any quiet 204 ruger loads?

[1858rem]

hey guys i gut 40g and 32g vmaxes and am looking for a relatively light-3000ish fps or less load that would be good for, well....not ringing my ears so much when hunting crows or other small game, i use earplugs, but im wanting to download to around 22mag as far as loudness goes so i can hear the little critters better and not worry much about ruining my hearing too bad. any ideas? i have RL-15, benchmark, varget, and h4198 for rifle and titegroup,unique,universal, and trailboss for pistol's. anyone tried this yet?

 

[1858rem]

how about subsonic? or at least 2000fps ish with the 40g? anything wrong loading the powders i have that low? hear bad things about very light charges in bag case, same for a 204?

 

[Dean Williams]

I think you will have a hard time making this as quiet as something like a .22 magnum no matter what you do. Even 22 Hornet is hard on the ears after a few shots, (and if it doesn't bother you, your hearing is probably already shot).
In any case, you simply need to wear hearing protection with any CF round.

However, you can still try. I don't load for the .204, but there are many reduced loads listed in certain manuals for cartridges of similar case capacity, like .223, .222 and even bigger stuff like the 30-06. Most of the ones I've seen use SR-4759, (nine!). I have no idea what a starting load would be for .204. Check some Speer manuals for reduced .223 loads if you're curious.

I hope this is vague enough that you understand I'm not recommending you try anything without printed data from one of the major bullet/powder makers.

 

[1858rem]

i thought about trying some trailboss but had no idea where to start, the reduced 223 loads, or maybe even 222mag sound like good starting points, even 21.5g of imr4198 was way loud with 32g's lol.

 

[Tune_up]

My suggestion would be to buy a set of electronic ear muffs. I bought a inexpensive set, you can hear fine while wearing them but they still suppress the gun shot. I know I didn't help with your question but this might be easier than working up a different load.

 

[redneck2]

The Lyman book has low velocity loads listed for cast bullets in a lot of calibers. The .204 is basically a .222 mag, so go from there. One guy posted here about a .223 with Blue Dot that would shoot moderate velocity and was pretty quiet IIRC. I would think a moderately slow pistol powder would be the answer.