Field Report - 20Vtg

[Oso Polaris]

I re-barrelled a Sako L46 Vixen (1957) into 20Vartarg. She is sporting a 22" Pacnor barrel (3groove, 1:11 twist). The gun is it its factory deluxe stock, which is a slender hunting\stalking style. The gun is as light as my rimfires.

Weather finally cooled off enough to go to the range without getting heat stroke... it was a crisp 93F at 6pm. I had bought a couple of boxes of loaded 32gr Vmax ammo from Hendershots, which stated an expected velocity of 3,550fps. My Labrador clocked the slowest round at 3,691fps and the fastest at 3,797fps, with the average around 3,750fps.

This is the rifle that in was getting heavy rust resulting from the bluing process. She got the JB paste treatment before ever being shot. Long and short it shot extremely well.

[jim barker]

Who is commercially loading 20VT? Didn't know you could buy it off the shelf, but I've never looked for it either.

[Bill K]

OSO, I see Hendershots show the name on boxes as "Extreme" do they load it themselves or have another company do it. Decent prices on their website, but does me no real good to order unless I have it sent to a FFL here in Ca. Bill K

[Oso Polaris]

Originally Posted by Bill K

OSO, I see Hendershots show the name on boxes as "Extreme" do they load it themselves or have another company do it. Decent prices on their website, but does me no real good to order unless I have it sent to a FFL here in Ca. Bill K

Bill,

Yes, it was their Extreme ammo. It comes in nice slip cover plastic 20 round box. I assume that they are making it themselves. The 20 Vartarg ammo was made from Lapua 221 Fireball cases! The $35/box(20) seems reasonable using Premium Brass cases.




Accuracy was very good (3 shot group 0.2"...ignore top most shot that was from initial sighting in). There was some deviation in velocity from shot to shot that was greater than I would care for +-50 fps. This inconsistency may be attributable to varying case pressure resulting from first time fire forming case. I could feel some minor differences in case dimensions from case to case by the amount of force required to close and open the bolt.

[Oso Polaris]

Originally Posted by jim barker

Who is commercially loading 20VT? Didn't know you could buy it off the shelf, but I've never looked for it either.

Hendershot as well as some members on Saubier.

[hunter67wa]

Love my 20vt. Im loading my own and it shoots in the .3's with 34 dogtowns at 3636 avg fps.

You will have fun with it.

[Bill K]

Originally Posted by hunter67wa

Love my 20vt. Im loading my own and it shoots in the .3's with 34 dogtowns at 3636 avg fps.

You will have fun with it.

My 20 calibers all shot the 34 Varmint Nightmares great ( same bullet by Nosler sold by Midsouth and MidwayUSA,) but now I must shoot lead free in Ca. will keep the others for paper and other things other than critters. Bill K

[jimreed1948]

I bought some rounds from Hendershots about 8 months ago when I got my first 20 VT. They were okay, but nothing to write home about. They do load them at their business with whatever type of bullet you want.

They chambered in my Cooper 21 and shot okay. Several months later I picked up a Remington 700, put a Pac-Nor barrel on and the Hendershot rounds would not chamber at all. Since they don't have your rifle, they cannot size the brass to your chamber.

By the time I got the Remi, several folks here helped me start loading the 20VT rounds. My rounds now are very accurate. I use the same powder charge and bullet in both rifles. Again, since they don't have your rifle, they can't put the bullet in the lands or back off the lands so many thousands.

However, I have the brass sized for each rifle since the chamber is slightly different in each rifle. I also seat the bullets a little different for both rifles.

Hendershots sells a good product, but they're not as good as a loaded round by any member here that loads for the 20VT.

[tdoyka]

Originally Posted by hunter67wa

Love my 20vt. Im loading my own and it shoots in the .3's with 34 dogtowns at 3636 avg fps.

You will have fun with it.

i have sold all of my varmint rifle except the 20vt. i use the 34gr nitemare hp too!!! it has .3"+/- at 100 yards using my "sloppy" reloads. when i am using my "good" reloads it goes to .1 - .2" at 100 yards. but i mostly use "sloppy" on my groundhog, foxes and 'yotes trips.

[jim barker]

I was thinking that it was sold over the counter at sporting good stores, made by Winchester, Remington or such. What you're talking about is more like custom made.