Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 204 Ruger

Favorite prairie dog loads please

Around 27 grains of Ramshot TAC and the 40-grain Hornady V-Max.

Bugger: When loading to "similar" pressures the 32 grain Sierra Blitz-Kings fly extremely flat out to just at 500 yards - from there on the "heavier" bullets start to drop less (fly flatter).
Recoil is very mild with the Sierra 32 grainers and lethality is very impressive on Prairie Dogs (as well as Badgers, Coyotes and Rock Chucks) even at the 500 yard ranges.
I just brought on-line my 7th (seventh) Varmint Rifle in caliber 204 Ruger last week and it also shoots the 32 grain Sierra Blitz-Kings extremely well.
All seven of my 204's are sighted in with the Sierra 32 grainers - the bullets do everything, very well, indeed.
As of now Varget and H 4895 are my Rifles powders of choice.
I use three kinds of brass and they all perform well for me - they are Winchester, Hornady and Remington.
I really have no preference as to brass brand.
I use Federal 205 M (Match) primers in all my 204 Rifles.
In short my preferences are for Sierra 32 grain BlitzKings and Federal 205 M primers.
Best of luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



This. For sure. Seated so they'll fit in the magazine.

VarmintGuy,

The 40-grain V-Max has the highest ballistic coefficient of any of the commonly available 39-40 grain .204 plastic tips. It shoots just as flat out to 400 yards as the 32-grain Sierra BlitzKing when both are loaded to maximum velocity, and flatter beyond 400. But trajectory doesn't matter all that much anyway if we use scopes with easily-adjusted elevation turrets, as I do on all but my shortest-range varmint rifles.

Instead, the 40-grain V-Max's big advantage is shooting in any sort of wind. In a 10-mph wind at 90 degrees to the shooter (certainly not unusual when prairie dog shooting) the 40 V-Max drifts 8 inches less than the 32-grain Sierra at 500 yards. (This also applies to any other 32-grain plastic-tip.) That's the real advantage of using heavier, higher-BC bullets in any cartridge for longer-range shooting.

I'm glad you like the 40g v-max. Someone told me that those were his favorite. I have a PD shoot coming up, a new to me 204 with 500 40 grain v-max bullets but no load data. I just bought 300 more Hornady brass so that rifle will be covered. I'll bring a couple223's and a couple of 6mm's with 58 grain bullets. I suspect the 204 will be the star of the hunt for me.
Thanks again.

Oh yeh, I have a bunch of 75 grain hollow points for the 6mm too.

Thanks for your reply too Varmitguy And Ingwe

Isn't the Sierra Blitzking 39 grainer .287 to Hornady .275??

Sierra lists various BC's for different velocities, which is actually the way BC works, while most companies (like Hornady) list one average BC across "normal" ranges, because it's easier for the average shooter to understand.

Sierra's .287 for the 39 BlitzKing is only for over 3600 fps, and when started at 3800 it drops below 3600 at a little over 50 yards. By the time it gets to around 300 yards the BC is down to .236. The average BC over 400 yards is around .260.

If you compare a 39-grain BlitzKing to a 40-grain V-Max it's apparent the V-Max is more streamlined, especially the much longer and more tapered boattail.

Roger that.

The rifles that won't stabilize the vmax, will the BK. In that case the higher BC is moot. The nosler BT is more accurate in both mine, so again, the BC means squat to me.....

All pretty good points.

TAC is great stuff, and I had best luck with the 39 Blitz Kings in an earlier Ruger Mk2 -- precisely because the boat tail is shorter and I could load to meet the rifling.

The 39 BK and 40-grain Ballistic Tip also drift less in the wind than any 32's--and I've had great results with both, the reason I've got a bunch of both on hand.

But have four .204's and all would shoot the 40 V-Max well.

10X with 39 gr Sierra BT

John, in those 204s of yours, can you load to the rifling with all of them, or do you have long throats? I know the SAMMI drawing is pretty long.

They've all been factory barrels with SAAMI-standard throats. The SAAMi chamber drawing shows the throat as parallel for for about .1 inch until the rifling starts to taper into the bore for slightly less than .1 inch. The maximum SAAMI overall length for the .204 is 2.26 inches, which means magazines are normally at least that long, and maximum case length is 1.85 inches, so there's plenty of room to seat them out close to the lands.

However, many years ago Remington gave me a few cases of their "Accutip" 40-grain factory ammo--which is loaded with 40-grain V-Maxes with Remington-green tips. It shot so well in all my .204's that I've always seated 40 V-Maxes in my handloads to the same depth. I believe that's close to the lands, but haven't bothered to check for several years. Might have to!

Ever run the 40 V-Max in 1:12 barrels with good results or can it vary between 12 twist barrels?

The standard factory twist rate is 1-12, and all my rifles have had factory barrels--one Savage, one Ruger and two Remingtons. All have shot the 40 V-Max well.

I suspect one reason some rifles don't shoot the 40 V-Max accurately is the occasional rifle that doesn't like boattailed bullets. The boattail on the 40 V-Max is much longer and more tapered than the stumpy boattail on both the 39-grain Sierra Blitzking and 40-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip.

Also, the V-Max has the secant ogive typical of Hornady bullets, and secant ogive bullets have a reputation of being somewhat sensitive to seating depth. However, my rifles have all shot Hornady factory ammo with 40's very well, as well as Remington Accutip ammo.

I just bought my first 204 , a CZ 527, gathering up components and most brass is scarce, I found 50 Hornady local, and I can find Norma online. Opinion on Norma brass for the 204?
Thanks,
Ronnie

Okay, that's what I wanted to know. Thanks.
Friend won a 204 when they first came out, and Editor John sent me some Accutips. Shot patterns. The Hornady stuff shot "groups" -- so I pulled everything to get the brass and started from scratch.
Brass was TERRIBLE. Such a rush to get it out, so many cases not concentric.
Rifle went back to Ruger, came back with a new tube with the same long throat and same results. So then I sent it to Colorado for a 230 neck and a short throat, but like an idiot didn't ask to clean up the chamber to totally virgin metal.
With perfect brass, sorted for concentricity, it would drill them right in. But the brass at that time was not great. Wild flyers, like 2 inches from aim. Not good if you're spotting shots and correcting off a flyer that isn't your fault.

I've been dragging my feet to order a min-spec no-throat 204 reamer with a 230 neck, and a throating reamer.