whats the 204 Hype all about?

[Chaney101]

is Rugers 204 any good? I havent had time to read about it or anything. What does it compare with?

[Evan03]

i dunno. i have a 204 and am now leaning on the 22/250's for my varmiting.

32gr vmax at over 4100fps
40gr vmax at 3800

this is facotry hornady ammo.


the 204 is suposed to be better on pelts, wich is the case from what ive seen when i shot the one dog with it at 100yds. others are seeing similar results.

but in allreality i think its just a toy. the 22/250 223 220 and others are very versitile and can do the same thing with like bullets./

but it is new and cool. and gives me an opurtunity to have light weight carry varmit rig.

Evan

[hofts]

a full load of pwder and 55 gr in a 243 at 4050fps is an awful lot of fun to. things explode the second you touch the trigger.

[Evan03]

yeah there are alot of calibers out there that outshine the 204 in about every department.

the 224 calibers can mimick the 204ruger with 40gr bullets. or push 55s faster than the 204 could ever dream of.

i think the 223 pushn 40gr pills is right in the same ballpark. heck its dang near the same case. its hair shorter and the shoulder angle is difrent, but is real real real close to being the same.


i guess i just havent worked with the 204 enough to know one way or the other.


Evan

[razmuz]

The hype is to get your buck.

[Evan03]

kinda


us who are into guns and tinkering varmiting bigame hunting paper plinking and this and that will buy something. wether its hyped up or old school were going to have it give it try. stick with or move on to something bigger and better. maybe tried and true caliber like 22/250.

this caliber the 204. is not for everyone. im sure alot of shooters out that bought withought even knowing what is. they were new shooters that saw magazine article the caliber and decided have it. so they could out do there buddies 223. wich in facotry ammo it might.

but i believe most of the people buying the 204s, have already had other 224 caliber centerfires. and this one theyl try to see if they can talk themselves into thinking its better than the rest or not.

i dont think its better. but i dont have plans to get rid of it. guess that says something there.

its jsut the new model truck that out, and may get traded in a year or so on the next new model.


Evan

[MarkL]

Have you been drinking or something?

[Catfish]

There is alot of hype with every new round brought on the market, and there are so many out there now that they mostly over lap in preformance now. I really can`t tell you how the .204 will do as I haven`t had enough time to try mine out, I`m still fire forming brass. I have 5 different rounds in .22 cal. centerfire rifles, and 3 different rounds in .17 cal. centerfire rifles and have been thinking of building a .19 or .20 cal. wildcat for afew years now, so when Ruger brought out the .204 it saved me alot of money getting into .20 cal. After I play with it a while I`ll make up my mind if I want to build up a .20 cal. bench gun, probibly a .20 BR. Sure the build-up is alot of hype, that`s to get the people that don`t by many gun to get one and means nothing to those of us that play around with alot of different rounds anyway because we already have a good idea of what we are looking for in our next gun. :rolleyes: Unless we run acrossed something cheap then we might end up with anything.

[Evan03]

Catfish answerd that way better than i can.

i do belive there are guys that have 22 centerfires like many of us and they may find a reason the 204 is better than something they already have. same reason i like the 22/250 over the other 224 calibers.

[Cal Sibley]

I use the big brother to the .204, the .222Rem. Mag., and it's about the most accurate caliber I own. They use the same case. I prefer the .222Rem. Mag. because I can shoot the heavier 55gr. bullets and buck the wind a little better although the .204Ruger is a bit faster coming out the barrel. On a calm day I suspect the .204 will be quite accurate. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[scooterman27006]

i sure hope it will be because they got my buck lol i havent fire formed any brass but i did buy six boxes of factory ammo just for the brass and i can tell ya now the factory stuff in a new 700 adl remington doesnt shoot worth a cuss so after loading the fired brass with what load info i could find on it and only after figuring out that the only way to get a long enough cartridge to touch or even come close to lands i had to go with a berger 50 gr bullet - the 32 and 40 gr just are not long enough to work - now i dont know why its that way or if this short stuff is supposed to work but i find that it does not at all - its all over the place - so i have put the 204 (by the way i bought an encore barrel because the rem wouldnt shoot just to see if maybe it was the remington) but thats not the case seems that both need a longer bullet - now after using moly and bringing the overall case length out to 2.245 it did shoot much better but still not better enough for me to like it so i guess until i see some load data that someone is really happy with i wont buy any new powder for this load - anyone played much yet i sure would like to compare notes

[scooterman27006]

i read the comment about the 222 rem above and that is the only caliber i dont own but i think i wish i did - had a buddy that just stopped by few weeks ago while my dad and i were playing with the 204 and he had an older looking remington 222 and only had 7 rounds but he wanted me to clean the barrel well he shot it at 100yrds and wow said barrel hadnt been cleaned in he didnt know how long and this was factory stuff - i will be looking for a 222 next gun show we have - my dad said that was a really old cartridge and it used to have a really good reputation so what happened to it - you dont see it much anymore or at least i dont - is there a down side to this caliber and does anyone have one for sale with a heavy barrel lol

[MarkL]

The 222 was eclipsed by the 223 for two reasons I can think of.

1) 223 has slightly higher case capacity and velocity
2) 223 was adopted by the US armed forces, guaranteeing instant widespread popularity.

The 222 does have an excellent reputation for accuracy. It used to be very popular in benchrest competition.

[Rocky Raab]

I'll just point out the the 222 Remington and the 222 Remington Magnum are two COMPLETELY different cartridges.

The mag has a longer case, a bit longer than the 223 in fact. In order of case size, they'd rank this way: 222, 223 and then 222 Mag as the largest.

The 204 was based on the 222 Mag with a few alterations. You can make 204 brass from 222 Rem Mag cases, but NOT from 223s or 222s.

Confusing? Yup. But I guess Remington ran out of available numbers when they wanted to name the 222 Rem Mag. Every number from 218 to 225 was taken!

[scooterman27006]

but rocky the one that is supposed to be pretty accurate for around 100 yds is the 222 rem and not the magnum right and what do you think the range is on this 222 will it shoot 200 yds fairly well or does it tucker out fast with lighter bullet i will look at ballistics sometime too

[Evan03]

scooter

i hate to send you to another site but reloadbench.com haas alot of info on pretty much all the calibers out there.

[Andy L]

I am probably as skeptical about new calibers as anyone, but the 204 is kinda gaining appeal with me. I am pretty close to having to buy one.

22 centerfires are good varmint guns, but all are hard on hides. You may get some hides with little or no damage, but you will have about as many with big damage and many with some damage, period. 17 centerfires are much easier on hides, but will still splash and do damage with a poor shot. I dont think there is a holy grail, just some better than others.

I was very skeptical of the 204. Figgered that it would perform more like a 22 than a 17, but after seeing and handling one some, Im not sure its the other way around.

Im not ready to draw any conclusions yet, it needs alot more time and testing. But, it has caught the attention of a hard head like me. And that takes some doing. ;)

Andy

[reload]

The .222 is very accurate at 200 yards with the 52 grain bullet, more so than the .223. The 204 is good out to 300 yards and most likely will become the most uses varmint rifle for a number of reasons which will show up as more people become users. I will make a bet with you that this caliber will become very popular. Good Luck

[scooterman27006]

i sure hope that will prove to be true with the 204 - i will do a lot more experimenting when i get the right powders but as far as the 222 remington - i dont own one and they are kind of hard to come by from what i hear but the next gun show i will be looking for one - are heavy barrels in 222 even more so scarce because i dont think i have ever seen one now that i think back - and the 200 yrds and a tack driver that really appeals to me - if a fella was looking for one would ruger and remington be the 222 im looking for or are there others out there that really shine