Well, all my custom .204 Rugers have 1:9" twists, except one that uses a 1:8.5" twist for Berger 55 grain bullets (1:8" would have been better). The one other exception is a custom Shilen .204 Ruger barrel in 1:12" twist that shoots the 26 grain Barnes Varmint Grenade over 25.2 grains of Rl 10x using a Remington 7-1/2 BR Primer @ 4,085 fps into quarter-inch 10 shot groups.
I use 26 grain Barnes Varmint Grenades, 32 grain Nosler BT Lead Free, 24 grain Hornady NTX as lead free are required. My friend uses these lead free bullets exclusively now in .204, .224. and 6mm calibers as do I because of the superior accuracy, even though he can use lead core bullets in his state. They also hold together at 4,000+ fps velocity, until they hit something anyway.
It has long been my opinion that the 1:12" twist is too slow for maximum performance in the .204 Ruger. Hornady loads the 24 grain NTX in their Superperformance ammuntion, Nosler loads the 32 grain BT Lead Free in their Trophy Grade ammo, Winchester also loads a 32 grain lead free Ballistic Silvertip, but the Varmint Grenade and all the other standard bullets requires handloading.
Last edited by WranglerJohn; 03/03/17.
