What a way to start the New Year. I just shot one of the best groups I have ever shot!
I have been waiting for weeks it seems for a "calm air" day to do load testing on my new Remington XR-100 in caliber 223 Remington.
I had bought this Rifle in early December on a whim and on a "hunch"!
I was so broke after buying it I had to rob a scope off of another Rifle for this one!
I did intend to go all out on this Rifle though in my quest to make it accurate! I began by buying Lapua 223 Match brass for it. I bought a new set of Redding 223 standard dies exclusively for use on this Rifles ammo. I also chose to set it up to shoot the wonderful Berger 52 gr H.P. bullets! The runout on my test loads was averaging about .0025" for the 20 test rounds I made up for it. And I was able to seat these Bergers just a couple thousandths of an inch off of the leades of the rifling! I adjusted the wonderful 40X style trigger on it down as low as it would go.
I was at my range a couple days ago to break-in the barrel of this Rifle and it shoot some factory ammo into one good group of .502". I knew this Rifle was going to be a shooter then and decided not to try to shoot my hand loads in the blustery winds that came up once I had gotten to my range!
Well this morning (New Years Day!) I woke up early to one inch of new powder snow a bright sun rising and no wind!
I threw my freshly cleaned XR-100 and my gear into the VarmintMobile and sped to my range!
I was amazed at the stillness of the air once I got to my range! My lone wind flag never shuddered even once!
The blazingly bright winter sun was low and at my back! My BR target glowed so brightly in my Leupold 8.5x25x40mm scope I had to kind of squint at the "glare" from the target. My eyes slowly got used to it and I flung an "oiler" down range!
The I started out on my testing! The first load I tested was using H 335 powder, the Lapua cases with Federal 205M primers and the Berger 52's.
I was just bubbling with glee when the first 5 shot group at 100 yards measured .326"! The coldness (22 degrees) and the stillness of the air made for an amazing amount of scope blur due to heat mirage! If you can imagine. I could barely feel ANY heat or warmth coming through to my touch of the barrel. Never the less I got out my small battery operated fan and sat it up to blow down the length of my barrel. No more mirage. I fired the next 5 shot group and I won't bore you with the agony of how it progressed - in the making and sweating out that group - but when I got it home and measured it with my Brown & Sharpe calipers it measured .121"!
I think that is the best group I have ever fired with any Varmint Rifle! I have shot maybe eight or ten better groups with some of my 36x equipped Remington 40X's but for a factory stock Rifle and a 25x scope and with bullets that also do duty as Varmint bullets - this is a smokin good, screamer of a group in my mind!
Well I was done with that load and was literally shaking not just from the cold in the shooting shack but from anticipation of what my next load using VihtaVouri powder was going to do!
Well it was anti-climatic because the wonderful feeling and great looking little Remington did not like the VihtaVouri powder near as well as the H 335!
The 2 groups I shot next measured .486" and .613". The larger group had a flyer but I am sure this Rifle is gonna be near an honest .250" factory Rifle with the H 335 load!
And that pleases me to the max!
One more trip to the range with some more of the H 335 loads in the now fire formed Lapua brass and this wonderful little Rifle I think is gonna be relegated to long range (250 to 475 yards) Varminting duties from now on!
That is kind of a shame as this Rifle is just a joy to shoot at the range!
What a way to start the new year!
Happy New Year to all.
Long live Remington!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Just think how much smaller the groups would be if you would have chosen the "more accurate" chambering in 204!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Hairtrigger: That fact you stated is no laughing matter. I am not through doing load work with two of my three 204's!
I am going to be switching the other two 204's over to the 32 grain Sierra BlitzKings here in the next couple of months.
And if they produce an even better group than my XR-100 223 has - I will let YOU know.
Ha-ha.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

The only reason I have not purchased a 204 is I don't want to buy more cleaning rods and acessories as well as more bullets.
For the time I am happy playing with 22 calibers. Nothing at all aginst the 204.
The big discussion has gotten me thinking about a 19 from Calhoun.....must not... must not...

Hairtrigger: If you are not interested in improving the trajectory of your Rifles in your Varmint arsenal then maybe the 204 is not in the cards for you.
I have read a lot about the 19 and that should be a dandy Varminter also. I am broke right now so a 19 is not in the cards for me any time soon.
I would hate for you to miss out on all the 204 fun just because of a cleaning rod though!
Trimmers, deburring tools and a lot of stuff for the 22's will work for the 20 cals.
But yes I do recommend a specific 20 caliber cleaning rod if you get a 20.
Just got word - a winter Varmint Hunt for Coyote, Fox and Wolverine is on for 3 days from now! My friend called me just now and he was Duck and Goose jump shooting today. He saw 3 Coyotes and 1 Fox during a long days Hunt. All he had was his shotgun along so no fur brought into his bag with the feathers.
And he is the one always complaining about no Pheasants and Huns in our valley! He should have had his Varminter along with him.
We will get some prime fur this week - I hope.
Hairtrigger you remind me that I need to call the Bushnell Company and get a 17 and a 20 caliber "spud" for my bore sighter! That or buy one of the expensive Leupold "end of the barrel universal" type bore sighters and sell my old fashioned one! Hmm.. that may be a good subject for a post - I think I will!
Anyway I am tired of having to come upsatirs and get some sand bags set up and try to find a light object in the field or a dark object in the snow to aim the barrel at and go back and forth with the adjustments for 15 more minutes.
I need the subcaliber spuds so I can get it all done in my Rifle cradle in my gunroom.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy, Thanks for sharing your success, and well done! Glad to hear that Remington still makes an occasional accurate rifle. H335 is a real sleeper with so many other powders to choose from. The Berger bullets I am sure had no small amount of the responsibility for these groups as well. I hope you have many of the same lot... Enjoy, and hold off as necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by VarmintGuy:
Hairtrigger: I am not through doing load work with two of my three 204's!

What in the world can you do with with a .204 that you can not do with a .22 and at a reduced price? Other than marketeering pressure is there something that escapes me here????? I really fail to see a nitch being filled with the sub .22. IT's just a new toy. roger

Bartsche: Well in a way the new 204 Ruger Rifles are toys. They are so much fun to shoot!
But the amazing and wonderful thing about the 204's Roger, is, the laser like flat trajectory and the extraordinarily straight flight of its speedy bullets in the wind!
These 204's are also amazingly lethal on Varmints! Their performance is way out of proportion to the size of the cartridge and the weight of their powder charges!
Yeah its absolutely true that "someone" (many people?) are "marketing" these new cartridges in order to sell them and make a profit!
Thats capitalism!
But in this case the product is so excellent that I and legions of other people think its very much worth it!
Visualize Roger, if you will, my 204 Rugers that shoot flatter and buck the wind better than my 22 BR's, my 22-250's, my 220 Swifts AND does so using almost 20 grains less powder than one of my 220 Swifts uses!
Think about that a minute.
And again it flies flatter, faster and straighter than the Swift!!!
Lots of performance in a small package there Roger!
Saving 20 grains of powder at each shot in a Colony Varmint Hunting situation adds up quickly in cost savings!
And the 204 Rugers allows a person to fire many more rounds compared to a Swift or 22-250 before attaining similar barrel temperatures - those hot barrels require a shut down of shooting on my Varmint Safaris!
The "nitch" is for this amazingly accurate, fast shooting, flat shooting, straight shooting (wind bucking!) cartridge that has extremely mild recoil (allowing you to see your own shots!). And again the amazing lethality of these speedy bullets that are also rotating incredibly quickly simply has to be seen to be appreciated!
I have killed all manner of Varmints with my 204's and find the lethality of these 204 projectiles to be exceptional!
If any of these attributes of the 204 Ruger does not fill a nitch for you Roger, then you have a VERY small "nitch need"!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

308 Sako: Thank you so much for the kind words. And it was my unbridaled pleasure to brag about a group, I have shot, for once!
I have had a run of pretty good success accuracy wise with the Remingtons I have bought in the last 12 years or so (about 20 Rifles) and I am actually kind of "high" on Remington for that accuracy!
Do you get to Hunt Jack rabbits or Coyotes anywhere around Las Vegas while you winter there! I hope you get to!
I got hired to drive an expensive vehicle from Missoula, Montana to Phoenix, Arizona last year at this time. I had left Las Vegas and was headed east late at night when I began spotting these small beautiful gray or light colored Foxes along the road. As I recall I was just east of the Hoover Dam when I began seeing them. I slowed to watch them as they fed along the highway (on Mice?)! I had never seen this specie before!
I had also never been to Las Vegas before and only spent an hour or two there. Are there any good Gunshops in Las Vegas?
Thanks again.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Varmint Guy,

Congrats on the good shooting! Remingtons are tops in my books as well!

My Remington 22-250 shoots in the .3's consistently (5 shot groups) with my handloads.

Question about the 204- do you keep your sight picture at the report of the gun?

Andy.

Andy, YES YOU KEEP YOUR SIGHT PICTURE WITH THE .204!!! My daughter shot a groundhog at 219 yards with my Savage VLP and I had told her she would see the bullet hit him! At the crack of the rifle I saw the "mist" fly(I was watching thru binos) and she never raised up off the bag, just turned her head and said, "Daddy!! I saw the stuff fly out of him!!" NO RECOIL!!! And the scope she watched this thru was a 6.5-20 Monarch set on 20X!!
HAIRTRIGGER!!! You've got a 300 + yard varminter in the form of an XP-100 in .223 I seem to remember!! GHD

VG, Yes the first testing of 2006 seems to hold some promise for the rest of the year!! It was still here on Sunday PM and ventured out to the GHD bench to test the VLS(old model) 22-250 I told you about a couple weeks ago(my Christmas present to myself that nobody but you folks here know about!!....like I needed another varminter!!) and do some 300 yard stuff with the .260VLS that we had spoken about using the 140AMAXs in, and to test and sight in the Savage Striker 17HMR with the BURRIS 3-12 on it(yea I know the scope is worth more than the gun!!!) and to shoot some slugs thru Sarahs Benelli M1 Super 90, 20 guage in preparation for an upcoming deer hunt on the eastern shore of Md this Thurs, Fri, and Sat!
The 22-250 is an eye-opener!! NOTHING done to it till tonite and it's in the gun room taken apart waiting for the AcraGlas job to be done!! Using the "white box" Winchester 45 grain HP it absolutely will rag holes!! No floating, no bedding, and the trigger wouldn't register on my old RCBS trigger pull guage!! That part has been cured!! It now sports a 2# trigger that has absolutely no creep, and breaks as clean and crisp as any trigger I have in the varmint battery!! This one doesn't feel like 2#!! I've got several set at 18 oz and they are not as smooth as this one!! 36.55 grains of VARGET and the 55 VMAXS show definite promise!! 55 grain Blitzkings will be the next test bullet up!!
Now the .260!!! I was impressed at 100 yards with the 140AMAXS!!! But 100 yards really doesn't tell me a lot!! So I went to 300 yards with it and using necked down 7mm-08 brass trimmed and sized it turned in two 1.2" 300 yard 5 shot groups!!! Now to 400 and 500 and 600 and 700 when the weather holds!!! And by the way, that was with the 6-18 Nikon Buckmaster you asked about!! Dialed it up and then dialed it back down and put another bullet in the 100 yard group!!! So it repeated!! Try one!! You'll like it!!
The Striker using the 20 grain Hornady loading proceeded to do 1" at 100 yards(5 shots and did it twice!) and using a darn pistol, I'll live with that!!! It was nice to be able to see the little 17 caliber holes at 100 yards with that BURRIS!!!
The shotgun!!!!!>>>>>>.....needs work!! At 50 yards with the IC tube in it and using the 3/4 oz Winchester slugs it was 1 foot high and 2" left!! Ain't much adjusting them sights!! I will try different tubes an see what a difference they make!! Great shooting to all my friends here in 2006!!!!!!! GHD

Andy Wiese: Yes like GHD says the sight picture is retained at and during the shot with the heavier 204's at least. Now, my three 204 Rifles are all heavy barrelled factory Varminters, and have big variable scopes on them! I am not sure if a sporter in 204 would retain the sight picture but I believe it probably would!
Yes, Andy, I have had a real run of great "luck" with my Remington Rifles accuracy wise, that I have purchased over the last 12+ years!
I simply have not had one that needed to be worked over in anyway! No bedding fixes, no re-crowning, no barrel channel work etc!
I have done triggers jobs on each and every one of them but that is such a simple enhancement I do it automatically before shooting!
And this, by the way Andy - no one knows better than I do that one extra good group does not a Rifle make!
I am waiting out the wind again to shoot the now fireformed Lapua brass and the better of the loads I shot on New Years day.
I will let you know how the next 10 shots group in this Xr-100 and we will see what we will see!

Groundhog Devastation: Now that is doing some shooting for you there - the 22-250 and the factory ammo! There are times when I am pulling the handle of my RCBS A-2 press for hours on end when I sometimes wish a just few of my Varminters "liked" factory ammo!
Aaahhh... I am just getting lazy in my old age!
And WOW on that 260 remington of yours as well!
Your testimony on the Nikon 6x18 has tipped me over the edge! I am gonna make an offer on this one in my town or get one at near wholesale when I get back out to the coast and hit my old wholesaler up for a brotherinlaw price!
And that Savage Striker! Sheesh! 1"!!! We all know that Savages shoot well! Keep it up there with that rig also!
Good luck on the upcoming Hunt! Are you going to be the Hunter or Sarah?
Man I am just sick for the folks in Oklahoma and Texas where their grass and brush country are burning up! And yet California, Oregon and Reno are flooding! Sheesh - come on rains drop down a bit and save some Varmint country from burning up!
I am glad your 2,006 shooting is getting rolling on a high note also!
Long live Big Green! Remington!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG, This weeks deer hunt to Maryland will be just me and not Sarah!! It's actually a business-hunting-meeting gettogether at a place that MONSANTO has been managing for trophy deer since 1990. The did shoot a 194B&C buck there!! I think actually we are going there to help with their "management"!! Our license has 10 doe tags and 1 antlered buck tag!!! It will be something new anyway!! I'm going to take my Knight Muzzleloader also!! GHD

Groundhog Devastation: Charlie best of luck on that Hunt and take some pictures!
Take that 204 along and harvest a doe - then give us all a report on how it worked! Naw just kidding you. I am sure its a muzzleloader ONLY type area or state.
Annyway I hope you get the buck tag and get a 195 B&C trophy!
I have been seeing some true dandy Whitetails here in SW Montana in the last two weeks. Now that the season is over! But I am guessing the best of them are in the 150 point class!
Again travel careful and we are praying for the stuck miners down in your neck o'the woods!
My hometown in Washington state (Renton) had lots of coal mines when I was young and to tell the truth I am glad they closed down.
More later
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Gidday GHD,

It's going to be pretty hard to find a 1 antlered buck on a hunting area run by MONSANTO.

They will be mostly 3 antlered deer there won't they with dioxin, agent orange and 245T being produced by them.

They probably make 1080 too.

Happy Hunting and a Happy New Year

Hamish

Hamish!! GHD