Thanx GDH!

Interesting post GHD, it seems that some of the rifles (like always) like the 32's and some like the 40's. The fact that Hornady dropped the 33's still irratates me cause almost everyone you heard from loved that one best, I'm dreading running out. If you can handle the tariff try some Bergers, their 35 is a good combo and shoots well in my Tact.20.
Were those 32 loads starting to show any pressure at the velocities you had? Ya whacked any rats with em yet? Good shooting to all.

Groundhog Devastation,

Your post proves teh point that everyone will jsut have to load and test teh range of bullet weights and see what each rifle likes.

Your gunsmiths comments about if it ends in MM then it will shoot is a bit funny to me though. With his experience in building rifles for over 40 years, he should know full well that the accuracy of the rifle is far more dependant on the machining quality then anything to to with the round itself.

In my view, I care little what caliber my customer wants me to build his or her rifle in, if I do my job correctly which is what they are paying me to do, bullet size will matter very little in accuracy potential.

I would love to have someone try to proof to me that the "5mm", 6mm, 6.5mm and 7mm rounds are any more accurate then the .224", .257", .277", .308", .338" and yes even the .510" rounds.

Bullet size does nothing for accuracy, at least not with modern calibers with offer a wide selection of quality bullets for most calibers, sounds like very old school talking to me.

My comment would be give me a quality action, a match grade barrel, a stable stock and about 15 hours of machining and bedding time and I could care less what the caliber is. Especially if I use a reamer of my own design and not factory spec reamers, that my friend is the secret to extreme accuracy, not bullet diameter.

Good Shooting!!!

50

Doug, Those loads were under the maximum loads listed on a list of HORNADY loading data that POP had sent me. They were showing no pressure signs at all! And these cases are FL sized and my flash hole deburring tool will not go in the case mouth so the cases are not "worked up" like I'd have liked to have done. I'll probably try some different powders with the 40 grainers and see if they perform any better with them. As far as the factory 40 grain loading in this rifle(I'm sure that others will shoot them fine)it doesn't like them at all!
FIFTYDRIVER, If you read the post again you take notice that I said, "Those were the gunsmiths words, not mine". I found it rather funny that he would say that when the world is full of pretty darn good shooting rifles that use .224, .257, .308 diameter bullets!!! I agree with you on the machining! When things are measured in 1/2 of a 10/1000th it's pretty close machining! That's the way the guy who has taught me does it! I just wish I had access to the machinery to do that kind of stuff a lot more! The machinist I'm speaking of is not the one who made that remark about "mm's"!
And yes I whacked one groundhog at 188 yards with one of the factory 32's. Straight on into the throat chest area and exited on left side......UGLY! There is apic of the rifle and that groundhog in my photo gallery at groovebullets.com and also at wildcatshooting.com GHD

Interesting. After shooting about 25 32's and 35 40's I cleaned the barrel in my normal fashion, which is to say a few wet patches followed by a few passes with a good brush, then a few more wet patches and dry. I found no copper other than a little streaking past the gas port which is typical in an AR. The throat area showed no sign of copper fouling. The only "break-in" done was a good cleaning after the first dozen or so shots used to regulate the gas port hole. Maybe the fouling you were experienceing has more to do with the quality of barrel that Savage uses than it does the bullets. Don't get me wrong, Savage does a good job of building a great shooting rifle for the price, but to sell for the price that they do, you are not going to get a top quality hand lapped barrel. On a small caliber high velocity round such as the .204, I think it is important to have a good quality barrel if you want to keep fouling in check. Particularly on a varmint caliber where you may be doing a lot of shooting between cleanings. Savage makes a great shooting rifle, I just hate seeing Hornady take the heat for your fouling problems.

John

gasgunner, I shot 30 rounds through the Savage barrel yesterday and my patches(Montana Extreme) came out white!!! The blue I saw when initial cleaning of the barrel was not there after the 70 or so breakin-clean and shoot shots. As far as Savage barrels compared to some of the custom barrel builders barrels.....Savage still button rifles their barrels instead of "hammer forging" them(never had enough money for the hammer forging machinery I reckon) and so they seem to be doing the number on the out of box accuracy on the "big boys"!! And the design of the Savage barrel and action leaves a bit of "machining" to the builder instead of pushing buttons on a CNC machine. So far with this 204 it looks good. It shot off the bipod, off the top of the truck on bags and off the bench to the same POI.....no difference.... 3/10ths.....I can live with that!! Now just put the click chart on the stock!!! Later, GHD