Hope I'm not beating a dead horse but I'm just now starting to put together some .204's with Hornady 32 Vmax heads. The OAL called for is 2.250. If I start a bullet into the case and then seat it for a kiss with the lands I get 2.420. There is hardly any head in the case. I have a new Savage 12FV. Sure would like to hear some chatter here. Thanks, Smoker PS I usually like to set back .015 to .020 but if I did that here it would fall out.

Smoker-- Just load some shells with the bullet about 1 caliber into the neck and see how it shoots. You might just be pleasantly surprised to find that your rifle shoots just fine with the bullet well off the lands.

I have a Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger and the only bullets that will even touch the lands are the 40 gr. bullets. However, they are only in the neck about .100" to get them to touch the lands. That, IMHO, is NOT a hunting load. I would not feel safe carrying those around in my pocket and would only use them if I was loading them into the rifle one shell at a time and NOT cycling them through the magazine. Heck, they probably don't fit in the magazine anyway.

I don't recall just how far off the lands my 32 gr. V-Max and my 35 gr. Berger bullets are seated, but it is a healthy distance. Give several seating distances a try and I think you'll find something that works just great.

Smoker, The .204 chambers are as a rule "long throated" at least all the different ones I've seen have been. My Savage with the factory 32 grain loads at 2.245 has a .160 jump to the lands! I've been loading from 2.350-2.385 and also seated some equal to the factory length without a great deal of group opening up. My rifle seemed to settle in at 2.355 pretty well so I stuck with that.GHD

Silverfox, GHD, thanks for the great input. Only ran into this problem one other time and that was with my 1898 Krag...talk about a throat...what was her name Linda something . Anyway, I remember that one caliber rule now that you brought back this old feeble mind, That sounds very safe. I will try all of your suggestions, although I have very few pieces of brass. Thanks again, Smoker

Hi. I am new to this reloading. But what is one caliber rule. Thanks. bob.

Bob, What he was referring to was the practice of seating a bullet "i caliber" into the case....ie for a .204 it would be .204 for a .224 diameter it would be .224, 6mm=.243 so on. That would be deep seating on a lot of stuff. GHD