Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Which 20 VarTarg dies do you prefer and why?

Picked up a 700 donor action today (222), looking to build a 20 Vartarg. Interested in experiences and opinions on dies. Considering a no-turn neck (.234?) and a .230 bushing. Brass is original 221FB. Will be converted to single shot.

I use Redding FL sizer. no bushing. have had great results. however, mine is a cooper. i have a 700 that was barreled to 20 Tac, which is a longer cartridge and fits the 700 short action well. I put a single shot follower in it. you get about 600 fps more from the 20 tac versus the vartarg with 32 gr bullets, but the barrel "jump" with the vartag is not noticable and the barrel does not heat as fast on the vartag - likely due to 18 grains of powder v. 24 grains with the 20 tac.

Theres no turn then there's no turn? Original brass? Rem, Nosler or Lapua. Lapua no turn is .235 the rest should be .232.
Rem, Nosler get a .226 and .227 bushings
Lapua .229 and .230 bushings
Get bushing dies, horny dies work the necks to much.

600 fps more than a 20VT? Are you shooting a TAC at 4300fps? All 6 of the VT i have or have had shoot a 34 v nitemare at 3700fps give or take with a 24" barrel.
About 250fps with a TAC is the norm, same bullet.

Brass is Rem, new, unfired. Was leaning Wilson seater and Redding FL bushing die. So you're saying go with the .232 bushing since brass is RP? Looking to final neck (no-turn) of .234, says my 'smith.

Yes I know it wasn't your question, but maybe consider .20-222. Easier to form cases than either .20 Vartarg or .20 Tac, half-way between the two. Straight neck down using f/l die of .222 case. May feed better than Vartarg.

Thought about that one too, but I already have a 222 in the stable and didn't want to run the risk of mixing up ammo, although I am not sure one would chamber in the other. Also considered a 20 Practical, but I have a 223 as well, and don't want to chance mixing ammo.

A loaded round with Rem 221 brass necked down will be iabout .228 give or take max .229.
In my opinion .234 is to much working the necks .004 is plenty. Go over to saubier.com theres a ton of info on the 20 VT there.

Anchorite,
Regardless of the dies make sure that you get the chamber throated so you don’t have to turn the necks. That gets very tedious when you’re doing several hundred cases…like watching grass grow.

FWIW i use Hornady dies. I really like the floating seater. My big fat arthritic fingers have trouble with them little bitty bullets. You will love theVT!

Throated? Hmmm

i use the Redding 3 die set doe the 20VT.

Thanks for the replies. I may go in another direction - Tac 20. Main reason being brass. The 250 new, unfired Rem 221 FB cases I have aren’t that uniform. I also can’t see spending more money for Nosler brass and the cost of the VT dies look to exceed the Tac 20. Simply put, I can be in a Tac 20 cheaper than I can the 20 VT right now. Can probably load down to VT levels if I had too. Hard to ignore those facts.

223 brass is definitely easier to come by, unless you use Lapua 223 its the same with just about every 223 brass necked down to 20 cal .232nk will be fine it will give you .003-.004 clearance. Find you a zero freebore reamer it works great for the 20Prac or Tac.shooting 32-40gr bullets.

about 9 or 10 years ago, i loaded up a 32gr Hornady Vmax with Reloder 7 and a CCI Benchrest (BR4) primer in 20 VT. this was with 221 Remington Fireball brass. my average group was .173" at 100 yards (5 shots/bench) and .211" at 100 yards (10 shots/bench). my best group of 5 shots is .151" and at 10 shots is .184" at 100 yards. i was one them of one-hole guys, i did things to brass that are unmentionable... . let's just say the one round = 40 - 45 minutes of my time to make it.

then i got bored of being a one-hole guy and then i'm happy with 1/2 - 5/8" group at 100 yards. 34gr Midway/Midsouth HP with Reloder 7 and a SRP. i shoot a TC Encore with a 23" MGM heavy factory barrel and a High Plains Saphyre laminate in 20 VT. when the Shooting Gods are with me, a 1/4" group at 100 yards makes Them smile and me, ecstatic.

back then, there was no 221 rem FB Lapua brass, so i used Reminton's brass. there was no need to neck turn, but i did it anyway.

Theres 221 Fireball brass at Midway right now if you still wanna do the 20VT

Ridiculously expensive too. I'm just not convinced there exists any quality 221FB brass anymore. 20Tac seems like the best path of less resistance, and I should be able to throttle my loads back down to duplicate a 20VT load if need be (whatever that need might be). Heck, 20 Tac dies are less expensive too. I can always rechamber in the future if I convince myself the 20VT is a better mouse trap and components both improve in quality and become more readily available. For now there is an abundance of 223 that I just cannot ignore.

Why throttle the Tac back? Only advantage the VT is gonna give you would be in a sage rat patch with less barrel heat. I have 3- 20VT and a 20 Prac both have there place. The Tac will be about 150-200 FPS faster than the VT everthing be equal.
Brass is one of the least expensive parts of reloading when you break it down to what it coats per round.
In the long run good brass is cheaper if you take care of it.
20 loads per piece is no problem if you take care of it.
If your wanting cheap 223 brass better start learning how to swage primer pockets with LC brass.
I won't touch cheap FC or Horny anymore.
If you dont want to swage pockets for cheap brass then start with Starline.

The question you have to ask yourself is whether you will be doing lots of strings of multiple shots. If so, less heat of .20VT might be better, if not .20TAC will be better for several reasons.

I use Redding dies, & new rem 221 fb brass necked down
I believe my chamber neck is .234”.
Never turned a neck, never had any issues with the brass

I have a 20 Practical, and a bunch of 223s. For the 20 Practical, I just started using Nickel cases for the Practical, and regular brass is what the 223s get... pretty much ALL of it is range Pick Up...

I know you can neck down 223 brass to 222, and then pick up a Hornady 20 Caliber neck sizer die for like $20.

For my 20 Practical, I use a 223 body die to size it down... then start the case neck down with a 204 ruger die I have, but no longer have the 204 Rifle barrel, and then finish it with the Hornady 20 Caliber Neck sizer...

I just seat the 20 cal bullet using a 223 seater die... have had zero problems, and it will blow up sage rats out to 250 yds all day long...

I recommend going 20 Practical for economy....I'll never have to buy one piece of brass for it, for the rest of my lifetime...

Just started playing with a 6 x 45 also... wanted a 6 ARC ( 6 Grendel )... but looked at brass availability and cost, versus having an endless supply of range pick up 223 brass. I give up 200 fps max velocity, but a couple of clicks up on the elevation knob, and I've got the same POI, waaaay out there....My only expense would have been a 6mm Hornady Neck Sizing die, but since I shoot 243 and 6mm Remington, I bought one a long time ago...

So to get into the 6 x 45 Racket, cost me nothing but the barrel. a 95 grain Ballistic Tip at 2550 fps out the barrel, took down a 180 lb blacktail this past season... although the distance was only 50 yds, heart shot and dropped like a sack of potatoes on the spot.. DRT.

the 6.5 Grendel and the 6 x 45 will probably be what I finished my deer hunting career with...they work just fine, and are cheap to shoot and cheap to feed... on top of being damn good accurate shooters.... the lack of recoil helps a lot also...
Kids seem to love to shoot either....kills like a big gun, kicks like a little gun...