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I have a 12 LRPV in 204R. No matter what I've tried it won't shoot 40 gr Vmax for crap. It seems to do better with the lighter bullets. My question is what powder bullet combinations have you guys found effective and how far off the lands were you seating them?
Thanks.
What powder are you using ?
From the reading I've done on the 204r, most chambers are long, so try seating the bullets to the bullet mfgr's OAL. You will probably never get close to the lands, and I've read where the 204 likes a "jump" so start there and adjust as needed or desired. If you have a 12 twist barrel, try the 39g Sierra's, lots of people have had good success with those, and the 32g's as well. My FV12 in 204 will shoot factory 40g stuff pretty good, but likes handloads better, so I load the 32 &39g's with Benchmark & CFE right now.
I just got some benchmark so I'll give that a shot.
Haven't tried 40's in my current rifle. In my first Savage when the 204 was shiny and new, there were lots of rifle floating around that just didn't like the heavier bullets.
Haven't run the numbers in a while, but the standard twist isn't putting out much in the way of RPM. Certainly possible that they just aren't very stable.
With the 32-35gr I've run 748 & CFE.
When I bought my Savage .204r I tried to stretch out the OAL to the lands, didn't work. Use factory spec OAL, works fine. I use IMR 4064 or H335 at 25.5 grains. behind a 40 grain V-Max,FC match brass,WSR primers, out to 400 yards it works great. I use the same load with my .223 with a 50 or 60 grain V-Max.
Ive had excellent results with imr4895 and 39sbk as well as the 40gr vmax. MV was 3650ish from a 1:10 twist 22" bbl T/C venture
I was seating a little long with both bullets as wwll
I've been using H335 and 35gr. Berger's
Seating them at factory lengths.
Bug holes with predator max-1.