Doug, you crack me up. If you ever decidde to sell you Cooper Tac-20, let me know. Kory

The .204 has approx 3 grain higher capacity than the Tact .20. When they put the .204 together they were planning on it ending up in the Mini 14 eventually and so loaded it to much lower pressures than the Tactical .20's working pressures. They also put a throat on the factory chambers like a giraffe so it seems reaching the lands with a .204 is problematic.
The Tact.20 on the otherhand is a wildcat and as such is getting the benifit of custom chambers and higher quality barrels. When using Todd Kindlers original reamer you can stuff any .20 cal bullet firmly into the lands, helps big time with accuracy and velocity.
If a guy had a custom reamer made for the .204 that shortend the throat and used a Pac-Nor Super Match barrel I'd bet the 3 grain advantage would show a bit of an increase in the .204 over the Tact.20, that aside the Tact.20's seem to get the edge.
Redding's form die #1 and form and trim die will run about $75.00. The full die set is about $80.00 Using top quality .223 brass--"Priceless"!

Ain't sellin Kory!
And it's a Remington 700 Varmint Synthetic (used to be a .223) with a 26 inch Pac-Nor a tweaked action and bolt, pillar bedded and a Kepplinger single set trigger! It'd be like selling one of the kids.

Gents,



One thing that I feel is VERY important in comparing velocities between the .204 Ruger and the Tac .20 is the TOLERANCES of the test rifle's barrels.



I would bet that EVERY Tac 20 rifle used in those tests was a custom rig(or maybe a $1,200+ factory Cooper)with a barrel job that cost what a complete Ruger m77 .204 sporter does!! Likewise,I'd bet EVERy 204 written upo in magazines thus far is a fatory rig.A custom quality barrel with a tight spec chamber and a smoother bore will give higher velocities almost every time in small caliber.That's why the TAC 20s used in these tests make it appear the TAC 20s are more "efficient" than a factory .204 Ruger.



I'd bet if equal quality barrels were compared over a large sample the results would be equal.



The TAC .20 is a wildcat,the .204 Ruger is a factory cartridge.Since I don't see many $1,200 Coopers in my future and don't want to ALWAYS have to reload my own ammo,I'll go with the 204 Ruger.



PS- IMHO,it said a LOT for the job the folks at Hornady did on their .20 round when Remington decided to chamber it for their rifles rather than designing a competing round......

Squeeze try throwing a 20 VARTARG and a few other wildcats in the mix. Make it worse with having a 722 in 222 sitting here begging for a new barrel. Dakota just bought the rights to the Tac20 and the 20 VARTARG so dies are going to be coming down in price. I bet it will not be long before some one is making brass for both. There is no sense in me being miserable alone trying to find the perfect 20. I hope this helped LOL