.204 ruger a barrel burner with heavy bullets?

[1858rem]

i found an excellent load for my new .204, which is only .2 grains under max and somewhere around 3800 fps, if i take equal times between shots as the 32 grain loads at 4100 fps which are at the very max for an accurate load, would the barrel last longer using the 40g bullets? even though pressure is the same(well reallly close) for both loads i was wondering if the 3800 fps load would be on par with a 223 for barrel life......which btw i have no idea what that is..... but anyone with experience with .204 think 4000 shots before accuracy falls off is expectable only loading a 40g vmax at 3800 fps( near max load though)??

 

[stubbicatt]

Keep records of how many rounds you fire. I've read that throat erosion is largely a function of how many pounds of powder you push down the barrel over time. I guess it can be accelerated by rapid firing. Pressure alone isn't going to affect throat erosion.

One of the virtues touted for the 204 is that supposedly it isn't a barrel burner, such as would be the 22-250. Perhaps you will experience good barrel life with yours.

 

[1858rem]

i was mostly thinking about planning ahead for how much powder/primer/bullets to eventually stock up to, looking at price 4000 shots would get real expensive real fast. but even so it would be nice if it could last me a long time, ive not proven it repeatable since most shooting is at pop bottles(my pdog/crow practice targets) but the few times i had shoot for targets this load always gave 1/4" so i am really starting to like that

 

[Horsemany]

I have to agree with stubbicat. 204's are not hard on barrels. I'm working on wearing out a 22-250 barrel right now. It's creeping up on 3000 rounds and it's shooting more accurately now than it ever has. For the first 1500 rounds it was basically a 3/4" gun. Then I found some new powders and Berger bullets. It's now a 1/4-1/2" gun. Point being it's not shot out by any means. I think if you don't shoot a barrel hot it will last a long time regardless of caliber. You will have no problem achieving 4000 rounds of accurate service life from a 204 IMO.

 

[1858rem]

theres one ive not got down pat yet

if you don't shoot a barrel hot it will last a long time

how hot is too hot? with the 40's i can get three good shots before it is pretty warm....then it cools off pretty quick since its like 20F out. normally i take about a minute between shots to line up and squeeze off the next one...... but i dont know what everyone is considering HOT and to me that means not wanting to touch the barrel? should a minute or so between shots be fine for just target shooting and not letting the bbl get up past about 80F or so?

 

[1858rem]

what sort of accuracy is typical of most .204's? with the 32g's i cant do much better than 1" at 100 yds and thats using either factory or my handloads...and with the 40g's id guess 1/4" is starting to be common(thats with a total of maybe 125rds down a brand new stainless ruger cleaned twice so far) so can i expect much better from the 32g's in time as the barrel "breaks in" because i still got 200/250 left in the box i gotta use......they are fun for punching holes through all sorts of really thick steel though....has gone through 3/8"@75 yds, 1/4"@330 yds and a really thick nail i found that was just a bit over 3/8".......just gotta find some 1/2" now to try!

 

[Horsemany]

The accuracy potential of the 204 is very good. It shares some of the virtues of the .222 Rem which dominated Benchrest for decades until the advent of the PPC's. I shoot 35gr Bergers in a Cooper Varmint. It will shoot in the .2's and .3's on a calm day.

I consider a barrel that's uncomfortable to put your fingers on too hot. I believe if you follow that rule you will never have a barrel hot enough to do damage. Essentially what happens is the throat can get so hot it softens slightly and errodes with successive shots. A barrel has to be VERY hot for that to happen though. Your limitation will be keeping the barrel a relatively uniform temperature for the tightest groups possible. I've changed out M60 barrels that were glowing red.

 

[win71]

The accuracy potential of the 204 is very good.......I shoot 35gr Bergers in a Cooper Varmint.

I've had about the same results with a Cooper Varmint only I did find that 30 and 35 Bergers, 32 Sierras, and 32 V-Max all shot about the same. As soon as I get done shooting everything up I'm sticking with Sierra 32's and Berger 30's. I'm shying away from 40's but it's simply personal preference.
30-40 rounds of load testing at the range doesn't even come close to warming the barrel, let alone heating it.

 

[Horsemany]

30-40 rounds of load testing at the range doesn't even come close to warming the barrel, let alone heating it.

Yes I think this is one of the biggest virtues of the 204 Ruger. On hot summer days at the dogtown I don't ever have to wait for the barrel to cool like on the 22-250. The 22-250 is noticeably more devastating though. Especially at ranges over 300yds.

It's good to know about the different bullets all performing about the same. The Cooper is one of the guns I've had little time to play with yet. The 35gr Berger is really the first bullet I thoroughly worked up a load for.

 

[1858rem]

ok, really like this load!! i got 1.75" by 1.4" at 340 yds earlier....not really hitting my aimpoint but looking for group i got a pic in the -longest shot regardless of caliber- thread, on pg4 i think. very cool little cartridge and much less punishing than my .308! looking at handloads.com ballistic calculator it still has more energy at 500 yds than my 22mag at the muzzle