204 Ruger VS 22-250

[sherppa]

Got a question for you all.  Which do you think is the way to go? Handi-Rifle or Ultra? 204 Ruger or 22-250?

[Hildy]

Handi or Ultra???

Both the same except for the stocks. The Handi has a semi-laminate looking brown wood stock while the Ultra has a Cinnamon true laminated stock.

204 or 22-250?

I can't really say. It depends on what you want it for and if you reload.

The 204 has only a few factory loads and it isn't available as readily as the 22-250.

The ballistics are almost the same except the 250 launches a larger bullet with slightly more energy. They both shoot very flat at long range.

The 204 has bullet weights from 30-50 grains while the 22-250 has weights from 30-80 grains.

The 204 will fire a 32g bullet at ~4200fps~ while the 22-250 will fire a 40g bullet at ~4000fps~. However, a 22-250 will shoot a 30g bullet at about 4500fps, but this will lack due to a terrible ballistic coefficient. Good for close range though!

For larger animals, I would go for the 22-250 but for smaller varmints I would go for the 204. It's all about the usage and if you reload. If you wanted the 204, you would be better suited if you reloaded to stretch its horizons.

[quickdtoo]

The .22-250 has cheaper ammo available if you don't handload but the .204 having a much better BC will surpass the .22-250 or the .223 WSSM past about 350-400 yds in the 40gr loads dropping less and retains more energy. Kind of a toss up.... :? New factory brass is still not available for the .204!!! Some say January, others say not until June!!!

[sherppa]

Thanks guys, no time to reload so will have to go factory.  Now if H&R would just get there site updated or get my catalog I could figure out what barrel style to go with sould like there are some neat things coming down the pike.

[Terrible Tom]

I just bought a 22-250 and the 204 Ruger wasn't even one of the calibers I considered.  I started out looking at the 223 or 243 Ultra-Varminter but got the 22-250 after noticing it on the H&R website.  It's too bad that the FL (fluted barrel) version wasn't listed on the website or I'd probably have ordered one of those.

[Joel]

Just read a gun report on the 204 and the author couldn't find any 32 gr factory ammo that would reach 4200 in his 26" barreled CZ.  Bet he got was around 3925 fps.  ALso noted that it produced more "flyers" than any other centerfire 22 he had used.  Apparently,  the caliber is sentsitive to loading practices/accuracy because he had veloctiy excursions as much as 125 fps above the mean.  Unfortunately, I left the magazine at work, and can't recall who wrote the article.  Like many  new calibers, the 204 might have a few bugs that need to be worked out.

[foycustoms]

Can't remember where i read it, but there was an article about tests showing that none of the factory .204 ammo would surpass the 4000 FPS mark in any factory rifle. Further research on someones part showed that the powder that hornady used in their test rounds isn't the same powder that's in their mass-produced ammo. Kinda misleading if you ask me. I would put a link to the article, but i can't remember where it was. I found it one day just by doing a yahoo search on the .204    hope this sheds some light on the subject.  later