20 cal build for 55 grain Bergers

[Tragik]

Curious if anyone has experience with the 20 cal 55 grain Bergers. I'm going to build a 20 cal at some point in the next year and want to get the barrel, bullets and brass now. It will be used solely for target shooting. Barrel would be 1:8 twist (I'm currently at 5,000 ft elevation so this works well).

(1) How bad is the barrel life shooting 55s for 20 BR? 20 PPC? Any other 20 cal cartridge you have experience with?

(2) It makes sense that people consider largest capacity cases (20 BR and sometimes 20 PPC) for the heaviest 20 cal bullets. But I won't be shooting varmints with this build so barrel life is a factor I'm considering. Anybody have experience shooting 55s with any other 20s (ruger, tactical/practical, etc)?

I'm going to assume nobody is crazy enough to use the smallest capacity 20 cartridge, the VarTarg / 20-221 Fireball, for the heaviest bullet, so is there software that can estimate muzzle velocity with decent accuracy? I saw that the VarTarg can get up to 3,450+ fps with a 40 gr. That may not seem impressive compared to any other 20 cal but it's doing that with much less powder - it's a very efficient cartridge.

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At 5K elevation at 600 yards, a 20 cal 55 at a muzzle velocity as low as 2,750 fps matches the windage of a 40 grain with a muzzle velocity of 3,450 fps. MV of 2,750 fps for 55s is a very low bar considering I see that people are getting up to 3,600 fps with 55s with the 20 BR.

A 55 gr can maintain velocity above 1350 fps at 1,000 yards if it has a muzzle velocity of at least 3,250 fps. I'm sure a VarTarg / 20-221 Fireball won't hit that velocity so all of my shooting with that cartridge would be at 200-700 yards. If barrel life is tolerable and I went with a larger cartridge, I would probably shoot at 1K yards, but only maybe 5% of the time.

 

[FURMAN]

I shot them through two 20brs on the chip at 3600 fps. They were varmint rigs so barrel life was not going to be long but I sold them before needing to rebarrel.

 

[Tucker65]

I built a 20 Practical with a 28" Bartlein gain twist barrel to shoot the 55gr Berger. I knew the speed was going to be super fast but thought it would be fast enough for long range varmint shooting using the sleek 55gr Berger. It shot bug holes with Benchmark at 3075 fps. but the groups opened up the faster I pushed it. I was able to reach 3350 fps. and still have sub 1/2 moa groups so I settled with that. That same 3350 load shot great when testing at 500 yards with multiple groups under 2.5"

 

[Tragik]

I built a 20 Practical with a 28" Bartlein gain twist barrel to shoot the 55gr Berger. I knew the speed was going to be super fast but thought it would be fast enough for long range varmint shooting using the sleek 55gr Berger. It shot bug holes with Benchmark at 3075 fps. but the groups opened up the faster I pushed it. I was able to reach 3350 fps. and still have sub 1/2 moa groups so I settled with that. That same 3350 load shot great when testing at 500 yards with multiple groups under 2.5"

How was the barrel life? And do you recall how much powder to get 3075 and 3350 fps?

 

[Jud96]

My buddy @Redfoot Ranch runs them in his 20x47 and I can attest that it's a death ray on ground hogs with those bullets. I would love a 20BR running them, but I have enough projects haha.

 

[Tragik]

My buddy @Redfoot Ranch runs them in his 20x47 and I can attest that it's a death ray on ground hogs with those bullets. I would love a 20BR running them, but I have enough projects haha.

I don't doubt it! Although if I were running a 20x47 or even a 20 BR I may be tempted to use the 60 gr blackhole bullets.

 

[VinceMule]

You will replace barrels frequently, bullets are difficult to impossible to get.

Share with us the reasoning for your choice?

 

[Tragik]

Bullets are currently available and a click away. It doesn't matter to me if bullets are difficult to get if I can obtain 2K within a few days.

Recoil is very light - my son will be using this as well as soon as he's tall enough to shoot it (starting him out with a 22lr in the meantime).

20s are extremely flat shooting. I'm not using it for varmints but I enjoy setting up egg-sized targets at unknown distances and casually competing with friends to hit them w/o the use of a rangefinder.

I don't know the barrel life, but i'm assuming barrel life is very good with a 20 vartarg shooting 32s & 40s. I have considered 22 ARC or 22 BR to shoot the Berger 85.5s as an alternative but first need to gauge what the VTs performance is with 55 grains and what barrel life is on 20 PPC, 20 BR, etc. with 55s, which is the point of this thread.

 

[sable tireur]

Black Hole Bullets:

35 gr HP Flat base $40 100

35 gr HP Cup Base $40 per 100

37 gr HP flat base $40 @ 100

37 gr HP Cup Base $40 @ 100

42 gr HP Cup Base $42 @100

45 gr HP Cup Base $44 @100 {12 twist}

45 gr HP Cup Base $44 @ 100 {10 twist}

50 Gr HP Cup Base $45 @ 100 (10 twist)

50 gr HP Rebated Boat Tail $45 @ 100

52 gr HP ULD Rebated Boat Tail $45 @100

60gr HP Rebated Boat Tail $48/100

This illustrates the base design not the HP.

 

[VinceMule]

OP, you should do some serious research on the barrel life of a 20 BR, 22 ARC, 22 Dasher, as it is short with heavies. I have looked down the bores of some 20's with a bore scope, a lot of powder in such a small hole is really wicked looking.

In the informal matches, you can add weight to the stock, shoot a heavier/longer barrel, and possibly use a muzzle break.

Shooting 55's in a Vartarg does not make any sense to me, and I have Vartarg, 20 Practical, and 20 Tactical reamers. A Good friend was shooting the 20 Dasher with 55's, and he ditched that caliber after one barrel.

So, you mention eggs at various distances, at what distances are you speaking of?

 

[Tragik]

Shooting 55's in a Vartarg does not make any sense to me

What do you estimate the muzzle velocity to be for 20 VT with 55s? On that note, I had a website that I saved a week ago that had 221 fireball lapua in stock and now it's sold out. Bummer considering it's discontinued.

And after the research I've done, 20 BR is too overbore. I may circle back to the 20 Beggs which is what I originally had planned on when I first started researching this a few weeks ago. I'm seeing load data of 25 grains (VV N133) with good results, which is less than my 204 ruger runs on. Granted it's a much heavier bullet I'd be using with the Beggs that will negatively affect barrel life.

Obviously barrel life has many factors at play but I'm just looking for a very rough estimate for a 20 ARC or 20 Beggs. I generally shoot in 40 degree to 70 degree temps and take about a min. between each shot (but every dozen rounds or so I try to shoot 3 or so as quickly as I accurately can with a bolt action). After the 9th or 10th shot, I usually pause for 5 min. Rinse and repeat.

And we'll shoot eggs anywhere from 250ish yards to 600ish. We shoot paper to 1K.

 

[Calvin45]

The factory supported 204 ruger seems like an easy option just with a fast twist.

There's load data and SAAMI spec sheet for the 20 Nosler as well

 

[VinceMule]

Guys that like to target shoot usually shoot a lot of rounds, which is the reason that I am trying to get you to do some serious thinking on the subject of barrel life with NON barrel nut barrels running $700+ each.

I don't think that there is a right or wrong way since we are talking about YOUR hobby.

With any 20 cal with 55's, you should consider having two barrels chambered at the same time. Some consider 1200-1400 rounds per barrel normal barrel life, I do not.

The problem is that there are many options to 450, but beyond 450-600, the difficulty increases exponentially in the size of an egg or a MINI-clay pigeon that is 1.750" in dia.

You are going to need speed with BC, and I wish you the best...burn some barrels out and have fun!

 

[Calvin45]

You know…if your going to be able to hit very small targets at any distance the cartridge needs to have "creedmoor" in the name

A .200 Creedmoor Speedmoor Super Duper Thunder Magnum (or .200 CSSDTM for short) has a catchy ring to it. Burn that throat!!!!