stef wrote:Possibly a small belt could be added to the .204 Ruger to make it as equally bad, tempermental, and useless as the .300 Win mag.

A belted minimum? I like it!

Hedge, thanks for the info and PM. I'm going to load a batch for OCW testing with 450's, 40 gr V-max and 23.1 - 24.4 gr of RL10X. Weather is supposed to be great here this weekend.

Thanks for clearing this up for us! I prefer that all the hot gas to go out the barrel...

Trent, thanks for the spreadsheets. They're a great resource! However, the loads listed as H4198 need to be changed to IMR 4198. I have a pound of H4198 and called Hodgdon. The only bullet they recommend for that powder is the 26 grain Barnes. Pressure rises too fast and too high for anything heavier.

Thanks for the responses. Shot the 50 rounds this weekend. No pierced primers! I even found a couple of decent grouping loads for both 32 and 40 grain bullets. I was confusing in my earlier post. I use the 400's in my .223 AR and the 450's in my AR30. The .204 is a Thompson Center Precision Hunter. ...

Crap! I wish I had looked at this thread YESTERDAY! I loaded 50 test rounds for my new .204 using CCI400's. I have several hundred 450's on hand. I use the 400's in my AR with no problems and have a lot of them in the cupboard. I loaded 32 and 40 grain V-Max and 35 grain bergers with RL10X and Bench...

Thanks FutureTrades. My Nosler #6 book has .204 in it but I don't have any 40 grain bullets yet. I've grabbed the data from the Sierra and Hodgdon sites as well. I was hoping that the 1:10 would be ok with the smaller bullets but maybe not. I guess I'll try the 35 Bergers with starting loads of Benc...

Afte lurking here for about a year, I finally took the plunge. I picked up my Thompson Center Precision Hunter on Saturday. Topped it with a Nikon 4.5-14 scope and torqued everything to spec, picked up 2 boxes each of Hornady 32 and 40 grain V-Max ammo, and headed to the range. I used a shoot 3 and ...

Willard, don't know when TC will have the move completed but I hope you like the .204 as much as I like my .243. It truly is a tack driver. I'm trying to decide if I should get a TC PH or a Savage Predator Hunter for my first .204.