Savage 204 Ruger?

[CamoWildcat]

I'm thinking about buying a Savage Varmint model in 204 Ruger caliber strictly for shooting Prairie Dogs.
Any comments?
Or suggestions?

 

[Guy Miner]

Savage varmint rifles are known for excellent out of the box accuracy! A couple of my friends shoot them with superb results, but they've had to be careful about barrel break-in and cleaning because of fairly rapid barrel fouling.

That .204 is a real zipper! The guys I know who are shooting it are reporting great accuracy, no recoil, making good hits at longish ranges on all sorts of furry little critters.

Good luck w/the new rifle! Post some photos when you can. Guy

 

[7mmfan]

Should work wonderfully as long as you stick to bullets under 40 grains. The twist rate in factory 204's sometimes doesn't stabilize the 40 grain Nosler Bts and defintely won't stabilize the 50 grain Bergers.

Brad

 

[live to shoot]

I had the oportunity to shoot the 204 2 weeks ago, I was showing a guy some dog towns in the area that I live in, and it just so happened that he had his 204 with him. His gun was a cooper and he was shooting 40 BT. We set up and started shooting dogs at 250 yds. Since there was a lot of room to shoot, we started going for longer shots, I had 5 kill over 350 yds. the 204 is quite impressive. As for the savage, I have had excellent results with mine (110 VS) it is a shooter right out of the box. best of luck on your new purchase.

 

[CamoWildcat]

My current plans are to buy a Savage in 204 Ruger, put the new Simmons 6-24 scope on it then load some 39 grain Sierras for it.

 

[Varmonter]

great cartridge. I recently bought a kimber 84m in 204.
absolutly explodes pdogs from the pics i have seen at 204ruger.com.
Bought mine for coyotes here in VT also crows and chucks.
Tackdriver..you won't be disapointed..Hope you reload as factory cartridge
selections are limited. albeit getting better.

 

[FOTIS]

Nice caliber. I had 2 of them. With win 748 I launhed them at 4195 fps.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I guess I'll be the oddball here. I think there all hype and advertising. Whats the point of a 32g bullet at 4200fps when you can shoot a 40g bullet out of a 220 swift at 4400fps, or a 22-250 at 4100fps? And when you stick a 40g bullet in that 204, whats it shoot maybe 4000fps. I dont know, seems like a lot of advertising and a lot of show, for little go. Those little tiny bullets will get blown all over the prairie. Trust me, my dad loaded up 40g vmaxes at 4100fps in his 22-250 on a pd shoot in montana. I loaded up 55g btips at 3900fps in my swift. He was barely making 250 yard shots, while I was wacking them at 400-450. This was of course with 10-20 mph winds. People are comparing the 204 to a 22-250 and the like. I dont even think its a comparison, its still pretty much a 223. One guy tried telling me there better then a swift. I just laughed and said "ok." Either way, I guess they bang pd's to 350 or so. IF thats all the farther you want to shoot, then I guess buy one and bang away. If you want to shoot farther and have less wind drift, stick with a 22-250 or a swift.

 

[FOTIS]

Remmy:

Your're not the oddball here man. The reason I had 2 of them is that I sold them when I bought my Rem 700 VSSF in 220 Swift. I am launching 40 gr BT's at a very sedate 4150 fps and I am very happy!

 

[CamoWildcat]

I ended up buying a 12 BVSS Savage in 22-250. I'm moly coating NBT 55s and getting 3900 fps. Here are some groups with less than 100 rounds thru the gun. Trigger was 2 pounds OUT OF THE BOX.