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Only one factory .20 caliber cartridge...STILL?!

Bought a 204 in a CZ 527 a few years after the chambering became available. Ended up gravitating to a Savage Model 12 in 204 that has shot a mountain of prairie dogs. Almost like point and kill to 300 yards or a little more with a 12X Leupold scope. Crawled out of the cave long enough to visit a sizable gun show several years ago and was intrigued with a 20VT set up that a guy had for a TC Encore. Worked out a deal and brought it home. Damn, that set up is fun. Kills prairie dogs with ease to that 300 yard range, less powder, recoil and gun heat....and accurate. This one is a no turn size down with Remington 221 Fireball brass. Simple and easy. If Fireball brass not available, you can use 223/5.56 brass with more work and time.

Would like factory 20VT brass, but the existing supply options work sufficiently well. Other 20 chamberings have the same options with available brass options. The reality is, is that 223 guns and ammo are readily available, historically cheaper to shoot and shoot adequately accurate for the masses of varmint and/or target shooters.
 
I built myself a 20VT on a Rem stainless M700 CDL in 17FB several years ago. At the time, R-P was the only source for 221FB brass, and the only place that had it in stock was Midway, so I bought a 500ct box from them. That particular lot of brass was crap - more than 10% of the cases had primer pockets too shallow to allow seating primers flush. I really enjoyed that VarTarg though - great accuracy & velocity with AA2200, next to no recoil, low muzzle blast - what's not to like? And then Lapua started making 221FB brass - but the neck dia of my reamer was so tight that I'd have to neck turn. When I realized there were no decent dog towns within easy driving distance, I wound up selling that rifle to a guy who was getting ready to head up into the Dakotas on a PD safari. If Lapua hadn't stopped making 221FB brass, I'd look into doing another 20VT on a Howa Mini, and either buy another reamer with larger neck dia, or a neck reamer to cut larger neck dia with my existing reamer.

Since then, I've built a couple of 20 Tacticals - one on a Howa Mini action with a Bartlein 1-9tw #2B sporter, the other on a trued M700 with PTG custom bolt and another Bartlein 1-9, this one a #3B contour. Not totally convinced that the 1-9tw is fast enough for Berger 55 LRBT bullets, though I've gotten a few really nice groups at 600yds with them - need to do some more load development and perhaps run a 20 cal throater into these bbls to give more freebore. I've got a couple of nice 223AI rifles, and wouldn't bother to mess with these 20s if they weren't just so interesting & fun to play with.
 

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