20 practical project done, but

[Hippy]

Benchnark-H4895 and RL-10 are EXCELLENT powders for the Practical

Winchester brass and 7 1/2

Jim

 

[drover]

I am probably going to open up a can of worms but here goes. -

I have not owned or chronographed a 20 Practical or 20 Tac, but I did jump on the 204 band wagon after reading velocities that folks said they were getting with the 40 gr bullets in the 204.

The best I can say is maybe, and if they were getting the velocities they bragged about they need a new chronograph. I went through three 204's, one with a 26" barrel and two with 22" barrels, the best I could get without starting to push the overpressure envelope was slightly over 3700 fps. I also chronographed a couple of friends 204's and they too were in the same velocity range.
Just in case you are wondering- I did verify my chronograph against a friends Oehler and the largest disparity between them was 25 fps difference, so it wasn't a case of my chronograph giving erroneous readings.

Take the velocities that folks brag about getting with a grain of salt - just remember anything is possible on the internet. Find an accurate load and be happy with it.

drover

 

[GrocMax]

Depends on what you consider overpressure for a good 223 case. Is SAAMI 55Kpsi your limit, or is NATO 63Kpsi your limit? For 204R SAAMI sez ~58Kpsi.

What is your personal OMFG point? Primer craters a little? Or can't hardly lift the bolt and then when it opens the primer is laying in the action and the case is junk? There's a HUGE difference between those two points.

For most of us its the point where the case is good for 1/2 dozen or more reloads for the cheap and plentiful 223 brass that makes it an attractive 20 option.

 

[Doug30racer]

27 grain of 8208 on the 32's did nice. 4150 over the crony

 

[hogpatrol]

I checked some old Magnetospeed chrono records and with 23.7 of 133, BR4s and R-P brass out of a 1-11 HV 26", I'm getting 3645 average with 40 BIBs jumped .010. 32 Vmax or BKs are running 3950, same jump with 24.3 of 133. Accuracy is excellent with an edge to the BIB 40s and the 32 BKs, I started with 133 and since it shot so well, I've never really done any extensive testing with other powders. I have gone as high as 24.7 with the 32s and 24.3 with the 40s. Got more velocity but accuracy degraded.
In the AR platform, less velocity but I'm using lighter loads.

 

[Charles]

Was working with 4198 and was not happy at 200 switched to 25.5 of Benchmark and groups came down to .250 at 200yds i'm ready for the PD's

 

[hogpatrol]

Was working with 4198 and was not happy at 200 switched to 25.5 of Benchmark and groups came down to .250 at 200yds i'm ready for the PD's

Charles, what bullet(s) are you shooting?

 

[Charles]

35gr Berger's

 

[Fast14riot]

I run a 24" 3p barrel from BHW on an AR, with 32s and IMR4198 I was just over 4k with good accuracy, I run Speer 39TNT over BL-C(2) at a moderate charge and get around 3550 simply because I didn't have time to really develop that load, took a guess, was sub minute on paper (which nearly any load in the 20p is) and shot it. That load is like shooting a pellet gun, very very mild recoil in a 12lb gas gun.

 

[GAnderson]

I run a 24" 3p barrel from BHW on an AR, with 32s and IMR4198 I was just over 4k with good accuracy, I run Speer 39TNT over BL-C(2) at a moderate charge and get around 3550 simply because I didn't have time to really develop that load, took a guess, was sub minute on paper (which nearly any load in the 20p is) and shot it. That load is like shooting a pellet gun, very very mild recoil in a 12lb gas gun.

Not to hi-jack this thread but Fast14riot, what does 3P mean on the BHW barrels? Thanks

Gene

 

[Fast14riot]

3 "groove" polygonal rifling.