204Ruger

Well Guy's n' Gal's, I give up on my T/C Encore .204 bull barrel. My .270 heavy barrel shoots everything well but can't seem to get this .204 to shoot anything decent but the V-max 32's. I'm not familiar with reloading, just looking for something that will shoot the factory V-Max 40's or Sierra BK 39's well.

Anyone out there with the Remington XR-100 RangeMaster? How does it shoot the heavier 39-40 "factory" bullets?

Hi Mark. Here's the problem with the 40's. Some guns like em & some don't. The rest tolerate them tho. Look for some 39gr Sierra Blitz King loads. A lote of times they will outperform the 40's. I know my rifle really likes them. HTH

Glen wrote:Hi Mark. Here's the problem with the 40's. Some guns like em & some don't. The rest tolerate them tho. Look for some 39gr Sierra Blitz King loads. A lote of times they will outperform the 40's. I know my rifle really likes them. HTH

Thanks for the reply Glen, I also tried the 39gr Federal Blitz King's and the Remington Premier 32 & 40. The only loads I have not tried are the hollow points. I have gone though over 6 boxes (120 rounds) of ammo. The Rem 32's and V-Max 32's are the only ones that group partially decent...

I don't want to spend money on the Remington XR-100 RangeMaster if it's gonna have the same problem...

Buy a Savage(just kiddin') On a serious note, I don't think you should give up on that TC just yet. Sometimes it takes a couple hundred rounds down the tube to get them to settle in. If I was you I would hold off a little bit b-4 I gave up. By the way that's a nice looking gun you got there. HTH

KVW wrote:Buy a Savage(just kiddin') On a serious note, I don't think you should give up on that TC just yet. Sometimes it takes a couple hundred rounds down the tube to get them to settle in. If I was you I would hold off a little bit b-4 I gave up. By the way that's a nice looking gun you got there. HTH

Thanks..

I might just buy a Savage, I have no brand bias I just want somthing that shoots 39-40 grain (High BC) bullets well

Really, a couple hundered rounds??? Whew that's an expensive break in @ a dollar per hollar... Guess I should order 100 more rounds b4 I give up...

Can you buy a Contender barrel in 204 with an 11 or 10 twist? That should make those 40's come alive.

Beyond that it is a crap shoot wether a certain tube will shoot the 40's.
The one nice thing about a Savage is you can buy a prefit custom and screw it on yourself. Not as easy as swapping a Contender but still no gunsmith required.

I've seen factory Fed 39's shoot nicely out of my barrels while the 40gn factory fodder looks like buckshot.
I'd concentrate on the 39's.

Don't laughh at the Savages Picked up the Model 12 F/TR in .308...... 110 V max's will take out a pasty in 3 or 4 shots
The Model 12 VLP in 22-250 is showing excellent potential with using the bargain box ammo from Dick working on load development now..

This winter project is going to be a 204/223 built on a model 12 target action like stated you always screw on a new barrel

plenty of of info over at the Savage Shooters Forum

jo191145 wrote:Can you buy a Contender barrel in 204 with an 11 or 10 twist? That should make those 40's come alive.

Beyond that it is a crap shoot wether a certain tube will shoot the 40's.

I called a few places today (T/C Custom Shop, BullBerry Barrel Works, and EABCO) SO far no one does custom rifling. I'll try a few more tomorrow...

http://www.bullberry.com/204Rugerdata.html

BullBerry barrel works told me the exact same thing i'm hearing here... "Don't expect 39/40 grain bullets to shoot well out of a 12 twist". Seems like Hornady was just worried about getting to the magical relm of 4,000fps accuratly and had to use 32 V-Max and opimized the twist to that round. I'd rather shoot the higher BC rounds...

The .270 and 7mm Mag barrels make the .204 barrel look BAD @ the range. They all came from T/C Custom Shop, Dunno...

How many shot's should I fire before cleaning the .204? I have been cleaning every 5-10 shots since break in... I have a .22 rimfire that doesn't shoot well until I am 30-50 rounds deep...Should I let her get dirty?

Most folks would probably say keep it clean.
I'll simply say you won't know until you try

My first Sav 204 before I ever reloaded a rifle cartridge in my life shot the Hornady 32's under a dime at 150yds. To do that I had to scrub the copper out of the barrel after every group. One to two foulers and a five shot group and scrub. Try to shoot two groups and it went to he!!. I did that for 600rds before I bought the reloading equipment I just wanted to improve the groups. I was resigned to the cleaning regimen.

Didn't take long before I found different powders have an effect on how long you can shoot.
Nowadays once I have a barrel run in I'll shoot up to 400rds before cleaning it. If thats what the barrel will tolerate of course.
If it won't tolerate it I'll keep trying something different till it does. Or chuck it.

Mark, If you're set on keeping the Encore, give Match Grade Machine a call. The standard barrels they use are from Shilen who offers only the 1-12 and 1-9 twist in .204, but they will order special barrels from other manufacturers. I would suggest having them order a Pac Nor barrel for your Encore in a 1-10 or 1-11 twist. Here's their site:

http://www.matchgrademachine.com/gunshop/home.php.

Mark I guess I am lucky as I have an Oncore with the factory barrel and after sending it back for head space problems it shoots close to my Ruger 77VT. I use the 32 V-Max and 34 gr. Dog town with BLc-2. I am getting 5 shot groups in the .2 s and .3 s with both guns. Both of my guns seem to do better after about 25 shots down the tube after cleaning.

bythebook wrote:Mark I guess I am lucky as I have an Oncore with the factory barrel and after sending it back for head space problems it shoots close to my Ruger 77VT. I use the 32 V-Max and 34 gr. Dog town with BLc-2. I am getting 5 shot groups in the .2 s and .3 s with both guns. Both of my guns seem to do better after about 25 shots down the tube after cleaning.

Did you have trouble with it grouping when you had head space problems? Ya know when I ordered this custom gun from EABCO, it came with the .270 heavy barrel, that barrel shoots the best. Maybe a dumb question, but is there some kind of special procedure for mating/tweaking these barrels to the Encore frame? Just curious why the original barrel shoots better…

I will have to let her get dirty and see what happens, I have never gone more that 10 shots without cleaning...

ken sage wrote:Mark, If you're set on keeping the Encore, give Match Grade Machine a call. The standard barrels they use are from Shilen who offers only the 1-12 and 1-9 twist in .204, but they will order special barrels from other manufacturers. I would suggest having them order a Pac Nor barrel for your Encore in a 1-10 or 1-11 twist. Here's their site:

http://www.matchgrademachine.com/gunshop/home.php.

Thanks for the link.... I gave them a call, They can do it!!! Douglas Barrels would send them a custom rifled 10 twist and Match Machine would customize the taper/length to my preference. It's 50 bucks more on top of the standard rate of 350 per custom barrel, 400 total...