shooting, and whatever else gear for it, sitting here waiting. I bet half of it may have been a worthwhile purchase, but oh well. I've just been REALLY anxious to get this thing shooting. I've made up a plan to do load testing covering about 8 bullets and 5 or 6 different powders. We'll see if I'm still motivated to do that after I find the first load that shoots MOA.

I'll probably end up putting most rounds through my 204 shooting paper initially, but the main reason I bought it was to have a rifle that shoots more like a laser out to 3-400 yards than my 270, with less fur damage on coyotes. I was originally all set to go with a CZ Varmint in 204, but after looking at the costs involved just in that, I may as well shell out for the custom AR and have semi-auto if I ever need it too. The semi-auto should come in handy on prairie dogs in South Dakota next summer. I've never been out there but you guys sure make it look fun.

Last night I loaded up 200 rounds to use breaking it in using 27.3 grains of Varget pushing 40gr Noslers. I didn't trickle each round, but checked randomly and never saw more than a .2gr deviation. I don't really like how long Varget is. It doesn't flow through a measure very precisely, but it seems to have a nice range +/- for over under weight charges, while generating close to the same velocity/POI in other rifles I've tried it in so far.

OK, LOOOONG introduction... Time for bed about an hour ago... I'll end this with my first attempt at a contribution to the board:
I was bored last night and excited about this rifle being so close to arrival, so I took some pics of this first batch of ammo. Tonight I took one of the pics and resized it to work as wallpaper. I offer them up to you guys for download if you wish. You should be able to download any you want by clicking on them to view them first, then right clicking and saving them to your computer. Choose the one that most correctly fits your screen size.









Hopefully after this weekend I'll have some pics of the actual rifle for you guys, and a range report. I do have a postal shoot target, and may end up having to shoot it with these first rounds I have loaded, with no load testing. I'll have 3 days with this rifle before I need to have the target postmarked.

This winter I'll hopefully be posting pics of all the big coyotes I shoot!
_______
Update: OK, night before I have to shoot my postal shoot target... Picked up my rifle Saturday, and didn't get to shoot it until Monday. Spent about 5 hours Monday afternoon/evening breaking it in. Shoot/Clean Shoot/Clean. The first batch of 40gr Noslers I loaded up shot just 'OK'. 1" at 100 without a whole lot of concentration. Tonight I loaded up some 40gr Bergers, and 39gr Sierras, both with 26gr H4895. I figured I better try what's been working for everyone else, so I hope these turn out to work better. I only have 100rds through the rifle yet, so we'll see.

Some more wallpapers for you...

[jo191145]

Welcome to the forum Baba

Sounds like an awesome Homeland Defense Rifle your getting.

Very nice wallpaper. So easy even this caveman can do it.
If you ever get around to trying 40gn Bergers in that 10 twist would you be so kind as to add a shot of them in your wallpaper photos. I have a soft spot for Bergs and the hollow points should look awesome (to me anyway)

[BU1(SCW)]

Hi, I'm Dan. I just got my Model 12 .204 about 3 months ago and found this forum pretty much the day after. There is a TON of good info on here and I have learned so much from you guys already. I am originally from southern Indiana and the Navy Seabees brought me to Colorado after my tour from Kuwait to Baghdad-for anyone thinking of going I cant speak to highly of the food but the hunting was really good and you don't even have to pay for licenses or ammo. My buddies kept hounding me about going with them to see how the .204 would stack up against their .223's. I think they are on their way to go buy a couple of .204's as I write this. Anyways, that's a little about me and I am sure I will be asking you all a bunch of questions in the reloading section. This is the first time I have used a forum, so if I apologize ahead of time for screw-ups.

Dan
-Seabee's build the way, all the way