My 22-204 Transformation

alf

alf

Well-known member
A long time back I built two identical 22-204's for LR plinkers. If one is good, two is twice as good, right?
This is the story on how one of them has transformed through the years.

This one started out with a stainless 700, 24" Brux 8" twist in a Remington Varmint contour.
The stock is my favorite for a do all varmint gun, a McMillan Marksman stock in a black/gray/white marble mix.
I topped it off with a Nightforce 3.5-15x50 scope, sitting in Seekins rings, & a 40 MOA Nightforce base.

I was a big fan of the 75 Bergers at the time, but when the 80 VLD's became cheaper, I went with those instead.
I found a fantastic load with those at 3025, and with pointing, it brought the BC up to .480.
No milk jugs were safe out to 1400.

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One winter I decide it was time to shoot something with it. I ended up shooting several coyotes that year, including my longest at 550 yards.

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After that winter, I decided to put it on a diet, so I took the barrel off, & sent it out for fluting.
I then replaced the Nightforce rail for a lighter 20 MOA Seekins.
And finally topped it off with a Leupold VX-5 HD in 3-15x42 with the Firedot duplex.
A little spritz of white Krylon, and it was ready to go.

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As it turned out, I hadn't taken it out hunting since it's last re-do.
So, in a downsizing effort last year, I sold the Leupod, I replaced it with a Sightron S-Tac 3-15x42.

The previous last 2 winters, I've tore apart a prairie dog rifle, replacing the stock & barrel, & changing it into a night time calling gun.
That gets to be a real PITA, so the wheels starting churning again, & the 22-204 becomes the innocent victim again.....

First up, remove the barrel, take it to the smith, have him cut & crown at 18", and get it threaded 5/8x24 for the can.
I was apprehensive about the aesthetics of the fluting, but I think it looks just fine butting up to the can.

Once done, I bolted it into a Manners EH-1 with M-5 bottom metal, mounted a Leupold zero MOA rail, bolted on the Sightron, & off for velocity & accuracy check.
Surprisingly, after hacking off 6", the velocity loss was just under 100 FPS, with accuracy unchanged.

A later day I mounted & sighted in the thermal, giving it third/last place in the program in the off chance I would take it out.
AR's one & two take precedence.

Fast forward to earlier this week. With calling seeming to be in a lull, I thought it was a good time to take it hunting.
So I screwed on the can, mounted up the thermal to check zero, and off we go.

After getting a good 100 zero, I moved the target back to 200 to double check.
The 100 yard target is just over the spotting scope, the 200 back at the snow.

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First 3 looked great, so I shot 2 more just for the halibut....holy shit, a 7/8ths" group !!!


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Here it is in all it's glory:


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So a couple nights ago, I took it out, and wouldn't you know it, I called in a triple on the 1st set.
First thought when they came over the hill was, I sure wish I had the AR.
As it turned out, I don't think it made a difference, as I got 2, and the 3rd hit the afterburners at the 1st shot.
In case you missed the action:

Mini Slump is Over

Been struggling the last couple weeks with about 20 sets of no shows. Due to zero action, I decided to try to break in my revamped 700 in 22-204 42 degrees last night with a partial cloud cover to block the 7/8ths moon, so went to the farm were I doubled a couple months ago. Started out out...
www.predatormasters.com

I believe I'm in a happy place now with the gun, so, for the time being, I'm leaving it alone.
Thanks for following the journey.
 
Ignore my comment on your hunt recap thread. I didn’t see this thread yet.

Why the 22-204?

It looks like a very nice shooting rifle.
 
Here's back to back pictures of the twins when they were built:

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The other one has gone through a minor transformation too.

I had the barrel heavily fluted, switched out the NF rail for a Seekins, sold the NF scope & replaced with another Sightron,
put this stock on a prairie dog rig, & replaced it with the black/gray/white McMillan from it's brother.
 
Yotarunner said:
I also am quite curious on why the 22-204?
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Very few people know how close this came to being a factory round.

Cases were made, load work was done, & the forward was written for the loading manual.

Then suddenly everything was halted, I never heard why.

So, it has more performance over a regular 223, & about the most bang you can get in a .378" case, w/o stepping up to a .473" case.

It's simply the 204 Ruger necked up to 22 caliber.

Equal to or slightly more capacity than 223 Ackley with no fireforming, & smoother feeding.

Neck up and go, with no custom dies needed.

I've built at least a half dozen guns so chambered.....Imma fan.....

For comparison:

221 Fireball - 222 Rem - 223 Rem - 223 AI - 222 Rem Mag - 22-204 - 22-204 w/80 VLD - 22 Dasher - 22x47 Lapua

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How is the 222 mag different from the 22-204?

Sees like the 22-204 is really more of a 222 mag AI ?

Don’t know, I have never messed with either one.
 
Yellowhammer said:
How is the 222 mag different from the 22-204?
Sees like the 22-204 is really more of a 222 mag AI ?
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The picture above with all the cases clearly shows the story.

The 22-204 case has the shoulder moved forward, changed to 30 degrees, with a shorter neck, giving it more case capacity over the 222 Mag, regular or Improved.

Again, neck up and go, no fireforming wasting components, time, and barrel life.

More appropriately a Gibbs than an Ackley.
 
Very nice! I debated on doing a 22-204 for a 1K trainer also because its the biggest case in the 223 family, but the lack of premium brass is what ultimately kept me from doing it. Basically hornady or nosler and both are junk IMO.

Im using my early 70s Rem 700 ADL in .222 Rem (which shoots 1/4 MOA with 40g vmax/IMR4198 as is) for a donor and going with the good old 223 Wylde using lapua brass, a Bartlein HV 28" 8 twist, Timney set at 1.5#, Greyboe Renegade M5 stock, Leupold Mk4 20 MOA base, MK4 rings, with a 6.5-20x MK4 TMR. Rifle will be close to 15# Will be shooting the 80g ELDMs at 3000fps. Custom throated reamer set up with .080" freebore, so my COAL will be 2.510" to the lands with an 80g ELDM. Striving for 5 shot 1/4 MOA or less with H4895/IMR4895. Will be used on steel out to 1200 yards, and also some local PRS and MOA matches to save barrel life on my 6 creed and 7-300 win mag (which are both built to about the same specs with McMillan A5s and Bartlein/BRUX 28" Rem varmints), and probably the occasional dog out to 600 yards. More pictures to come, but this is what it looks like this morning before taking to the smith, minus the Bartlein barrel being installed tomorrow.
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80g ELDM at 2.510"
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There is one bigger than the 204 case, the 5.6x50 Magnum. I shoot the rimmed version in a combo gun. It is/was fairly popular in Australia necked up to 6mm for shooting kangaroos and in Europe for their small deer. Heym brought it out in the rimless and rimed version. I have RWS and S&B brass for mine.
 
AWS said:
There is one bigger than the 204 case, the 5.6x50 Magnum. I shoot the rimmed version in a combo gun. It is/was fairly popular in Australia necked up to 6mm for shooting kangaroos and in Europe for their small deer. Heym brought it out in the rimless and rimed version. I have RWS and S&B brass for mine.
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I actually researched that cartridge before I went with the 22-204. With brass cost & availability, it wasn't worth the effort.
 
Same here, that's why I went with the 22-204 for my bolt action. I couldn't pass on the combo gun with the 5.6x50R mag barrel. Don't need a lot of brass for the occasional coyote that stays out of shotgun range.
 
I'd rather just do a straight 223. No special dies or extra time at the bench. I'll still get the same velocity you do with a 22-204 and a 28" tube, plus have superior lapua brass. Thanks for the acknowledgment...
 
kyotekiller25 said:
I'd rather just do a straight 223. No special dies or extra time at the bench. I'll still get the same velocity you do with a 22-204 and a 28" tube, plus have superior lapua brass.
Click to expand...
Again, no special dies needed or taking more any extra time at the bench for loading.

Here's another......stainless 700, fluted & bushed bolt with a tigged Hollands handle, 26" Rock Creek fluted MTU contour, McMillan Marksman, Nightforce 40 MOA base, Seekins rings, Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x50. 80 VLD's at 3150.

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