Sorting out the Rem700 .204

[Branxhunter]

My cousin Dougald brought his Rem700 VSSF .204 up to Yass this year to partake in some fur explosions. Due to work, selling & buying a house, and renovations he didn’t have time to do any reloading so just shot Hornady factory 32gn rounds.

Dougald has invested a bit in this rifle - jewel trigger, Bartlien barrel, Meopta 6-18x50 scope. It actually groups the factory fodder very well.

Playing around on the gongs at Yass was a cause of frustration with shots landing on POA at a selected distance but then to the left or right at shorter or distances. Group consensus was a canted scope reticle, and I offered to work on the setup when we got home.

First I checked the scope tracking. Adjustments were a little mushy but for a hunting rifle seemed to go OK:



Next I checked groups at 250m before and after rotating the scope in the rings a little by eye:



Then another slight rotation in the rings and the vertical line test at 200m. I should have just left it there (shots ‘A’) but mucked with it a bit more and ended chasing my tail a bit:



So we called it good at that.

Next up load development.

Marcus

[Branxhunter]

For the loads I used what I had on the shelf - CCI BR primers, BM8208 and 32gn z-maxes. Loaded up two rounds at each powder charge increment and shot them over the Chrony at 200m, marking the shots for each increment as I went and watching for signed of pressure:







Ok but not setting the world on fire. Bolt lift was easy and primers looked good:



So kept loading heavier charges in the same increments. I also swapped from the bipod to a front bag. Over the bipod didn’t feel rock steady and I wondered wether I was getting a bit of bounce off the shooting bench:



It all came together with loads 3 to 5 of this set:



So consulted with Dougald and we have settled on load 4 - 29.4gn of BM8208 with a 32gn v-max for around 4,150fps



Marcus

[Ol 55]

Yep that will do it, amazing what happens when you have some time to double check things, he should be happy with that.
Gary

[macca]

Looking good. Nice development work. Actually a great post for people to follow on scope setting and load work.
Cheers

[crackers17]

Any reason not to use 40vmax

[Camel]

Any reason not to use 40vmax

Shit bullets,

[trevort]

You will only know if you try them. They won’t group to normal 204 standard in some rifles if the twist rate isn’t spot on 1 in 12.

I used them exclusively in the 10 twist 204 I had and no complaints from any fox or rabbit I shot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[crackers17]

Any reason not to use 40vmax

Shit bullets,

Yep and still go bang too..

[Branxhunter]

Any reason not to use 40vmax

Didn't have any on the shelf.

Marcus