204 Ruger. To bump or jump?

[jwolf]

I bought a 204 barrel from a member here a while back & I'm ready to load some test rounds. My question is, does the 204 like a bullet jump to the rifling or should I bump the lands? Most of my guns I load for like the bullet nestle up next to the lands. Can someone with some 204 experiance give me an opinion, I've never owned one. Thanks

[dcloco]

Both of mine like a 0.045 to 0.052" jump to the lands.

[82boy]

My 204 liked to be jumped, but heck with the 32 gr bullets I could not get close enough to the lands to touch them.

[jwolf]

I've got 50 rds loaded with 4 diff bullets. All with varying charges of Benchmark. All are set to the lands. The 32 vmax has .154" in the case the 40 v has .265 the 32 blitzking has .173" & the 39 blitz has.248". So I guess you are saying I might have better results if I back off the lands some? This will be the first trip out for this barrel & I know I probable won't see any good result until I get some rds threw it. It was sold to me as new and it looks to be so. I have no history with the 204 but have fired over 4000 rds in a 17 Rem at P Dogs. I know the 17 can be picky and suspect the 204 to be the same. If I seat them back another .045 or so that would get the short bullets to the recomended (seating depth at least the caliber measuremnet). Thanks for the info. Anyone else have any input. I'm listening!

[river grant]

Never tried benchmark but I have found that my 12 vlp 204 doesn't seem to be very picky at all. BL-C(2) was the first powder I ever tried and every charge weight from 28 to 29.2 grains of powder shot .3's, .4's, .5's, .6's depending on the day. I settled on 29.2 grains using the Sierra 39 Blitzking. My OAL from the ogive using the lock-n-load comparator is 1.990" but it seems like it shoots little holes no matter where I seat the bullets. I once tried h322 when I was looking for a lower velocity, close range, night calling round. I went straight to 25 grains with the 39 sierra blitzking and shot groups in the .3's and .4's using that same 1.990" ogive OAL. These were all 5 shot groups.

The 40 gr factory v-max load is seated really deep and the last time I tried some of those at the range the gun put 3 through the same oblong hole.

Mine seems inherently accurate.

[319]

My BTCSS .204 likes 39gr Blitzkings over 26.2gr RL-15 seated at 2.906 ogive using my dial caliper and Hornady bullet comp. They like to jump a bit!

[jwolf]

Thanks guys. I guess I'll take the press with me and try them like they are. If I don't get the results I want, I'll seat em a little deeper. Thanks again.