.204 Ruger question

[Loki_762]

About a year and a half ago, I bought an NEF Handi Rifle in .204, and have had a great time with it.  Shoots groups under an inch, and absolutely vaporizes ground squirrels.  Only problem with it is that it is just light enough to keep me from seeing some shots through the scope.  Last fall, I bought my first Encore for an antelope hunt, and I absolutely love it.  I have been thinking about getting a .204 barrel for it as well, and then getting rid of the Handi rifle.  The way I see it, the 26 inch Encore barrel will get me more speed, being 4 inches longer.  Not only that, with 4 more inches of inch thick steel at the end of the barrel, I will have more weight to keep the scope from jumping.  Sounds good, doesn't it?  But I also was thinking it might be nice to make the Encore into a pistol during ground squirrel season, and put a .223 barrel on it so I have something light to carry around while hiking.  So, I guess my question is this;  Does the extra length and weight of the longer barrel make enough difference that I will be able to see my hits, and perhaps get a little more speed?  Or should I just get the .223 barrel and have two guns during varmint season?
Thanks,
Chris

[KN]

If you can see your hits or not may be more of a scope magnification issue. As a die hard prairie dogger I use scopes in the 24+ magnification range, but rarely are they set any higher than 11-12x in the field. More than that and it jumps too much to see my hits and misses. Just some thing to ponder.   KN

[Keith L]

My 204 is on a Contender frame and I can see hits with it.  I have a Gunstocks Inc Walnut thumbhole stock with a heavier than factory forend and normally have a bipod clipped to the sling swivel, so it is nose heavy. My guess is that an Encore would keep it on the bag as well.  My scope is a 5X15 Bushell Elite 3200 and does get wiggly at the higher magnification as well.

I really like this .204 Ruger.  It makes tiny little groups!

[Ahab]

I have the heavy barrel with a 8.5-25 Mueller Eraticator on it. At 20x and on the bags you can see the bullet hole magically appear on paper after you press the trigger. This is using the Shoot-N-C target. Much harder to see using a conventional target

[skb2706]

Have a full bull carbine barrel on a Contender in .204. Extra heavy foreend, 23" MGM SS. Don't shoot much paper but you can watch the bullet magically make a prairie dog look like it was tossed under a lawnmower. Gun never moves off target with a Weaver KT15 scope.

[Coltdriver]

I have the heavy TC 26 inch stainless barrel on my Encore and I can see my hits using a 14 power scope. 

The owner at Bulberry barrels took a .204 barrel and progressively shortened it.  He found that the optimum length for the 32 gain pills was 23 inches I think.  Go to the Bulberry web site and check that article.

Mine shoots very flat out to 300 yards with the factory 32 grain pills.

[tigmaned]

yeah bullberry's test shows after 23" it started to slow back down. but i wish when they did the test they show the accuracy for each length with it.

[Fat NDN]

My H&R bull Barrel .204 doesn't jump with 32gr or 39gr bullets.