204Ruger

ive now done alot of work with 8208 and its too fast for the heaver bullets and settles down with the 32 grain bullets try and find some h4895 u wont beat it 8208 is superb in the 222 ren with 40 grainers im getting tiny holes cheers bazz

I'm waaay late in posting to this thread, but while I have not used IMR 8208 with light-weight bullets, I have had excellent results using IMR 8208 XBR with the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing bullets. I'm shooting a Savage Target action that has a 26" stainless steel #6 contour Lilja barrel. Nosler brass is what I use and I have turned the necks on this brass to .0125" in thickness all around. I have tried 27.1 gr., 27.2 gr. and 27.4 gr. of IMR 8208 with the 39 gr. Sierras and got great groups with all three powder weight charges at 100 yards with a Harris swivel bipod for a front rest and rabbit-ear bag for the rear rest. Here's one of the better groups shot using 27.2 gr. of IMR 8208 and Remington 7½ primers. That is my prairie dog load:



Here's a 100 yard group shot with 27.4 gr. of IMR 8208:



H4895 has worked great in my Savage 12VLP .204 Ruger with the 35 gr. FBHP Bergers, the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKings and the 40 gr. Nosler BTs.

I have also used IMR 8208 in my Savage 12VLP .204 Ruger with a stainless steel 1 in 11 twist 3-groove super match grade Pac-Nor barrel. I use Remington 7½ primers and WW brass with no neck turning done on them. The IMR 8208 seemed to work just fine with the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKings in this rifle too.



I use Hornady 40 gr. V-Max bullets out of this 12VLP for prairie dogs and coyotes. However, I use 27.2 gr. of H4895 for this bullet. Yes, I know it is only a 4-shot group. I didn't want to enlarge the group by shooting a 5th shot.



As always, the loads listed above work fine in my rifle, but may not be safe for your rifle. So, PLEASE, start your powder charge weights out below my loads and work up slowly.

Dang that's impressive grouping. Congrats!

I've gotten the tightest groups with 32gr SBK and IMR-8208 - and my Tikka doesn't like anything heavier than 32gr.