A Question from a new guy

[alldayhunter]

I have been hunting for a long time but have more recently started shooting more seriously. I used some money from christmas to buy a .204. I am planning on useing it for punching paper and shooting varmints like prarie dogs. i was just wondering what effective range i could get out of this round. I realize this is not much compared to some of the rifles i have seen on this site but hope it is a good starting point. I was just hopeing i could get an idea of how far is in range. Thanks for the help.

 

[James Jones]

I'm not sure what twist rate you have but I have heard of guys shooting them out to 600yds on paper , thats with a heavier bullets and handloads.
From what everybody says its like a ballistic twin to the 22-250 and 50gr bullets so I would think if that is true that it would make for a 300-400yds praire dog gun.

The smaller calibers are great for getting into the LR game I think , because they are not the ballistic super hero's that some of the big mags are so they make you learn to dope the wind better and guess range better which in the long run will make you a better shot with one of the big mags if you choose to go that route.

Do you handload?
What gun do you have?
How does it shoot now?

 

[Ridge Runner]

with target turrets on a good repeatable scope I shoot chucks to 600 yds with a 223
JS

 

[alldayhunter]

This one is simply a barrel for an encore that i didn't use as a muzzleloader anymore. I also got a thumbhole stock from arthur brown. I have misplaced the paper with twist rate. I have a nikon monarch 5.5-16 that i will put on it. I would rather have a bolt gun but already had the encore so needed to make it useful. I also just started handloading with a rcbs rock chucker. I have two friends that already do a lot of handloading and shooting so they help me some. I just bought the barrel and was looking for more info thanks for all the help. It looks like there are some really good shots on this forum. hopefully i will be able to put my success photo up some time. Thanks again and keep the info coming.

 

[screech]

I know that a 22-250 will kill a p dog @ 1000yrds with a 55gr. bt. they were not one shot hits they were walk it into them but still kills them. I havent dealt with a 204 but would think that they would kill rock chuck and smaller sized varmits out to 6-800. Depending on bullets and shot placement. I might be 100% wrong but that would be my guess.

 

[Coyboy]

My longest kill with a 204 ruger was a porcipine at a measured 565 yards. The load was 40gr v-max on a healthy dose of win 748.

I don't care for the 204 on coyotes (had a few blow-ups on shoulders) but anything smaller it's great for.