AusVarmint

Hi all, Quick question. Is a .204 to under gunned for taking goats? went out to the local haunt to shoot last night, and was thrown an offer by the daughter in-law to come down to there cooma property as its apparently crawling with rabbits, hare and goats with the occasional deer. so of course im going to take up the offer, but what will I pack?

Id say its possible but having never used a .204 I will let someone else give you a definitive answer. Form past experience having shot plenty goats with a .22lr its all about shot placement is critical. The type of pill will also be important as you don't want to have it splash on impact.

Regards

Mulga

It would hit plenty hard enough.Only used BT bullets in my .204 for foxes, rabbits. Very explosive results as you would know. I haven't tried them yet but i reckon the Hornady 45gr Soft Point would be the bullet for the job. Bit heavier construction than than the varmint bullets.

I did most of my goat shooting with my 223, so can't see why the 204 couldn't do it too.
Just pick your shots.
I had good success with 55gr Blitzking & BTs with head, neck and chest shots.
My useless mates proved that gut & arse shots don't work well at all.
While they were getting twice the kills i was they were using almost twice as much ammo per a kill too.

not what its designed for but it will work. When the 204 first came out there was much gnashing of teeth and angst on the 204um with a bloke who kept posting photos of deer he shot with his 204. he was from Texas and it was legal in Texas. Yeah, its a varmint round with explosive pills and everyone was getting upset about the ethics, but he kept posting photos of dead deer with neat little holes in their heads.

the phrase "shot placement" comes to mind!

+1 to the above posts

Particularly with emphasis on the accuracy part. If you are able to take time placing shots then go for it. If its an outright cull shoot then pack something heavier for the "shooting them while they are running away" moments.

Given its a family property pack everything you have

Dr G

Yep will be fine if you shoot em in the head/neck area. My mate uses his on pigs out around 150-200m (headshots behind ears) and they just flop, so if your capable of great shots go for it, if not might be best to find a heavier cal.

He just uses the 39gn Sierra Bkings in his for everything, they do the job well! Its all about shot placement when it comes to this cal and larger game.

A 39 grn Sierra BK or 40 grn Nosler BT behind the front leg at the level of the elbow will bring a goat down.A V-Max may be to explosive and splash.

The sierra is pretty frangible too. I would pick the nosler BT, 40gr berger or 45gr hornady soft point

Sounds like an excuse for a new gun to me

James270 wrote:Sounds like an excuse for a new gun to me

+1