I have a 204 barrel on order.. but I have to decide what kind of action to have it put onto....

of course it will be a bolt rifle... because that is all I use, minus a couple of lever actions and a couple of 10/22s....

But candidates are a non featherweight Model 70....a Ruger 77 Mk 2 Stainless... Ruger 77 Mk 2 Blued ( that I was thinking about Parkerizing).... A Ruger 77 VT...Remington 700...or a Savage/Stevens action???

The barrel will be a heavy magnum contour with a 26 inch length when finished...

I myself an leaning toward a Model 70 short action.. just because of it would be a rare bird, plus I love the Model 70 action the most...

the Barrel won't be available until February any way... so I have time to be prepared...

the barrel will be a switch barrel conversion sharing the action with a 223...

cheers
seafire

Savage/Stevens. Easy switch barrel

Seafire/B17G: Go with the Remington 700 S.A. and avoid the hassles involved with switch barrel rigs, by - not doing that.
And speaking of avoiding hassles just go buy one of the new Remington XR-100's in 204 Ruger caliber!
You will save money, time (MONTHS!), gray hair, hassles and have a beautiful, well designed, great shooting, great looking, great feeling and easily resellable Rifle if you go with the XR-100.
I do, though, know the lure of the custom Rifle and I am sure the hook is set "deeply" in your jaw - so best of luck with your new project!
Long live the 204 Ruger!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Even though I like the 700, in your case if you have a soft spot in your heart for the M70 and you have that action I would build on the M70- one of the reasons to build a custom rifle is to build it the way you want. I think you should have the "warm fuzzies" about the project to truly enjoy the rifle when it is finished.

The remington has alot more accessories available. It might cost less to have it blueprinted. You can buy just the action if you want and put it in the stock of your choice. The win model 70 is nice, I dont have one yet but its just a matter of time. They look MUCH better than any ruger!

Go for the winchester and never look back!

Sako AI, if you can find a nice donor action. Lou

Are you doing the work yourself? If not, you might want to be sure your smith will tackle just any action you hand him before you buy it. Some smiths only want to work with certain actions to assure a job well done. Those will often be Remington, Savage, Sako and some of the high end custom actions.

Well they called today, and I had to pick an action to thread it for... so the nod went to the Winchester Model 70....

Just to be different I guess...

thanks for the inputs...

My Savage 12 BVSS, or the Ruger 77, when I get it back from Ruger ( the other thread about this action)....will also get a 204 barrel...

Although a very nice action.....the Sako AI would be a tad short for the 204R, as the maximum OAL that will feed through the magazine is approx. 2.28".

Hope this helps...

Kevin

Kevin, thanks for the note. My bad. I thought the 204 was based on the 222 mag, which the 17 Rem was based on, and that the lengths were close enough to the rest of the 223 type cartridges to work. Lou

This kind of project can be a lot of fun, and EXPENSIVE. Having said that, I enjoy the heck out of mine!



Note McMillan M40A1-3 stock and stainless Lilja barrel, on former REM M700BDL Varmint.



Turns out that shooting squirrels with .204 Ruger hand load 35grain varmint bullet at around 4000 fps with a 50 yard zero after about 100 yards and over at 17x power looks like the picture as the bullet rises above the line of sight and meets it again at 325.

DMC1,

What length barrel is that on your nice looking rig?.....I'm guessing a 22"? Muzzle diameter?

24" #7 pattern is the standard on all my rifles. Does give a little more velocity and deals with heating better than typical of light weight barrels on factory rifles.

Muzzle diameter by actual measure is 0.850"

DMCI...

no doubt about it,..

we all would love to play with the toys in your toy box!!!

How much does your rig way? My next rifle will be a .204 and most likely the Savage low profile as I am a lefty. I think most likely I will drop it into an A-5 style stock. I was considering a Les Baer for an ultimate varmint/coyote rifle, but I think I can get a pretty accurate VLP and save some money. It'd be interesting to how much success rates go up on taking doubles with an AR set up? I figure the bolt action is a good way to go. The accurate AR semi set up sounds fun though...accuracy is the key factor in my fun though.

quote:

Originally posted by Stoked_C:
How much does your rig weigh?

I am going to guess in the range of 15-17 pounds with SN-3. Not much different than regulation sniper rifle except slightly lighter action.

DMCI* wrote:...

quote:

the bullet rises above the line of sight and meets it again at 325.

Unless gravity has chosen to reverse itself and all pertaining laws of physics have changed, there is no bullet fired from any .204 Ruger "rises" -- no matter what speed it is driven at. (VarmintGuy, however, may tell you that the .204 bullet walks on water. )

The "rising bullet" belief is a common misconception. The bore can be raised to angle the bullet over the line of sight, but the bullet does not "rise" in any form or fashion. I'm certain you probably know this but simply fell into the trap of common language that plagues all of us from time to time. (You can see or hear it every day in the papers or on the news: "The suspect was shot with a .38 caliber revolver." Or, "Police confiscated a .45 caliber automatic weapon" when what they did was remove a .45 ACP from the streets.)

Seafire-I think your choice of action was a sound one, and with it already being one of your favorites, gives the project an honest chance to become something you'll be happy with. Let us know how things progress...

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Tomek:
DMCI* wrote:...

quote:

the bullet rises above the line of sight and meets it again at 325.

The "rising bullet" belief is a common misconception.

It's sort of like this:

quote:

It was a dark and stormy night...

Well, it wasn't that dark, there were street lights and headlights of passing vehicles and it wasn't that stormy. What it was was a passing rain squall, with mixed precipitation and with wind gusts to 25 knots.

So if I think it's a descriptive and poetic way of putting it, that the bullet rose above the line of sight, then by golly, I will put it that way regardless of what semi-professional ballisticians may say!

Bobby Tomek: According to several dictionaries I have consulted you are wrong!
I will quote just one: "rising" = to have an upward slant or curve! And in the same dictionary another definition of "rising" is = to increase in height!
Both definitions prove you wrong!
Source = "The American College Dictionary" - Two volume set (1,800+ pages) by Spencer Press Incorporated, 1952.
Bullets can easily and often DO rise!
Oh yes bullets can and do rise using the correct definition of the word RISE - they gain in height and/or they can have an upward slant!
And yes Bobby - the 204 can "walk on water" so to speak, and does so better than just about any other all-around Varmint cartridge available today!
I know - I seen'em!
Back to where ever you guys were going with the rising bullet questions/scenarios.
We all know that the instant that ANY bullet leaves the muzzle of an absolutely horizontal barrel it starts to loose height (fall) - this is the opposite of "rising".
Gravity can not be "ignored" even by those amazing 204 Ruger bullets.
It is the virtually universal procedure that all Rifle shooters choose to follow, this procedure being that the Rifle is sighted in at some point "down range" (far from the muzzle at times) thus causing the "rising" of the bullet above the "LINE OF THE SIGHTS", AND above the horizontal plane, before the bullet travels to its point of aim. This is what brings you two to this "definition" or interpretation conflict.
I know what bullets do and have for many decades.
I don't have a dog in this fight but I hope my injection of objective definitions adds to "you's" understandings.
Bullets can AND very often do - rise (gain in height!)!
Just depends on how the barrel is pointed (aimed).
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Bullets DO NOT RISE, but hot air certainly does. (There seems to be plenty of that here to go around lately.)

And if anyone wants to believe that bullets actually rise, then more power to you. Go ahead and sight in low at 100 so you don't shoot over your 200 yard target...

And NO, Varmintguy, it is you and your interpretation that is WRONG...

The bore can be pointed above the target, and the bullet can cross over the LINE OF SIGHT, but the bullet never, ever, ever rises from its point of origin along the true axis of the bore. Junior high science teaches us that much...

You must have been absent that day.

Bobby, bobby bobby: Its one thing to make an error and refuse to be corrected but to continue to make a fool of your self in public... is, well, gauche (meaning awkward, clumsy and tactless)! That definition of gauche, is from the same Collegiate dictionary that gave you the definition of rising - which you so adeptly could not comprehend!
I simply suggest you re-read my post and try and pay attention to the definitions and facts there in!
Or continue to make a fool of yourself - its kind of funny.
Let me give you a hint my slow and awkward friend about which part of my post you should pay special ATTENTION to!
It goes: "We all know that the instant that ANY bullet leaves the muzzle of an absolutely horizontal barrel it starts to loose height (fall) - this is the opposite of "rising".
Gravity can not be ignored - Newton!
Again I know what bullets can do and have for decades!
I will repeat for your now learned consideration - bullets can certainly rise (gain in height) - it just depends on how the Rifle is being aimed!
I hope that is not TO complicated for you bobby?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Varmintguy-The only one to make a fool of them on this forum -- and do so on multiple threads as of late -- is you.

You ramble and ramble without direction and seem to have lost all grasp of common logic. The fact is, a bullet in flight can't rise above the axis of the bore. It doesn't happen. Plain and simple -- for MOST of us, that is.

Tommy,

I am not going to get into the fray on this...

But I will pass on, when I was in Basic in the Army, they explained to us, that the bullet of an M16 actually does go below the line of sight as it exits the barrel, and then rises above it, and then falls back down below the line of sight further down range...

It was explained to us that this was because of the twist of the barrel and the rotation the bullet goes thru before stabilizing down range...

This was being explained to a bunch of basic training recruits, so I was not in the presence of rocket scientist or physics professors...

However, I'd have to assume the military knew what they were talking about, and somehow felt the need to bring it to the attention of the people that they were training on the rifle range....

I was told the exact same thing on the M60 and the 308, when I was on the range with that...

Beyond that last opinion, I am merely the messager here..... but I am sure there has to be other guys here who went thru basic and were told the exact same thing when they were on the rifle range...

cheers
seafire

seafire-

What they were attempting to explain is that a bullet starts out BELOW the line of sight. The bullet begins to drop the second it leaves the bore. But to hit a target at, say, 200 yards, the bore must be pointed ABOVE the line of sight. Depending on the cartridge and load, the bullet will probably cross the line of sight around 25-35 yards, will impact above the bullseye at 100 and will reach it's maximum height around 160-175 yards.

So in essence, while your crosshairs are on the 200 yard bull, you are actually pointing the rifle ABOVE the 200 yard target to hit it, thus compensating for gravity and the coefficient of the bullet.

At no time does a bullet rise above the axis of the bore. You are simply aiming above the target to hit it.