.204 Shared Reloading Experience

[SouthernCross]

I have received so much good info from these forums I thought I would share my results reloading for my .204 Savage Arms 12BTCSS Varminter Thumbhole. I have a 6x24 44mm Burris ballistic mil-dot on it.

I experimented quite a bit with 30, 32, 35, 39, 40, & 45 grain Hornady, Berger, and Sierra's using H4895 powder.

My best load is with the Sierra 39g using 27.5g H4895 with Remington 7.5 primers. This powder load is higher than you will find recommended in any of the loading manuals. I worked up to it slowly so don't try it in your gun without working up with smaller loads. I chrono 3830 fps with 1/2 and under MOA's at 100 yds and can consistently hit a 10" plate at 500 yds with 5-10 mph crosswinds. I like the Sierra 39g with its high BC which outperforms the other bullets past 200 yds. 150+ yards is where I typically switch from my .17 HMR to my .204 for rodent shooting.

Note: The 32g Hornady with 28.8g H4895 4050 fps and the 40g Berger 26.5 H4895 3630 fps both performed as well in accuracy at 100 yards.

The one con on Sierra's is you have to inspect them before seating as I have found around 3% of them have improperly molded ballistic tips.

I really like my .204 which I bought in January. The low recoil, accuracy, and devastating results on varmints are awesome.

Now I have to work on calibrating the ballistic reticule at 20-24x

[Glen]

Your 39gr BK load is almost the same as mine except mine is a little hotter. Did you also find the more you sped them up the better they seemed to like it??

[SouthernCross]

Glen,

I experimented at 27.7g of powder and found I was just starting to show signs of pressure and only increased my velocity by 30 fps so I backed down. I am using Hornady brass.

I will be using 27.5g as my go to load with the Sierra 39's. I can now work on experimentation with my ballistic reticule at higher magnification.

S

[Glen]

That was a good call. I'm shooting more than that yet & I'm also using Hornady brass. I'm also using WSR primers which could be helping with the pressure problem too.

[Ethan]

I am shooting an Encore and it really likes hot loads. I have found that 28.0 of 4895 and 7 1/2's works well with all the bullets I have tried. It is REAL good with Berger 35's and just a bit bigger with the 39's. I think it is a little hot with the 34 grain Midways. They are just around an inch or so. My ML barrel also likes hot loads.

ethan

[Jim White]

I tried up to 28.1 grains of H4895 in both my CZ and Remington. I used Remington brass in lieu of Hornady and I was starting to see pressure signs, mainly slight bolt face marks on the cse heads so I stopped. If I were using that load I would stay around the 27.7 to 27.9 range to allow for powder throw variences. FWIW, in my experiences, Remington primers have tend to hide pressure signs when compared to CCI and Winchester. HTH

Jim

[SouthernCross]

Yes, the Remington primer is where I was seeing SLIGHT pressure signs. The primer looked to be just starting to bulge. I could probably get away with 27.7g of H4895 but because I did not see a significant velocity increase (1-2%) I decided to back down.

I sure would like to load with Hornady's factory powder!

[OldTurtle]

Southern Cross, You need to contact Sierra Bullets about the problem with the 39gr tips... Their quality control is usually top notch and personally knowing a couple of the staff members, they want to keep it that way...

While 3% is not a real serious situation in most cases... they are very much interested in any feed back...

I usually stop by their factory seconds store and most of the seconds will only have 50 out of 850 with deformed tips...the rest are usually just off color...