Went to my deer lease this weekend and just about got washed away. I guess the flash flood we had was only 30% wet as thats what the weather guys predicted. Two weeks ago we were covered up in mourning and white wing doves Saw them by the hundreds . Season opened last Tuesday. Saw six the whole weekend. Was sitting out this morning just doing a little early morning sunrise watching sittin on the side of a hill with my stool, shooting stix and binocs. This raven made the mistake of lighting in a tree a lazer ranged 286 yds away. Gotta love the tac 20. Zeroed at 100, 40 gr bullet at approx 3850 fps, is about 6" low at 300 yds. Nailed this bad boy.
GWB

Nice shot. You gotta love the 20's. I run a 20VT and have a rabbit @ 316meters so far.

Von Gruff.

Von Gruff,
The 20 vartarg is on my short list of chamberings to acquire. I don't know why I haven't dropped the hammer on that round yet. I have 17 mach IV, 17 fireball and 221 fireball.
Best to you and yours,
GWB

I went the simple route by getting a Rem XR 100 Rangemaster in 204 and shortening the chamber by 16.5mm (.65 in) to remove the freebore and it was a simple re-chamber. I ran hornets and 22-250's in the 70's-80's when I first saw the 17MK IV but the 17 cal was taking a bit of stick over wind sensetivity and fouling. It was when the 204 Ruger was released that I remembered the 17MK IV and googled 20/221. I have the 35gn Berger at 3775fps and on at 200yds. Have a friend with a 20VT as well and another with a 20VTT. I made a walk-about stock for mine as the Rem Thumbhole was a trial to carry although it was great off the bench for the initial load testing and I have a .084 on the wall.
Would you post a bit of detail on your rifle.

Von Gruff.

Von Gruff,
will do so directly,
GWB

Von Gruff,

PM sent.

GWB

Geedubya you have great taste in firearms and calibers (except for your lack of a .20 VarTarg ).
My 40 grain .20 Tactical load is almost an identical velocity to yours, 3,870ish with the 40 grain V-Max using BenchMark in IMI cases.
I won the accuracy lottery in that the 33 grain load I shoot clocks 4,150ish using H4198 and hit's to the exact point of impact as the 40's at 100 yards. The 33's shoot a slightly smaller group but the 40's just open up the group a titch.
I had TK Lee custom Dot a 6X20 Weaver Grand Slam to be load specific out to 500 yards.
While the 33's are faster the better BC of the 40's catch up after a bit and the result is I can use either load interchangeably and just set the appropriate dot on the right distance and let fly no adjustment necessary. What's the odds of that happening? I'd bet a guy wouldn't have that happen again once in 50 rifles. Son of a gun is sure a rat reckin machine!
Nice shot on the crow, they are protected up here as are magpies. They weren't as a kid and sure are fun to "splode" out a the trees.
I'll be anxious to hear about the new VarTarg .

Hi I have a tac 20 coming after waiting a year for it in the UK. THe barrel is a 1 in 9 and after writing the Walt Berger he suggest that I should try the 55 grain heads. Have you any experience with this setup

also have you shot it pass 300 yards metres?

thanks
from London UK

No experience with the Tactical 20 but a lot of long range and just plain paperwork with the 204 Ruger. The "20's" are the darlings of varminting! Enough "umph" to get the job done at extended ranges, 500 yards plus.(BTDT to over 700 yards but do not recommend due to the respect I have for even vermin and believe in a clean humane dispatch of said vermin is what we owe our intended targets!!) Negligble recoil so you can spot hits or misses yourself without the aid of a spotter and just plain darn fun!! The 17's are also fun!! GHD

But my question have not been answered yet ?

The 20 tac 1:9" will shoot accurately to 500 yds with that twist, I had a custom Cooper with that setup.
The scenario was as follows: an extremely windy day, 20-25 mph shooting from a ridge to a fair-size coyote in South NY State, I had aimed for the shoulder and nailed him in the ass with a 40 gr bullet, it took about 7 hrs to find him with the help of two others, trickles of blood here and there.

Thank you for sharing our experience. Are you saying there was virtually no drop to 500 yards did you attain the magical 4000 fps ?

I am surprise 1 in 9 stabilised 40 grain. Just outside the envelope I would have thought but there you are.

London Hunter,

A 1 in 9 twist will NOT stabalise the BERGER 55gr properly, their site suggests 1 in 8 or 8.5 from memory.

Also Tac 20 is not best suited to the bigger bullets case capacity wise, you would be better balanced with a 1 in 11 or so and using 39 (SBK) or 40 (Vmax)grain bullets.

As your rifle is being built as a 1 in 9 it will shoot the 50s very well but not much faster than 3200fps. That is perfectly fine 99% of the time. Weight consistancy in the Berger 50s is remarkable, I bought 200 first time, ALL were either 50.0 or 49.9 gr. I have a heavy 20br 1 in 9, I run it at 3400-3500 with the 50s. 40s are ok to about 3700 then they simply vanish, possably breaking up in flight. Not been able to get any 39s yet. I can drive the 50s to 3800 ok but get pressure signs, best accuracy is 3350-3500.

Think I am only a couple of hours from you if you want a chat.

A

Hi I think we cross path on other forums.

Firstly thanks for sharing your valuable experience.

My rifle was smith by Steve Bowers. 20 TAC is on of his favourite. Anyway he was very sceptical at first since I have ordered a 1 in 9 twist and stating that I wish to shoot the new 55 grains bergers through it. I got the advice directly from Walt Berger about a year ago when I was in the process of deciding the final specification of the rifle. Anyway the rifle shoots the 55 grain just fine. Sgood in fact he has ordered 200 heads from Reloading Solutions soon after lapping my barrels.

According to him this will push the 20 caliber closer into a slow twist 6mm shooting a light projectile.

He also stated that by shooting 55 grains in a 20 caliber have also pushed the effective range of a 20 caliber to 500 yards under certain conditions whereas previously it was around 400 yards.

I am due to collect it with all the load data in 03 weeks time after it has been coated.

Will update up after I have shot it.

Hello

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the Raven was protected.

Steve

We do indeed visit quite a few of the same forums mainly UK based.

Todd Kindler puts the 20BR with the 50gr Berger as an 800 yard tool. There is one for sale on a UK forum we visit that has been shot at that distance. Same case with the 40gr is good for 600. Not shot mine anywhere near those distances, yet.
You said ( I think) you have shot the 55s, I spoke to Walt via pm in the spring of this year when he reconed that 1 in 9 would not be that good. I did order some 55s anyway from Norman Clark but an still waiting for them.

Ode for a 50gr Vmax !!, or SBK, or even NBT, we need a crow exploder, teh Berger despite being expanding tends to just drill them.

I also run a 6mmPPC, they are not much different at all. The 6 (65gr Vmax) has a bit more certainty with the kill and makes a bit more mess exit wise. Crows etc are in 5 bits sometimes.

A

quote:

Originally posted by Alycidon:
teh Berger despite being expanding tends to just drill them.

I find that happens with the .17cal 35gr heads if I try pushing them near the top end.

quote:

Originally posted by Alycidon:The 6 (65gr Vmax) has a bit more certainty with the kill and makes a bit more mess exit wise. Crows etc are in 5 bits sometimes.

I find with the 25gr .17cal you often just get left with a head and wing.The rest is just splattered mush down range for about 8m.

It makes for interesting viewing down the scope, a lot more entertaining than the hollywood version of death by rapid expansion.