204 Ruger 15 inch Encore Barrel

[epicgrizz]

 I was looking for any feed back from anyone shooting the 15 inch 204 Ruger barrel.  I am looking at getting one but was curious of how it performs from a 15 inch barrel.

Is it still accurate, is it too load, is the velocity still decent?

TIA for all your help!

[Duffy]

Check out the test on bullberrys website. Fred did a test starting with a 24" bbl and kept cutting it down. I think he figured 22 or 23" to be optimum for vel and to keep the blast down to a fairly resonable level. Sounds like the 204 barks pretty good!

[Catfish]

The .204 is pretty much an over bore round and with big cases as compaired to bore dia. you tend to use slower powders in larger volumes which takes more barrel lenth to burn. You should not get any loss of accuracy, but you will lose a lot higher percentage of your velosity with the .204 than you would with a .222 or something similar. I just got started fire forming cases for the .204, but I useing a 26 in. T/C Encore barrel and going after the velosity, ie range. Muzzle blast should not be as bad as with a .44 mag. though and while not my cup of tea, it should make a good varmint rig, but then so does the .222 and .223 and ammo is easier to get and cheaper for them. It all in what you want.

[oscar-eleven]

I can't comment on the Encore or a 15" barrel but I have the 204 in a 14" Contender barrel. I shot a 5 shot string of 26.0 grs. of 10X through the chrony for an average speed of 3318 fps. I have since bumped the load to 26.5 grs. of 10X with no pressure signs but have not chronied this load. Accuracy is superb with reloads. The Hornady 32 gr. factory ammo shot about 1 1/2" @ 100 yards but the more I shot the barrel the more the  groups shrank. It is consistently shooting right around an inch with factory ammo The 40 gr. factory ammo sucks out of my barrel, you couldn't even call it a group. I have not tried reloading any of the 40 gr. Vmax's. All my reloading has been done with the 32 gr. Vmax or the the 35 gr. Bergers, both shot great. P.O. Ackley said in his book on wildcat cartridges, in reference to the 20/222, that "perhaps a better cartridge would be the 222 Rem. Mag necked down to 20 caliber." So maybe Ruger had a good idea, hmm. As usual, if anyone uses the data above please use caution and remember to start low and work up your own safe loads. As far as noise and muzzle blast, it is not an issue with me, but I'm pretty new to this pistol stuff. Oscar-eleven