Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Real Life Comparison 204 Ruger vs. 223 Remington

Yawn. Same schit different day.

Shoot 35 grain Ballistic Tips in the 223 and the 204s light bullet advantage goes away. Though admittedly the Lead Frees are a bit more expensive, but it would take a lot of bullets to make up the cost of buying an entire rifle, plus loading and cleaning supplies in 204 just to shoot p dogs, when a 223 will do the same thing.

Load 40 grain Ballistic Tips in the 223 and the 40 grain difference is so little as to not matter at the ranges one shoots p dogs with 40 grain bullets.

Just like you said, all the statisticalization in the world will not reveal a difference, shooting will. And shooting reveals the difference is nil.

Yes, I see lots of discussion and no one mentioning the most important criterion there is for p.d's -- with your typical bolt varmint rifle shooting 32-gr. at about 3,900 you can easily see your strikes, allowing you to quickly correct.. Push it at 4,200 or go to a heavier bullet (like the 39-40) and you can't (unless you've got a really heavy rifle). That ability to see your strikes is esp. important on p.d's, where your fancy RF does not work past about 100 yds -- IOW, is useless.

WHEN you can see your strikes the 32-grainers work splendidly out to 500 yards. I'll take them in the wind over a heavier bullet any day, because with the heavier bullet you need a spotter, and you waste time communicating corrections. With the 32 if the wind is pushing it 5 MoA over I just put that hashmark on the squirrel the next shot, and up he goes.

Also, most people shooting .223's (as in the vast majority) are shooting them in an A/R platform. With those you have nearly no chance at all of consistantly seeing your strikes because the bolt slamming forward knocks you off the target at the time you would be seeing the strike.

If you want the versatility to shoot larger animals, and don't want to buy another specialized rifle, I completely understand. But don't kid yourself into thinking you're having as much fun as the guy with the varmint bolt rifle in .204 -- you aren't.

Spotting one's own hits is a matter of rifle weight, stock design, scope magnification, and shot distance, in addition to the recoil generated by the round.

The solution to all of that is to use a suppressor. Keeps dogs up longer, saves on the shooter and everyone else's hearing, and perhaps best of all keeps the muzzle on target to spot one's own hits. After using suppressors for a few years, shooting prairie dogs without one really sucks!

True dat, prairie goat.

Also, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me a 204 bolt gun shooter is having more fun than the AR guys.

Sneaking up on an unshot town with an accurate AR and a cargo pocket full of 30 round magazines, then waging a small war against the prairie dog hordes is an experience sure to put a smile on any shooter’s face!

Yup, wouldn't shoot my .223 with my can. Doesn't change what I said though.

Unshot towns are not easy to find, but I have done exactly what you describe. Having done that once, though, I will take the bolt .204 Varmint every time. Even suppressed and with 35-gr. bullets I cannot reliably see my strikes with the A/R. I can with the .204.

There is no comparison.

This is a Ford vs Chevy argument and I don't know if either side is going to be successful in convincing the other side of their errors. I come down on the 204 side but one of my shooting buddies is a 223 guy. We both do okay and have much fun. My kill rate moves up and down based on my skills - and the wind of course.

As I get older, having fun has taken a much higher priority over other things, such as calibers and who's is better.

Poor shooting form or too much scope magnification?

I've never had a problem seeing bullet strikes out of sporter-weight 223's on animals or reactive targets such as water bottles. In fact, that's one of the reasons I've become enamored with the 223 for deer. I can watch the bullet hit in the scope. The first deer I shot with a 223 was one of those "dropped so fast I thought I missed", but I watched it through the scope. I was sold immediately.

I think it’s whatever a person likes best. I have five gallon buckets full of 223 brass, be hard for me to gear up for anything else. I like the 62 Barnes, it kills hogs really well.

And therein lies its charm. The 223 is a jack of many trades.

Nope. Gotta call horseshit on that one...

Your scope must go lower than mine, which is an 8-32. Shooting my 527V (heavy barrel) .204 today at 200 meters, at 8x, I could see the strikes with my 32-grain bullets but not with my 39-grainers. The slight increase in recoil from the heavier bullet delays my recovery -- I don't quite get back in time to see the strike with the 39-grainers.

A sporter-weight .223 with 55-gr. bullets isn't even close for me, and I shoot with a lot of shoulder pressure. If I try to forceably defeat the recoil by holding the scope down, my accuracy is sorely depleted, so I don't like to do that.

I agree 100% it is all about the FUN, and the way I maximize fun shooting p. d's is with a bolt Varmint .204 with a couple of pounds of NF glass on top, shooting 32-gr. SBK's. YMMV.