.20 vartarg

[Appleseed]

Please recommend length and twist for .20 vartarg barrel? Will be magnum taper, (not varmint).

[sinman]

20-22" and I would say a 1/12" twist should do you pretty well. maybe a 1/11" but it all depends on what bullets you want to shoot.

[Armed in Utah]

12 twist and the 40 V max work well in mine......

[riflecrank]

I have chambered several Savage barrels in 20 Vartarg. As a matter of fact it's my favorite cartridge for shooting ground squirrels . I find that the 32gr bullets are ideal because of the limited case capacity and a 1-12 twist is what you want. I did a couple of Lilja 3 groove 1-12 twist a while back and they are superb. The Vartarg has lot of great things going for it. Its economical to shoot as your only using 18 to 20 grains of powder, has excellent barrel life, and you can still get 3700-3800 FPS velocity. The problems are, 1. crappy Remington brass. 2. If you want a repeater you will have a hard time getting it to feed. I just drop in the SSS single shot follower and call it good.

[Appleseed]

Working on the repeater problem with a .221fb cz mag inserted into a savage "sleeve." Will mill bottom metal and post a photo if it works. Here's the beginning, looks promising and feeds through the action. Haven't gotten the barrel so cannot tell if this will work. Donor is a 11gcns .223.

The assembly latches just as a stock one even before adding bottom metal. Will have to tweak alignment of cz mag held tightly inside sleeve. As of now, the feed lips of the sleeve hold the other mag just about right. Then add adhesive filler. (Stole ideas from members Dave and Randy , thanks for the help guys)! These are dummy loads of vartarg with 40gr.

[BigDog]

Riflecrank, are you just swapping out the barrels and not doing any other modifications to the original Savages to make it a 20 VarTarg? Are you having any ejection issues? What sized groups are you getting out of it? Does Lilja sell barrels already threaded for the Savage?

[northlander]

Here is a 20 Vartarg Barrel for you Vartarg Shooters:

Here is a current list of Savage Pre-Fits by Shilen and McGowen Barrels that I have in stock for immediate shipment:
Shilen:
24" - Stainless Match - Small Shank - Varmint - 20 Vartarg - 12 Twist - $269.00 (one only)

Jim Briggs
NSS

[Armed in Utah]

Some one better grab this 20 VT.......

What a sweet cartridge................

[laportecharlie]

Armed in Utah,
Well I took your advise. PM'ed Jim with an "I'll take it" I've got all winter to build it so it should be ready for early spring PD's.
Charlie

[Armed in Utah]

You'll love it.........PM sent........

[riflecrank]

Riflecrank, are you just swapping out the barrels and not doing any other modifications to the original Savages to make it a 20 VarTarg? Are you having any ejection issues? What sized groups are you getting out of it? Does Lilja sell barrels already threaded for the Savage?

Sorry for not replying sooner but I got a new computer. I had an older 22-250 112 varmint single shot that I converted to the 20 VT. I had to do a few changes, mainly the bolt head and firing pin. I bought a blank from Lilja, threaded and chambered it. Lilja doesn't sell drop-in barrels. It shoots sub MOA all day with every load I have tried. The best accuracy so far has been with H4198 and 35gr Berger's, does .3 with that combination. I did another for a buddy on a new Stevens 200 centerfeed. We used a SSS single shot follower on that one and it works fine. Changed out the stock to a varmint fiberglass. His shoots better than mine by a hair. Awesome cartridge if you like to see the hit, zero recoil.