Reloading question, 204 Ruger

hunt0168

hunt0168

Well-known member
I met a fella yesterday at the gun range that was shooting a 204 Ruger. I just so happened to be shooting both of my 204's. He was saying that he was going to be ordering some Hornady brass to reload because he didn't have any, but it would take a week to receive it and he was going to be going in for open heart surgery before that or some such thing. Anyway, I told him I had lots of once fired brass of several different brands. He was surprised that I shot 204, and said I was the first guy he'd met at the club who shot one. I told him I was actually shooting that round right now, and that he could have what I had with me for once fired Brass, which was in the neighborhood of 60 pcs of 3 different brands. 20 Nosler, 20 Hornady and 20 Federal Nickel Plated.

Anyways, he was telling me about the loads he was shooting and how he came about them. He didn't have 222 Rem mag brass to resize to 204, so he resized 223 cases and he said they were working fine, and the only difference was that they were shorter than factory 204. He also was telling me that he wasn't seating them as deep as factory rounds and that he had to single feed because the length was too long for the magazine. Is there any reason to think those loads would cause any issues? I'm not a reloader, but I am not completely ignorant to how it works. Just wondering if the shorter cases would crate excessive carbon at the chamber/throat transition or something? They were shooting good for him, just seemed a bit cobbed to me.
 
When 204 was hard to find thought about trying 223 that was a little long, but I never did. It may be ok if that was all he was going to shoot but not the best option imo. Seems like the necks would be short after fire forming.
 
Thanks fellas. I'm pretty sure he was running 40 gr V-Max bullets. With the cases being quite a bit shorter, and then him not seating as deep, it just didn't seem "correct" to me. He did say he was only running them at 3300 FPS, and he bought the gun to shoot targets only, so single feeding wasn't a big deal to him. I guess he was told after open heart surgery that he was not to shoot during his healing process because of the recoil. He said he isn't going to stop shooting, he just won't shoot anything with recoil. Hence the downloaded 204.
 
Plenty of 204R brass available, running short necked(opposite the design features of a 204R) will dirty up the end of the chamber/throat much quicker. I suppose if you put a light crimp on bullets that would help build pressure early and help with combustion. But why? Save 50 bucks vs 2 hrs time and bullets/primers/powder forming brass?
 
If you size a 223 in a 204 fl die you are putting a false shoulder on them so they will be headspaced correctly and fire just fine. the only down side is that the neck will be 2mm short.

When I was working on the 25-204 Wayne Blackwell had built a 25x47 (222 Rem Mag necked to .257). He experimented with necking 223's to 284 and then sizing in his 25-47 FL die and said the cases work well.
 
We exchanged phone numbers because after I gave him the empty brass I had with me, I told him he could have some of my once fired that I had at home. I have around 200 nickel plated Federals that I have gotten mixed opinions on about being worth reloading. He said he would take them. He texted me today saying he loaded up some of the nickel plated and was going to shoot today to see how they shoot.

He’s a nice older guy so I just wanted to help the guy out. Kinda want to hang onto my Winchester and Nosler brass though in case I ever decide to reload. I have about a hundred Hornady once fired as well. Again, I got mixed opinions on those too from guys that reload.
 
Older Win brass is wonderful, I have some in my 204 cats that are 20 yrs old. I just bought some Win 223 brass and it is crap with primer pockets all over the place with some unfired so loose I'd dump them as being loaded to hot if they were fired. Case length was all over the place when sizing to 20P, will relegate them to the AR. I do like Starline, I just bought 500 5.56x45 and made 100 rounds of 20P and prime pockets were all smooth and snug seating, finished 20P from them needed no trimming and were within a couple thousandths of each other.

Good on you for helping him out.
 
As already covered, short neck is the only issue. Which, depending, is maybe not a big deal. Depending. If you measure all your chambers, as I do, you'll find that all factory chambers and almost all custom ones too, are a good bit longer than SAMMI "trim to" spec. I never trim cases (never) and they never get long enough to actually have any risk of impinging on the actual mean little step. It's a good long ways out there.

Getting that portion of the chamber dirty is one thing, and a valid concern. Shooting enough short necks to start getting it flame cracked and gator hide like the normal start of the throat is another. But, then, when going to normal length necks, that portion won't come into play and won't matter anyway.

For various reasons, I've used a lot of converted cases with short necks. It's not ideal and best just avoided. But it's never caused me the slightest problem either. But then too, I don't trim, because I want them to get long - they have a lot of room to grow (a lot), if you actually measure.

- DAA
 
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Bob,
You can always call Redding Reloading in Cortland, NY and they will gladly tell you whether it's a go or no go.
I know you don't load yourself but just to check if it's something that's safe. Him seems to have no problem with accuracy.
Soup
 
soup said:
Bob,
You can always call Redding Reloading in Cortland, NY and they will gladly tell you whether it's a go or no go.
I know you don't load yourself but just to check if it's something that's safe. Him seems to have no problem with accuracy.
Soup
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Bill, that group he sent was with actual 204 once fired brass that I gave him. I’m giving him enough to last him a good while so he won’t need to use the makeshift 223/204 loads he had come up with. Thanks for the info though.
 
gtoad said:
hunt0168 very nice that you helped him out with the brass.đź‘Ť
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It was easy enough to do, gtoad. Being nice isn't difficult at all when you are dealing with a nice person to begin with. Some people make it harder to do, but I try my best! Lol...

I met him at the club a couple days later and gave him another 200 pcs of the once fired nickel plated Federals. He said he wouldn't need brass for a good long while now! I still have probably another 200 rounds of unfired Federals, so they're not something I'll ever miss.
 
It's getting closer to coyote hunting time.
Working on some of my favorite rifles now.

Did not use my 204 at all last year...maybe will take it out some this season, as it does shoot the 40g Bergers very well.
 
gtoad said:
Did not use my 204 at all last year...maybe will take it out some this season, as it does shoot the 40g Bergers very well.
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I didn’t use my 204 at all last season either. I was thinking the same. Mine really likes the 35gr Bergers which have performed well on coyotes for me. 40gr NBT are right there with them tho.
 
I WAS using a different bullet, won't mention the brand, I don't wanna go there. Anyway I loaded up some 40gr Bergers, 40gr Nosler BT, and some Speer 39gr TNT. All these loads shot great and had great terminal effects on coyotes.
 
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