I built myself a nice 20 VarTarg on a Rem M700 SSF CDL 17 Fireball that I bought from Zanders several years ago when they were running a special on these rifles. As luck would have it, the one I got had a very nice looking CDL stock - no fancy grain, but very uniform, dark walnut with nice straight grain. I pulled the OEM fluted SS 17FB bbl & sent it to Bartlein to have them do one of their .204, 1-14tw bbls in the same contour. In due time, I received the new bbl & the 17FB 'pattern' bbl back, and set to work on the Bartlein with a 20VT reamer from PTG. The results were gratifying, even though the R-P 221FB brass I'd bought for the rifle was anything but uniform. The original attraction of the VarTarg was its efficiency, and it didn't disappoint, giving 3670fps with 20grs of AA2200 & 32 VMax. I'd put a Nikon 6-24x50 Monarch on it, and wanted to try Lapua 221 brass when they announced it, but found that my reamer's .232" neck wasn't going to work w/o neck turning the Lapua. I kind of lost interest in the rifle, mostly because there are no decent dog towns out here anymore, and what other use did I have for it? Eventually sold it to a fellow who was planning a PD safari in the Dakotas. As you can see in the photo, I'd left the bbl at 26", which is probably more than what's needed to give complete burn on the small charges of relatively fast powders suited to the little 20VT.
More recently, I've kind of fallen for Howa's Mini, and have bought several of their bbl'd actions to build on. I had one in 222, and had thought about doing another 20VT on it, since I had the reamer & dies. But I'd purchased a couple of .204, 1-9tw blanks off Bartlein's inventory list, and wanting to shoot mostly 39-55gr bullets, it seemed more logical to go with a case with more capacity than the 20VT. I wound up getting a reamer & dies for the 20 Tactical. The Bartlein on this one is a #2B med sporter, which is just about perfect for what I was after. I finished it at 24", threaded the muzzle 1/2-28 for a TBAC CB mount for the Ultra 7 suppressor I have, and got a Boyds ProVarmint stock for it, which I pillared & bedded with MarineTex. I shortened the actuator spring of the OEM HACT trigger about 1.3 coils, and wound up with a very nice clean break at 1.75lbs. Put an old 30mm Nikon 4-16x50 tactical scope on it, and have been fireforming WW 223 cases in it. Have been very pleased with the accuracy, and have been getting 3500fps with S39MKs or H40VMax bullets using H4895. I had a couple of hundred of Berger's 55gr LRBT bullets, and couldn't wait to try them at 600yds. Didn't have the chronograph along the day I shot the rifle at 600, but was very pleased with the results with both the S39s & B55s. Based on what I was seeing out of the chrono with 32s & 40s, I'm guessing the 55s were probably doing around 3200fps. Am very much looking forward to doing more shooting with this little rifle - just need to get out of this cold, wet, dreary weather pattern we're in. But at least so far, I'm not having any regrets going with this chambering, nor in the decision to build it on the Mini action. The photo shows the two Minis I've built so far, with the 20 Tac in the blue/grey laminated stock, and a 6RAT in the McM Game Scout. No, the Mini isn't as sexy as the little Sako Vixen action, but it's not as pricey, and is easily available, plus there are quite a few custom parts starting to show up for them - like the DIP DBM on my two rifles that replaces the flimsy OEM plastic bottom 'metal'.