Kimber 20vt pics

[MISSED]

No thanks needed Tepee I love spending someone else' money.

Also AI was my inspiration.

What was your reaction when you pulled the trigger for the first time?.

Velocity looks good what length barrel have you got on the Kimber?.

I loaded some up at 18.7 gr to do some testing with but live targets got in the way.

And I have got all my cases fireformed so no more excuses.

[Teepee]

Went with 24" in the end
Wasn't sure if the twist was going to work and thought if it didn't I could always drop it into something else and rechamber, to what who knows.
Anyway, as I said a bit more fine tuning should get the results I'm looking for.
The speeds I'm getting from this case are more than I was getting from the 20 practical with a lot less powder, noise, recoil etc.
very close to what I was searching for
Can't wait to try it out on something furry.
Will try a tad more powder with a drop tube. 18g was very close to the max I could get into the case , new. I measured the cases after firing, seems they have expanded by.004" at the shoulders so should be able to fit a little bit more in, I would think.
Anyway more to follow.

[Teepee]

Sorry missed,
Just read the second part of your message.
My immediate thoughts on pulling the trigger for the first time was I had found what I had been searching for. Low recoil, accurate, deadly.
I was using ear plugs but didn't seem to be very loud.
I think with more fine tuning it will be the bees knees.
Not quite thee yet. Have a lot of work to do but...
"That's all part of the journey"
Teepee

[crackers17]

Good to see you got it going...

Looks like its shooting good so far.

What twist is this barrel. .is the speed about what you thought you would get. What did the prac do..

[Teepee]

Hi crackers,
Yes, great to get it going.
I was using bm2 at 26g to achieve the same velocity with the 20 prac, but that was using the 32 sbk's. Good load, knocked over some bunnies on logs out to 200+ easily. Didn't shoot many foxes with it, used mainly the big fella.
I believe the 20 vt is a much more efficient case. Seems to get better velocity with the 2207 powder anyway.
Barrel twist is 1/10 - I went with this as
A. It was what the gunsmith had on hand &
B. I could use it for the sako, if this project didn't work out which would allow me to shoot the heavier projectiles in that calibre.
I was hoping for around the 3600-3700fps but to get more is a bonus.
At this stage, it will definitely be staying as is. I've adjusted the trigger down to 1.5ibs and will have to have a closer look at the barrel channel in the next few days.
I've just had a play with a once fired case. I can get another half grain in the case, compared to Unfired cases. Could get more with a drop tube I think.
Pic shows Unfired brass next to one fired.

[Glenn]

There is a bit of a difference Teepee!

Glenn

[Teepee]

Looks like there is but when I measured the distance from the base to the neck and to the shoulder it was reasonably close on both. Because the fired case has a ring around the neck it appears to be different to the one on the left. It is wider at the shoulder by approx .004" but that's about the biggest difference that I can detect. Oal of case has moved slightly by .001" , but that's to be expected on initial firing.
Every reamer is different so it could be that I have the 20vt fls dies which are the correct size and perhaps they are different to the actual reamer. Don't know, as I didn't get a copy of the reamer print.
I do have a copy of Todd Kindlers book, the terrific twenties, which has a reamer print in it, I will compare to the fired case and see what the difference is.
Teepee

[MISSED]

You would be a brave man to follow some of Mister Kindlers loads Teepee.

His max load for the 20 VT is 19.9gr of 2207 I cannot get that amount of powder in the case

[Glenn]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Todd Kindler's load instruction, fill case to top, tap on bench, repeat!

That is a lot of 2207 in that ity bity case!

Glenn

[Teepee]

No Missed, I'm not that brave to try that load
I will give that extra half grain a shot once I've fire formed the cases just to see how that goes.
I measured the fired case against the Todd kindler reamer print, there's very little difference that I can tell.
The neck measures the same, .232"
Base to neck junction, 1.177". - the reamer print shows .1.1768"
Shoulder , .361". - rp shows .360"
Oral case 1.400. - rp shows 1.400"

So overall I think it's probably very close.
I will try and resize a fired case in the 20vt fls die and see what results I get.
Keep you posted.
Teepee

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Those dimensions are the same as mine

I hope they stay the same when the cartridge becomes a "Factory" offering.

I think OL55 is getting around 3900fps out of his 20 Tac Jeff.

Teepee I have been meaning to ask how it feeds from the mag in the Kimber.

[Teepee]

Feeds no problems
I havnt tried it yet in the field but on the bench seemed to work fine. Cycles easily, ejects no prolems.
I ran a case through the FLS die - it reduced the shoulder to .359" and neck to .230" - everything else the same.

Is there talk of turning it into a factory cartridge?

By chance I came across a 20 SCC the other week. Which stands for Small Calibre Club. This is the 20 Vartarg on steroids apparantly.
40 degree shoulder, no body tapper, same length and reportedly they are getting 3900fps with little pressure.There
is a web site but not sure how to post the link.
Anyone interested in obtaining a reamer - they will be available on special order through PTG approx $250aus posted.

If my chrono is to be believed Im going to go close to that with the increased loads - 18.5g.
Will be interesting to see where it ends up.
Teepee

[Ned Kelly]

G'day All,
with any case I make the increased load steps about 1% and start from the mid range in the load manual.
you can get away comfortably with a 0.5gn increase in say a 308, but in a small capacity case like the Fireball, use 0.2gn steps (about 1%), and in the 223/BR/PPC cases about 0.3gn steps. Also you may miss the accuracy node in small cases by using such a large increase of 0.5gn too.
Ask any Hornet reloader, work slowly up to maximum load, there is no rush.
Its very easy to overload when you get close to the max load, remember we are only issued with one set of eyes, ears, fingers and FACE!
So please try no to damage them......and as a rule they are generally painful!
Cheerio Ned

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http://smallcaliberclub.com/index.php

Brad Shwartz is the forum owner as well as Custom Reloading Tools "CRT" he also carries Redding and Hornady dies etc ( I got my 20 VT dies from him)he also makes some very good reloading must have nic nacs.

220 a member on here brings his gear in for anyone interested.

Ned I am not sure you could get enough 2207 into the Vartarg case to have pressure issues.I am using Magtech primers which seem to have a fairly soft cap and I am getting no signs of pressure at 18.7gr and accuracy just seems to be getting better. :shock:But this is with my rifle and this the first group shot with it at 100m

2013_0125DATAvt200035.JPG (52.19 KiB) Viewed 821 times

I thoroughly agree with you about increases in powder weights in small cases .3 of a gr in my PPC goes from a reliable all weather load to marginal.Velocity increased by around 30 fps per increment until the last step where it jumped by 50 fps.

Chappo555 is using 2205 in his VT and I really want to sit down over a cup of tea and have yarn about it.

[Teepee]

Hi Ned,
Thanks for your input.
I certainly wouldnt be advocating .5g increases for the smaller case except I did load some 8208 at 17.5 and 18 to try the other day but felt that as these were well below max - as listed in the adi site for the 17 fireball, they should be fine to use in the 20VT. As it turned out no problems at all. Velocity was the downer as 17.5g gave me around 3000fps and 18g wasnt much better although accuracy was reasonable.
My thoughts are I will be starting a ladder test from 17.8g going up to around the 18.6g in .2 increments mark using the 2207 and see what I get. I like to use .2g increments in the smaller case as you said, in case you miss the accuracy node. At least you can half that and go either side to try and get best possible combination for the rifle/barrel setup.

Missed
That accuracy your getting from your rifle looks very good, what velocity are you getting?
Teepee