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.204 Bench Rest

Griffer

At the excuse of sounding nutty. Would a person be wasting alot of dollars in resale value, by custom building a realy top-shelf 204 benchrest style rifle??

I just love this new round and have several in that caliber and thought why not custom build my first one, the right way.

Has anyone else built or heard of one built expressly for BR competition ??

Regards in Advance

Griffer
 
Hi Griffer:

The .204 would probably work competitively in group shooting, though it would be hard to get one to outshoot a 22 or 6 PPC.

In score shooting, the .204 would stand virtually no chance vs. the freight train coming down the pike called 30 BR.

ReedG
 
To answer the first part of your question, well yes and no. In the BR world, the barrel is considered a highly consumable commodity so people who buy second hand BR guns are often looking to re-barrel them anyway. The resale value of the gun will mainly be driven by the action, the stock and the trigger.

On the other hand, it may not be too attractive to someone looking to put a PPC barrel on it because they would need to have the bolt face opened up to fit the larger case head.

Having said all that, if that's what you want to do, just do it and have fun. I never buy a gun based on the resale potential because it's my intention to keep everyone I have forever. :)
 
Griffer,

I pick up a used PPC benchgun, had the boltface opened for 6 BR, and had a 20BR barrel added. it is shooting very good, 0.1's & 0.2's, and one small group of 0.074". it will run the 40 gr Berger's at 4000 f/s with a BC .280. that's better than 22 cal and the 6mm benchrest bullets. I am looking at some 45gr with a BC of .305.I think I will give it a try this year at 100yd, 200yd Benchrest. I had all the 20 br barrel and dies, If not I would have tried the 20 PPC. All you would have to do is rebarrel a used gun. But if you set on a 204 case, you will have to buy a new one, don't see many 222 boltface custom action used. good luck.

Mark
 
Griffer,

I assume by "204 Benchrest" you're not talking about the 20 BR, but rather a competitive Benchrest rifle based on a 20 caliber bullet? If so, I think it can be. I know several shooters who are putting together or have put together a 20 PPC Short and it seems to be quite competitive. The idea of the "Short" is to reduce the case capacity so that it maintains the same bore to capacity ratio of the 6PPC.

Kory
 
What I am considering is a pure top-shelf .204 Ruger that will shoot factory Hornady 32 Gr. V-maxs, Or if I prefer to load my own .204 Ruger ammo.

Regards
 
Giffer,
The light 204 bullet will not hang with the heaver PPC bullet at 200 yards. It gets blown around too much.
To be competitive in group shooting the PPC is king, and score shooting the 30br is what you want.
The rifle you build is going to cost the same regardless of the caliber, if it were me, I would build a gun in a caliber that has a history of winning.

Good luck, keep us posted on what you build.

Chuck
 
Chuckw2,

Thanks for the reply. Do you think the 204 would be competitive @ 100yds against the 6 BR / PPC or 30BR ??
 
Griffer said:
Chuckw2,

Thanks for the reply. Do you think the 204 would be competitive @ 100yds against the 6 BR / PPC or 30BR ??
Click to expand...

No, it won't be. Notice that that the 6BR/30BR/6PPC all have a short fat and strong case and the 204 is a long narrow case. The short, fat case help with consistant ignition which results in consistant accuracy. The 204 Ruger was not designed for competition, it was designed for varming hunting.

If you want to compete for fun, that's great. As long as you realize you probably won't win untless a bunch of the other guys make some serious mistakes to your advantage. I don't mean to be discouraging, but I just went down this road with the Tac-20,which I feel has a slight edge on the 204 Ruger) and gave up. I am building a custom 6PPC rifle based on the BAT.

In order to be competitive in point blank shooting,100/200) you gun must CONSISTANTLY shoot 5 shot groups in the teens,.190") or better in calm conditions.

Regards,
Kory
 
Griffer,

The biggest down fall to 204 ruger, is the brass. It will not come close to the Lapua brass. This is THE main factor in the accuracy of the PPC, & the BR's, along with the short fat cases. Like Kory said this gun with cost the same, no matter with round you go with.

Mark
 
If your keen on the 204 and have the money to do it, do it. Everyone is telling I'm mad for making a
20 Vartarg benchrest gun. I may have no chance in beating the 6PPC blokes but who cares as long as I'm shooting a gun that i like.
 
IMHO until someone makes BENCHREST QUALITY bullets for the 20 Cal it will not be competitive on the National level--The Vartarg AI should make the better cartridge as mentioned the brass quality. I am presently having a XP-100 action BR Stock in 20 BR 9 " twist being built.

Good Luck

Jim
 
There are two of us in the area who have fired the 20 VarTarg and a slightly larger variant in IBS matches at 100 and 200 yards. The older Berger 40 has been the best for us, and we do about as well with the 20 as with our 6 ppcs. We feel the limiting feature of the 20 is the fact that few suitable bullets are available.

As to the larger 204 Ruger case ... I wouldn't be surprised if it could shoot as well. Like others have said, it may give up something in case shape which would show up in velocity variations, and would still be more forgiving as to recoil control than the 6 ppc. The plethora of high quality 6mm bullets available is a feature hard to overcome with the 20.
 
michaeljp65 said:
If your keen on the 204 and have the money to do it, do it. Everyone is telling I'm mad for making a
20 Vartarg benchrest gun. I may have no chance in beating the 6PPC blokes but who cares as long as I'm shooting a gun that i like.
Click to expand...
This thread is 10yrs old...
 
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