Intrigued by the cartridge, my gunsmith has the reamer soo figured I might as well build one. R700 action. McMillan. A3-5 stock. Sendero contour barrel. Planning 32gr. Vmaxes. Will be kinda of a do all varmint/ fuck around gun. 3-400 yards max. Thinking 24” for length. Have no experience with this caliber. Anything helps. Thanks!
- Thread starter Zackbarr
- Start date
20" will do you plenty. I have a 20" Varmint contoured .20 Tactical (the cousin of the Practical, with the same case capacity), and in a 20" barrel, I'm still launching 32gr VMAX at 3900fps easily. I wish I had had mine threaded for a brake/can, but even wihtout a brake you can easily spot your shots if your position is good.
The 20's are like Thor's hammer on the varmint/predator population. It just makes shit die. Period.
The 20's are like Thor's hammer on the varmint/predator population. It just makes shit die. Period.
I really like my .20 practicals. The first one was 26 inches, and hunted a season with it. I shot 39gr bullets. The next one was 19”. I’ve got two and a half seasons on it now, and while it’s giving up velocity to the 26, I’m scoring just as good. In fact my longest 20 cal kills are with the shorter gun(beyond 500 yds). Still shooting the 39 BK as well, due to the better wind drift performance. At the same time I built that gun, I barreled a friends Howa at 20”. We had sequential Krieger blanks, and his results are identical to mine. Where we shoot p-dogs, it’s typically a hit and run affair due to a lower number of animals at each spot. I chose handy over ultimate performance. Been whacking the shit out of coyotes with it too. .20’s are badass!
I have a 25" barrel on my 20 practical bolt gun. One of the most accurate rifles I own... pure blast to shoot, very entertaining in the gopher patch!
It loves any tipped 32gr (Zmax, Varmageddon, Blitzking, etc)
The 39gr Blitzking is also wicked accurate and the projectile of choice for the longer shots.
I'd recommend picking at least an 11 twist barrel if you plan to try shooting 40gr bullets. The 32-39gr work great in 12 twist or tighter.
I've got a few 20 cal guns and the ones with 12 twist don't do well with 40gr bullets for me.
It loves any tipped 32gr (Zmax, Varmageddon, Blitzking, etc)
The 39gr Blitzking is also wicked accurate and the projectile of choice for the longer shots.
I'd recommend picking at least an 11 twist barrel if you plan to try shooting 40gr bullets. The 32-39gr work great in 12 twist or tighter.
I've got a few 20 cal guns and the ones with 12 twist don't do well with 40gr bullets for me.
Be careful with that fast a twist in the 20's. Making the bullets come apart due to RPM's exceeding shear strength of the jackets is possible. I have a Mach IV that does that. Anything approaching 4100fps and the bullets just become little gray puffs about 25yds down range. An 11 twist is where I'd go if you're hunting fur, and want to run the 40's. If it is mostly for PD's/Marmots/Rockchucks, then a 12 twist is plenty.
I think he’ll be just fine with a 10. The two shorties I built were 10’s, and the 26” was an 8 or 9 (can’t remember). While I wouldn’t go 8/9 again unless I was shooting Berger 55’s, I cant say I had any issues.
Last edited:
I Just moved to a suppressor state, so my cans are in jail still. Should go great on these 20” guns.
FWIW, I have not experienced this. Mine is an 8-twist, and I am running the 40 gr V-Max/39 gr SBK at 3950-ish, and have not had any problems to date. With the 55 gr Bergers I've been as fast as 3500 without any problems (I'm playing with some slightly slower powders here to see if I can get some more speed out of them).
While my MVs are below the 4100 FPS threshold specified, my projectile RPM is certainly in the same range given the faster twist (8 vs 10) of my barrel.
Admittedly, my experiences were back when the VMAX were 33gr and 36gr, and had much thinner jackets...so take it for what it is, dated experience. Hell, my .20 Tac wears a Douglas barrel, since that was the only company back then making .20 cal anything...
Ah, fair enough. If you still have the rifle/barrel, it might be worth trying some of the more modern projectiles... I can only imagine the terminal effect on a critter with a 40 gr V-Max/39 gr SBK at 4100 FPS MV... talk about the "red mist"!
Mine really likes CFE-223 with the 39/40 gr projectiles. I've never loaded 32s.
Mine is equally happy with benchmark or H322 and 39 bk’s. If I was shooting 32’s exclusively, I’d probably stick to h322. I think my buddy is shooting 8208xbr out of his.
H322 was magic for me with 33/32gr pills. (I wanna say it was 24'ish grs, but that is just going off memory, not records).
