Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Hornady Super Performamce 40-grain .204

The box shows a published speed of 3900 fps. I always get a kick out of putting the stopwatch to factory fare.

Shooting a 22" CZ .204 through the lie detector, my rifle didn't quite average 3600 fps. I may have a "slow" barrel but...300 fps slow!? Even 200 fps less would be S. L. O. W.

Over the years I've noticed this especially with select Federal and Hornady loads.

I ran some of the same Hornady 204 stuff thru my Tikka T-3 24" S/S Varmint this weekend. Average was 3835fps with an ES of 16.

Also ran some Fiocchi 204 w/32gr VMax. Advertised @ 4000 fps, it ran an average of 3985fps thru my Oehler 35 with an ES of 26.

FWIW, I've noted that Tikka's can have 'slow barrels' and 'fast barrels'. Regardless they shoot nice ragged holes.

Not only are they slow in this rifle they shoot grapefruit size groups.

This should help put to bed the myth that barrel length doesn't matter. That barrel is that much slower because it's shorter. End of story. That factory stuff was shot out of a 24 or 26 inch barrel.

I did a test on this many years ago, when the 204 was shiney and new. I DID have a 26" barrel, and found across 5 different lots of ammo; the velocity discrepency to be 200-400 fps slow. Comparing other factory ammo, including Hornheads non-supr lines; superformance was by far the worst.

Sell the sizzle, not the steak.

Really? 300 fps? When I can cobble up a handload within pressure limits to 3800 fps?

Who said barrel length doesn't matter?

The only time I've ever heard someone say barrel length didn't matter was around accuracy (not comparing pistols to rifles) - never been about speed.

that's no group...that's a pattern

40g bullets in the .204 is a little more interesting but after owning 2 of them since the intro..

22-250 and never look back

I've got an identical CZ American, and it's slow, too, at least with factory ammo. It shoots great and still kills coyotes, so I'm not too upset about it.

The accuracy thing with 40gr. VMaxes is nothing new. Go back to some of the very first posts on www.204ruger.com and you'll find that a large percentage of rifles don't shoot that bullet very well. The 1-12" twist is marginal, at best, for stabilizing a lonnngggg bullet like that one. The Sierra 39gr. Blitzking is shorter and more forgiving for a factory twist. There's a picture of the three heavier bullets (Sierra 39, Hornady 40, and Nosler 40) that shows the differences in boattails and ogives, and you can see why the Hornady is "iffy". (I supplied that photo).

George: They do their factory chromo thing on the moon....

Maybe I should "chromo" my loads too to get the speed up.....

My experience with Superfromance was the opposite. Expected mediocre results and was quite surprised with +150 fps.

Particularly with the 40 grain VMAX, which is long for its length, a 1-12" twist isn't always enough for stability. My first PacNor barrel didn't shoot them well, the current one shoots very small groups with them. It doesn't take much variation from nominal twist to matter a lot if you're teetering on the edge.

I like .204 a lot but when I'm done with this barrel I'll probably go back to .17 Remington.

Tom