204 Midway Dogtown Bullets

[PHATINJUN]

These are 34 gr 1st pic is 100yards 2nd is 300 and it will do better as I am not that good of a shot.Those are the 4.5x7 PD targets not the bigger Ground hogs.I have had 2 touching several times at 100 but have yet to clover leaf . Kurt

[NAM70]

Thats nice to see. I recently bought a 204. The 204 is a new caliber for me and I ordered the bulk 34 grainers from MidSouth. I read on the internet somewhere that they are the same bullets as the Midway dog towns only cheaper. But they are on back order and have been for going on 3 weeks now. On that order is all of the rest of my 204 stuff-dies,cleaning stuff,brass,etc. But we've had alot of wet soppy snow in this part of Minnesota and I have to travel down a dirt muddy road to get to my shooting area. And that will be wet and muddy too. Oh well. I'll just wait awhile yet. BTW what are you using for a load?
Dave

[Inrut24/7]

Have you shot any water bottles or anything to see if they are very explosive?

[PHATINJUN]

I use IMR4198 kind of put it togeather myself as there was not much data on 34gr or that powder and I have about 3 #'s of it and worked to those results about 3500fps 2.275 oal I figure won't know for sure til I get a chrony but there are no signs of trouble with it and the results speak for themself.
Rut funny you ask that cause that is what I wanted to know before I got to Hooker last yr. Here in Northern Illinois we have a critter that I was able to find last yr to test on they come out in chisle plowed field at just the right time of day and were a blast to shoot. I took 57 20oz pop bottles and filled them with water and placed them all over the field from about 60yrds to 500. spent the whole afternoon blasting them and they do explode I did hit one of the ones way out but had to use the 300win mag I took it as a hit but I really think it hit just low the rest I moved in and popped them. I got 2 large garbage bags filled already for this yrs testing. The 204 was my very favorite for shooting out there cause of no muzzle jump and you never loose target in scope window. I may try the Varmint Grenades again only in the 22hornet and see if I can make them shoot last yr they kept vaporizing before they got to the target . And I didn't have the time to stay with them. I gave some away and am waiting on thier reports.Kurt

[quickdtoo]

39gr BK data or 35gr Berger data should work for the DT bullets, just use start data and work up.

Tim

http://204ruger.com/204_Ruger_sierra.pdf

http://204ruger.com/204_data_sierra.php

http://204ruger.com/204_data_imr.php

http://204ruger.com/204_data.php

[PHATINJUN]

I think that is some of the info I used when I started I know the closer to what I figured was 4000fps they opened up some.Also for what it's worth my bbl is 24"fluted. Kurt

[Inrut24/7]

I just might have to try some of them in my 223, I had the opposite results with the varmint grenades, not in 204, but the 36 grain .224  varmint grenade.  I dont have a chrono, but I loaded them in my 223 with 24.5 grains of h322 which would probally push them 3400 plus.  Anything past 100 yards or so the bullets wouldnt open up,  I first shot them on paper where the did shoot pretty well, I took some groundhog hunting and was having exits and a few ricocets, somthing a bullet advertised as a grenade shouldnt do, curiosity got the best of me so i shot some water bottles, at 100 yards they had little expansion and at 150 there was just a single hole in and single hole out, alot of times the bottle wouldnt even fall over, I have searched alot of forums and i seem to be the only one who has had these results, I may try another box to see if i got a "bad" box the first time.
 
heres a pic of a groundhog I shot with a varmint grenade at around 100-125 yards, as you can see the bullet did exit with a slightly bigger than caliber sized hole.