.20 Practical Question

[Corsica Coatings]

Can you cut the chamber of a 204 Ruger barrel back far enough to use a 20 Practical reamer and clean up the old chamber to make a viable 20 Practical chamber?

Thinking out loud.....anyone hear me?

[stevec]

Should work, I was able to clean up a 204 barrel with a 20tac reamer and had plenty of threads.

Steve

[Corsica Coatings]

Thanks Steve...I'll proceed!!

Just curious but why the 20 Tac and not 20 Prac. I didn't see much difference and you don't need to fireform with the Practical. Just wondering?

[stevec]

I like the 30deg shoulder on the tac and Lapua makes 20tac brass. I dont think either one is any better than the other.

Steve

[sinman]

I have done both 20tac and 20 practical from a 204. The 20tac works better as its more of an improved case.

[helotaxi]

The 20 Tac would require less setback since the front end is essentially the same as the .204 Ruger. You'd have to set the barrel back far enough with the 20 Practical to completely recut the shoulder area. If I were getting an entire new barrel, I'd probably lean towards a Practical for the ease of getting brass and the lack of need to fireform, though the fireform is pretty simple on that one IIRC since it is a simple improved case. For a setback on a .204 Ruger chambered barrel it would probably work better as a 20 Tac.

[Corsica Coatings]

Let's see.....thinking again.....if the Tac and 204 have the same shoulder could you just set the barrel back the difference between the 204 and the Tac and end up with a TAC without using a reamer? It would be a one off chamber, but if you used a TAC "go gauge" to set the headspace it should work....right?

[helotaxi]

In theory, yes. IIRC, the 20 Tac was originally chambered with a .204 Ruger reamer that was not run to full depth. The dies were made by cutting down .204 Ruger dies.

[stevec]

In theory, yes. IIRC, the 20 Tac was originally chambered with a .204 Ruger reamer that was not run to full depth. The dies were made by cutting down .204 Ruger dies.


It was the other way around. The tac was developed first by Todd Kindler. When Hornady and ruger started work on the 204 they bought a tac reamer from Dave Kiff. Thats the story Dave Kiff told me when I ordered my tac reamer.

The tac is .100 Shorter than the 204 with no other changes, so you can trim .100 off of your barrel and have a tac chamber. I use 204 dies and cut .100 off to make my tac dies.

Steve

[helotaxi]

I stand corrected on the order, but the important point is correct.

[Corsica Coatings]

Thanks Steve!!

I love it when thinking actually pays off!! Out to the shop and fire up the lathe then Midway to get a set of Lee 204 dies to cut up. Now all i need is to get some ideas on barrel length. I'm thinking 20" to make it handy since 20" is plenty for the .223 and it essentially has the same capacity.

Anyone with other ideas?

[helotaxi]

Case capacity is the same but the smaller bullet means that the expansion ratio is lower. I seem to recall 22" being about right for the cartridge.

[Corsica Coatings]

Good point Helo.

It will be in Boyd's thumbhole stock and the 20" would probably look strange but I will thread the barrel for a suppressor and would like to still be able to keep it within a reasonable length. With the suppressor attached it will be about 27".

Thanks everyone...with any luck it will be a tack driver!!

Joe

[stevec]

22 sounds about right. I was able to get 4100+ out of my 27 inch shilen with 32gr vmax. Since then I have cut it down to 20inch and put it on an AR, havent crono since.

Steve

[helotaxi]

I wish it was that easy to set back an AR barrel without messing up the gas system. My Shilen .204 would be a Tactical barrel already. I'd have to plug the gas port and have the barrel completely re-profiled to accept a .875 gas block to make that work. A new ordered barrel would be cheaper at that point.

[stevec]

You can turn down a savage barrel and fit it to an AR. lot less work/cost. I put a break on my Tac ar barrel. talk about no recoil! it is a fun plinker.

Steve

[helotaxi]

Only problem is that I have a .204 AR barrel but not a .204 Savage barrel.

[Corsica Coatings]

Helo,

I had the same thought when I was cutting down my 204 sizing die to do the 20 Tac cases. I have a heavy barrel 204 upper that shoots like a dream and it would make a great 20 Tac but it is best left as is.

My cut down die works great for the 20 Tac cases and I'm thinking I will just use one of the new cases to set head space for the cut back 204 barrel. I may get to that tomorrow and if not it will be next week since I will be out of town after Tuesday. I will report results once it is set up in the Stevens action.

[Corsica Coatings]

I cut back the barrel to fit my new 20 TAC case, installed it on a Stevens action, loaded a few rounds with 23.0 grains, IMR 4198 and 32 gr V Max, test fired and it is a success!!

Primers were pretty flat so I'm going to drop back another 10% and get some thru the gun this weekend for accuracy. Will advise on velocity too if I can remember to get batteries for my chrono.

I forgot the Boyds stock I am going to use is for a stock skinny barrel so I will need to do some wood working as well before I start since the barrel is a 26" varmint weight. I'm going to leave it at 26" for awhile and see how it shoots, but will eventually go to 20" threaded.

SO far so good and thanks Steve!!!

[stevec]

Mine loves 25gr of Benchmark and 35gr bergers.

Good luck, Steve