Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Reloading for the 204 Ruger

Good Afternoon Folks,

A couple of years ago I picked up a CZ 527 204 Ruger with the Kevlar stock from a local forum. I heard so many good things about these rifles and caliber i jumped on the opportunity to own one. I also grabbed several boxes of factory ammo to run through the rifle. My stash of factory ammo is low, but now I have a ton of brass to reload.

So far I've picked up Barnes 40gr Match Grade, Nosler 40gr Ballistic Tip, and Hornady 40gr V-Max. I figure the usual suspects in the bullet department should get me started.

I normally reload for deer sized cartridges so I am in the market for power. Before heading to the store I figured the folks at 24hr might have some pet loads for this rifle they might share.

While on the subject, I've gotten very poor groups with this rifle. Anywhere from 4-6 inches at 200 yards. I'm bedding the rifle this week and was curious what everyone uses for action screw torque. I suspect a portion of the poor accuracy is coming from over torqing the action screws.

Thanks all,

I only have experience with two of the 527's in the composite stocks. Here is how mine acted. I could shoot 40 gr. hand loads in my 223, but heavier bullets were very inaccurate. What I figured out was the the trigger guard/magazine box, was seating before the action was fully bedded into the stock. I removed metal from the top of the magazine housing to where there is a .100 gap between the magazine box and the bottom of the action. The gunstock was simply made too shallow for the barreled action and magazine box. I might add, the other 527 also had the same bedding problem.

The gun is now a track driver, even with heavy bullets. My 204 is a Remington 700. If your gun does not shoot 40 gr. bullets, it is likely from the lack of twist for the 204.

Good Luck

My 204 is a 700 great with 40gr v-max 27.7 gr. H-4895 got 3792 recorded as velocity oh yea 205m for primer

I have been reloading for my 204 since '07 . Can't speak to your accuracy issues. I have had such great luck with 32 and 40 grain V -max bullets , that I never bothered to try anything else. Win 748 powder is a top performer in my gun , H 322 works well for me too . I worked my way up to near max loads , and these combos have made my Kimber 84M the most accurate gun I have ever owned. 32 gr V max's starting out at 4100 fps make for the perfect squirrel gun. Great cartridge ! Have fun.

39 gr Sierras with H4895 gives .5 moa or better from my XR-100. I also seat quite long. I could not get a light wt bullet to hit paper, others report just the opposit.

Thanks all.

What are you guys torquing the action screws to these days?

All three of the 204 I have owned I could never get the 40 grain bullets to shoot. 39 grain and below shot awesome with the 35 grain Bergers shooting the best on top of H4895

Dye7barrel: The most accurate bullet to date for me has been the Berger 35 grainers!
And this is in 6 Varminters that I own and am currently using.
Three of my 204's are Remingtons and three are Rugers - personally I have no experience of my own with the CZ line of Rifles in 204 Ruger caliber.
But I have at least 5 friends that own them and they are all happy with the accuracy they get - I have shot most all of these CZ's that belong to my friends and I can vouch for their accuracy afield.
If I were you I would go right to the 35 grain Bergers along with Federal 205M (match) primers and H 4895 powder.
I hope you can get that CZ dialed in before spring!
Best of luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I run my CZ action screws at 35 inch pounds, no problems. Mine is a walnut stock if you think that might make a difference.

I've got some H4895 on the shelf so it looks like I need to pick up some 35gr Bergers and shoot away.

QBD - thank you for the torque number. I think I was running the gun around 55 in/lbs. I'm sure backing off the torque will help.

I have a couple more weeks of bedding the rifle, collecting components, and prepping brass. Should have a range report in a month or so as long as work doesn't get in the way.

My 527 shoots the 40 gr V-Max pretty well, and the 35 gr Bergers into 1/2 MOA groups.

Am using BLC2 powder, Hornady cases and CCI primers.

Great on rockchucks, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, etc...

ive owned about all brands of 204s,thus far nothing has compared to my savage btcss loaded with 39 gr.sierra blitzkings and rl10x

I've had 4. The first 2 didn't excite me. One was a 14" TC barrel, the other a late 700 ADL. Neither shot well. I waited 2 years, tried it again.

#3 was essentially a 700 VSSF except I used a 24" barrel ... PacNor. It was a shooter. I torched the throat .. not completely, but enough I could see a steady decay in round count between cleanings before the bullets began to tumble in flight. Coulda maybe got another 250-300 rounds out of it, but I had a new barrel on hand.

#4 was the same action and trigger, different stock and a lighter barrel. This one is, again, a 1-12" PacNor 3 land and groove, but in standard sporter config, fluted, and the stock is a McMillan hunter's edge.

Funny thing .. I re-worked loads for #4 and it shoot exactly the same loads as #3. Never had that happen changing barrel contours and stocks before.

I have essentially 2 loads:

28.0 grains of H335 under Hornady/Nosler (haven't tried Sierra) 32 grain bullets in WW cases with Rem 7-1/2 primers.

27.5 grains of Varget under Sierra 39 grain / Hornady 40 grain / Nosler 40 grain bullets, again with WW brass and Remington 7-1/2 primers.

Tom

Firstly, most .204s will NOT shoot 40 gr. bullets well, the twist rate just isn't correct, it's a bit slow for them.

Try, as noted above, 35 Bergers, or one of the three plastic tipped 32s, and see what happens. I'll bet good money it'll sing with the light bullets, my 527 does.

Try 27.5 H-322 with one of the 32s, for about 4100fps.
also 27.3 Benchmark, with the 32s, and it'll run just under 4000fps, also good accuracy.
Tinker with those two powders and work up a good load with the 35s.
Stay away from those 40 Hornadys UNLESS you go to a 1-11" twist barrel.

Oh, geez ...


With all due respect, this is pretty much a load of [bleep]. Other than the hornady, none of my .204s has had the slightest problem stabilizing any 40 grain bullet.


No. Be ye not so dogmatic and narrow minded. Don't count on 'em but don't count 'em out, TRY THEM and let the results speak. My first 1-12" PacNor didn't shoot them well, the current one shoots under half inch. A nominal 1-12" twist is seldom exact. The BC on the 40 grain Hornady is enough higher than the other 40 grainers to make it worth the cost of one box of bullets and a little powder to see if they work or not.

(The first two .204s didn't shoot anything well, neither 32s nor 40s, so don't waste time taking my comment out of context to try to prove something it doesn't.)

Tom

TOM

With all due respect, one has only to visit 204Ruger.com and see what the actual results are with those shooting 40 Vmax bullets. They appear to be too long for most factory 1-12 twist guns. Although, the primary reason is because the vmax is longer than the 39 grain Sierra and will not stabilize in most 1-12 guns.

I shoot a PacNor 1-10 with my 20 TAC and the vmax 40's shoot lights out.

I use H-322 powder with 32g Hornady Vmax bullets, really like the groups, usually less than 1inch with 5 shots.

Like it or not, those items in my post were what we found, mostly, over on .204ruger.com. I was a moderator over there for a long time, and read all the posts, ALL of them.

When a rifle WOULD tolerate the 40VMs, it would really sing with them, but most factory rifles simply wouldn't tolerate them. If you read the archives over there, that is true. The 40 Nosler is somewhere in between the 39 Sierra and the 40VM, some rifles will like them, some won't. I got hold of some of the first 40 BTs over there, and posted the comparison picture used outside the forum in another part of the website. The 40VM has a very long "tail" on the bullet, while the Sierra uses a much shorter "tail" with the Nosler in between.

We also had a lot of the guys actually measure the twist rate of their rifles, and most of the rifles true twist rate was something slower than 1-12", more like 1-12.25" to 1-12.5" which is outside what will tolerate a 40VM.

My post was accurate, moreso than yours. Like it or not.

Well my .204 shot 40 v-max's much better than any of the lighter bullets (did not try bergers) shot the 40's in the .3-.4in range , maybe a fluck but that is fact .but I am a bit odd for this day and age I check things out for myself and dont lay 100% trust in the internet for my results.

++on the Ruger forum, they have a bunch of real world shooting data. My franken-Stevens 200/Savage brrl puts the 35g Bergers over H322 into sub 3/4" 100 5-shot groups with barely trying.