The Surprising 20 Caliber Cartridges

Ernie Bishop

My good friend Steve, kept telling me for years how much he enjoyed shooting 20 caliber cartridges.  Honestly, I just didn't believe they could be that much fun.

A number of years ago, I decided to bite the bullet, and give it a try.  A good friend and hunting buddy Aaron, who lives in Alaska had a 20 BR reamer, and I had seen his fast twist 20 BR in action out to 600 yards or so.  Aaron makes some XP stocks from time to time, and he made one of those for me too.

It has 1-8 twist 15” McGowen barrel/Dell trigger/Aaron Alexander’s stock and brake/Burris XTR-III 3.3-18x50 with SCR MOA reticle.  I use the .204, 55 grain Berger, and the muzzle velocity is at 3173 ft./s. It is extremely accurate.  I have shot prairie dogs beyond 500 yards with it, and one mangy coyote. 

On steel I have ran it out to a grand.  It is so much fun to shoot.  I recently used it several Saturdays ago in a local PRS match out side of Sheridan, WY.I had a lot of fun, there are times when I timed out, and was not able to get to shoot all of my shots, from all of the different shooting positions, but that was OK.

I didn’t go to win anything, I went to learn, have fun, to shoot under pressure and time, which involved weird shooting positions.

I do have a 14" 204 Ruger OTT barrel for my G-2, and it shoots really tight (somewhere around a 1/4" at a 100 yards (need to find the pic for the group size to be specific) , but I have killed pd's or yotes with it yet.

The one that I have used the most on pd's is my 20 Vartarg XP.  I picked it up used from the Accurate Shooter forum a couple of years ago.  You never know on a used gun what the accuracy is going to be, but this one is stellar.

I use the 40 grain Hornady V-Max bullet at 3271 fps...it just HAMMERS pd's!  So much fun.  Recoil is all but nothing, It came with a RH H-S Precision stock as seen in the pic while dogging.  Now it has a ambi laminated wood stock on it from Jim Rockwell.

I have really enjoyed, being able to step in the the caliber world.

I still need to do load development for two different 17 caliber XP's, but that is for a different time.

I like the 20 cals!

Zee

Good looking guns, I just haven’t desired to go sub .224 yet. 

Ernie Bishop

Zee said:

Good looking guns, I just haven’t desired to go sub .224 yet. 

It's not for everyone.  Steve Hugel bugged me since the 80's about the "subs" and I didn't try it till several years ago.  The 20 VT is so much fun to varmint with.  221 Fireball, necked down to 20 caliber-easy to do and about the perfect case size.

I really like the 20 BR for playing at distance on steel.

earlyagain

I don't know why you couldn't believe him. They look fun to me

orchidman

You wont get any argument from me about the effectiveness of the 204 Ruger Ernie. I have used both of my 204's to take all manner of critturs from rabbits, peacocks, turkeys through to goats, Fallow deer  and even a big red Hind. Both rifles shoot like lazers and using the Hornady 45gr lead soft points it punches well above its weight. On the bigger animals shot placement is the key off course, but with the right glass, the cal is so accurate that shot placement is easy if I do my bit.

Nice looking rigs.

JerryBobCo

I have a Savage Model 10 chambered in .204.  I've only used it on prairie dogs, but it's a hoot to shoot.

JunkCollector

I was the first on the 204 Ruger bus.....even sent scooter trash brass do he could get on.

Have a Ruger K77VT and AR in it.

sakodude

JunkCollector said:

I was the first on the 204 Ruger bus.....even sent scooter trash brass do he could get on.

Have a Ruger K77VT and AR in it.

Then I have some brass for you I think.

Bigslug

Would it be correct to say that the .20's are the varmint-weight version of the 6.5mm's with both high B.C. and S.D.?

GunNut

That’s an itch I’ve never even had but then again I’ve never done much varmint  hunting except for coyotes.  They do sound like fun though.

Ernie Bishop

Bigslug said:

Would it be correct to say that the .20's are the varmint-weight version of the 6.5mm's with both high B.C. and S.D.?

I have never thought about the 20's in that way.

I guess I would consider the 22 caliber in terms of high BC...80-90 grain class bullets With BC's in the (G1) .455-.534 with Berger's and (G1) .485-.585 with Hornady's.

A .545 88 grain ELD-M and the .524 85.5 grain Berger are two bullets I have.

Linefinder

ScooterTrashes first pdog rig was a .204 Ruger. He did well with it then he had a 20 VarTag built. What a rig. I could outreach him with my .223 Rem, but I had to load 40 grainers at 3800 fps to do it.

Linefinder

In other words, he was comfortable at 450. I was comfortable at about 75 yards more. But I was burning a heckuva lot more powder. Not inconsequential in a colony varmint gun.

Mike