Reviews - Ammo

.204 RUGER

The .204 Ruger rifle round hit the shelves in 2004. This cartridge was designed using a .222 Remington Magnum case necked down to a .204 diameter bullet. Intended for use as a varmint and target round; it can send a 35 grain bullet down range at over 4100 feet per second. This translates into a fast, flat shooting round. Bullet choices are between 30 and 50 grain.

My first experience with the .204 was in a Thompson Center Pro Hunter Encore. Using reloads, I developed the most accurate load for this particular rifle. With this load 100 yard groups of less than ½ of an inch were possible. The bullet is a 39 grain hollow point made by Berger. The first thing you will notice shooting the .204 is that the recoil is so light it is almost unnoticeable.  The 50 grain bullets did not shoot well in this particular rifle, probably due to a slow barrel twist.

This past season I decided to try the .204 on whitetail deer. In all, I took three deer with the fast shooting round. Without going into detail I found the round did well in soft tissue but disintegrated on impact with bone. The problem is the bullet design. Being a varmint cartridge, the current bullets offered are designed to fragment on impact to the point, you could say they explode. The other problem is these fragmenting bullets cause extensive tissue damage making for a messy cleaning process and loss of eatable meat. They lack the ability to get good penetration.

I think I will use the rifle for its intended use as a highly accurate varmint rifle that is capable of taking small game up to 700 yards.  This rifle will make an excellent prairie dog gun. As far as using it for larger game: I will wait until someone makes a better penetrating bullet and definitely leave it at home for my next hog hunt.

Most of the major rifle manufacturers currently chamber models in this popular new caliber. It is a fun cartridge, give it a try.

John Johnston