20 Cal Practical

[barryb]

Anyone running one of these , & if so any tips on load data . Just in case I should come across one in the near future that I don't need

[wazza]

I have one on a rem 700 action no neck turn chamber I use OSA/ADI brass redding neck die .229 bush one pass neck down, win/rem brass .227 bushing.
My load is 25.5g ADI BM2 and a 32g Z MAX for 3750fps out of a 22" barrel very accurate load and hits hard.

[trevort]

Barry way back when I got my JAB 20 the inter web told me that reloader 10x was the go to powder for velocity for 223 case 20 cals. The little JAB does the same speed with the 39sbk as the 204 did.

Worth trying if you can get some


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[barryb]

Thanks Wazza - very helpful & appreciated.
I would be using 223 ADI once fired brass necked down & in anticipation I've loaded up 25.2 of BM2 behind Bergers 35 grain proj but wasn't game to go any higher as I was having trouble getting much load data. The one I'm looking at ,but don't need , is a Rem 700 SA? with a pretty heavy Krieger barrel.
Thanks again.
Barry

[barryb]

& thanks Trev
I've got some Rel 10 around some where & also 39 Blit's so I may give that a try later too.
Barry

[trevort]

Barry because my shoulder is pushed back 30 thou my case would have slightly less capacity than yours but happy to share my load data to give you an idea where to start


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[Tony Z]

Hi Barry. I have used both a 204 R and a 20/222 for a while now. Recently i have looked at another alternative based purely on cost where both 204 Ruger dies and 223 cases are readily available and very cheap. The current alternative I'm looking at is docking 204 Ruger dies 80 thou, docking a factory barrel by the same amount and just one pass in the dies with 223 cases has them ready for fireforming which is essentially a minor shoulder blow out. This is not the 20 Tactical as it has a slightly longer neck. Very slight loss in capacity and i assume velocity. I get given or pick up lots of 223 cases, barrels often come and go and yes it is a simple task for myself. But it is not a major or expensive task for a competent gunsmith
I get the idea of the Practical where one pass and the case is good to go, but it requires either bushing or custom dies and reamer. Not cost effective i feel and offers less capacity than my project.

[Branxhunter]

G'day Barry. I found BM1 to give excellent velocity and accuracy in my .20-222 using 32gn v/zmax - not sure how this would translate to the slightly larger capacity .20 Prac. Crackers also had a .20 Prac at one stage, he might also have some load data.

Marcus

[barryb]

Thanks Trev , Tony & Marcus. I'll persevere with BM2 & see what happens with it in the meantime & I see now that Load from a Disc also has some stuff in its menu , albeit it does appear to be very conservative. The rifle will come with 223 Redding dye & a seating dye with bushes.
Appreciate every ones help here.
Barry

[trevort]

Tony mine is based on a 223 case run thru a 204 ruger die cut 30 thou short.

The only word of caution using the 204 reamer run in short is that the 30 thou that is cut off is the base of the case where the taper is widest. I could chamber but not extract fired cases. Needed a 20 practical reamer run in to increase the chamber taper before it worked


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[wazza]

Thanks Wazza - very helpful & appreciated.
I would be using 223 ADI once fired brass necked down & in anticipation I've loaded up 25.2 of BM2 behind Bergers 35 grain proj but wasn't game to go any higher as I was having trouble getting much load data. The one I'm looking at ,but don't need , is a Rem 700 SA? with a pretty heavy Krieger barrel.
Thanks again.
Barry

Barry I loaded up to 27g of BM2 with slight flattening of primers but no other pressure signs but 25.5 was the most accurate for my rifle.
warren

[Tony Z]

Not sure what that ends up as there Trev. 30 thou? What does that do? 50 thou short of 223 case AOL.

Anyway at 80 thou i cut off 1.2 thou of body taper. Same with the die. Negligible and the die can cover that anyway and have done similar with 17 Rem to 17/222 with no case, feed or extraction issues.
Another common conversion in the US is docking 200 thou, same as 17/222 or 3 thou of taper, to form the 204/222, a sort of barstardized 20 VarTarg Turbo. 204 Ruger shoulder neck on 222 case. Dies docked as well with no issue, as with the 17/222, you effectively end up with a very tight tolerance chamber if you started off with something resembling a SAAMI factory chamber. A match chamber in the beginning is a fail.

Two easy ways to be certain. Measure around the webb before and after firing and sizing. That will tell you instantly. The chamber I'm looking to convert is well within the parameters of both brass, chamber and die. My only dilemma is whether to do the cheap 223 option or the possibly more accurate (tighter tolerance) 222 option.
The second method is take a case, cut off the neck, shoulder and some of the body. Full length size what's left and dump it in the chamber and see how far in it falls before it locks in the taper.

[Tony Z]

This is the barrel I'm looking to modify. Howa mini 204 barrel, cut down case full length sized on unmodified 204 die drops in 217 thou. Case should be flush with outer tenon rim. More than enough to do 223 at 80 thou or even 222 at 200 thou. Not so on 221 FB.

[barryb]

Looking good Tony , good luck with it.
Barry

[trevort]

Tony the 30 thou gives you something very like a TAC 20 when the gunsmith doesn’t have a tac 20 reamer



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