How hard and expensive would it be to rechamber an existing rifle with a clean barrel in 20 Tactical to a 20 VarTarg or 204 Ruger? I can get a good deal on one but, I don't want to invest in 20 Tactical dies and brass in what is essentially becoming an obsolete caliber. What I really want is a 20 VarTarg but, I would consider downloaded a 204 Ruger too. Am I missing other good options (besides shooting out the 20 Tactical barrel)?

TIA,
Sid

I'd just buy the dies and shoot it. You can always make the brass from .223, and I don't think you will find a shortage of that anytime soon. Sure would be a lot cheaper than paying a smith to set back a barrel and ream to the VarTarg and buy dies. I'd think the .204 Ruger should clean up the chamber and the dies are fairly cheap.

I bought a new XR100 in 204 to build my 20VarTarg from. It was a simple matter of shortening the chamber by 16.5mm and re chambered to 20VarTarg. I get 3735fps for the 35gn Berger over 19.2gn H4198 and fantastic accuracy.
It looks to be a simple shortening and re chambering to go from the Tac 20 to the 20 VarTarg.

Von Gruff.

quote:

20 Tactical is essentially becoming an obsolete caliber.?

May I ask how do you qualify this statement?
Not according to Steve Standfeld of Redding
My friend met him at the shot show recently and he said the exact opposite about 20 tactical dies sales.

Perhaps you have people who knows better than Redding ....... Just curious

quote:

Originally posted by londonhunter:

quote:

20 Tactical is essentially becoming an obsolete caliber.?

May I ask how do you qualify this statement?
Not according to Steve Standfeld of Redding
My friend met him at the shot show recently and he said the exact opposite about 20 tactical dies sales.

Perhaps you have people who knows better than Redding ....... Just curious

There are a lot of rifles out there in 20 Tactical but, manufacturers are dropping it in favor of the 204 Ruger. Yes, you can make it pretty easy from common brass but, factory ammunition is not nearly as plentiful as .223 Remington or 204 Ruger. I'm not sure I want a real barrel burner so, that has me thinking about the 20 VarTarg which will heat up the barrel slower and likely give me longer total barrel life too. Current factory rifle offerings seem to support this general line of thought.

quote:

Originally posted by Sid Post:

quote:

Originally posted by londonhunter:

quote:

20 Tactical is essentially becoming an obsolete caliber.?

May I ask how do you qualify this statement?
Not according to Steve Standfeld of Redding
My friend met him at the shot show recently and he said the exact opposite about 20 tactical dies sales.

Perhaps you have people who knows better than Redding ....... Just curious

There are a lot of rifles out there in 20 Tactical but, manufacturers are dropping it in favor of the 204 Ruger. Yes, you can make it pretty easy from common brass but, factory ammunition is not nearly as plentiful as .223 Remington or 204 Ruger. I'm not sure I want a real barrel burner so, that has me thinking about the 20 VarTarg which will heat up the barrel slower and likely give me longer total barrel life too. Current factory rifle offerings seem to support this general line of thought.

From what I've read as well the VarTarg isn't easy to find in factory ammunition. Seems to me if you go with anything other than the .204 you will be stuck to handloading only anyway. Remingotn is the only manufacturer for Fireball brass, and you can find much better brass in the .204 and .223 than what Remington produces.

quote:

Originally posted by Sid Post:
How hard and expensive would it be to rechamber an existing rifle with a clean barrel in 20 Tactical to a 20 VarTarg or 204 Ruger? I can get a good deal on one but, I don't want to invest in 20 Tactical dies and brass in what is essentially becoming an obsolete caliber. What I really want is a 20 VarTarg but, I would consider downloaded a 204 Ruger too. Am I missing other good options (besides shooting out the 20 Tactical barrel)?

TIA,
Sid

Rebarreling or rechambering is going to cost a lot more than buying a set of dies.

If you look at the case drawings, you can make a 20 tactical die by simply grinding the base on a 204 ruger sizer die. The crimp die does not even need any grinding to work.

In regards to comparing a vartarg to a tactical, if you are doing it for simplicities sake you are going in the wrong direction IMHO. Not to mention the hard to find brass.

I'd suggest shooting it as a 20 tactical for a while and then decide if you want a different cartridge, unless you want to buy factory ammo locally I can see no other advantage to changing what it is.

Sid, Why would you want to change it? The whole idea of the tac20 besides the performance was that it was easily made from readily available 223 brass.

20 Tact is as popular as ever, just about every Upper Manufacturer makes one, I think a 20 VAR is a very nice option, but I would not put in the class if the 20 Tact.

a 20 practical is 223 necked to 20 very easy to do and mucho brass

That is the one I was thinking about. I like the Tac20 but the 20practical talks to me. Anything that can be easily made from 223 brass is definitely user friendly.

The .20 Tactical is a wildcat pure and simple. Todd Kindler designed it and for years all of us that had one formed our own brass, bought our own reamers etc. Finally Cooper picked it up for a while (still a wildcat) and eventually Todd Kindler sold the rights for it, the VarTarg and other rounds he'd wildcatted to Dakota arms who promptly went bankrupt.
Other than Cooper and a few Dakotas neither of which company is really main stream, no one else has chambered it.
If you want a factory round the .204 is the only one of the three you mentioned that is one.
I have all three and the .204 and the .20 Tac are near ballistic twins with the factory design hassle of the .204's giraffe like throat.
The .20 VarTarg is a gas and both Cooper and Dakota have produced it as well.
A .204 can be set back a few threads and rechambered to a .20 VarTarg easily but it's a crap shoot cause your still using a factory barrel. Might be wise to just spend a few extra bucks up front and and start with a good Pac-Nor Lilga or whatever barrel.