Dogtown 34 gr. reload?

Arizonahunter

Arizonahunter

New member
Anybody have any starting loads for the Midway Dogtown 34 gr. 20 cal bullet in a 204 Ruger? I have lots of Reloader 15 so I'd like to use that if possible.

I looked on Loaddata but did not find any loads for a 34 gr. bullet in a 204. I found 35 gr. Bergers but did not want to assume I could use the data with these 34's.

Now, I dont' expect or need to get the tiny groups like I get with the 32 & 40 V-Max-I'd be happy with 1.5" @ 100 yds. I plan to use them with my grandson to pop water jugs, cans and such and save the V-Max's for serious p-dog shooting.
 
I am using the same load as the 35 grain Bergers, 28.2 grains of H4895 with a BR4 primer. But I started a couple of grains lower and worked up to it. Accuracy has been pretty good out of my CZ 527, not as good as the Bergers but still right around an inch, +/-. Not bad at all for a good, cheap bullet. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the feedback
I have had a couple guys (from another web site)say that the burn rate of RL 15 and H4895 are nearly same with the same # of grains, and the 4895 produces about 100 fps more. Thats good to know, and looking at data from the Hornady catalog for the 32 & 40 V-Max confirms that.

I'm looking forward to loading some this weekend and trying them in my 527 and a Howa.
 
I just found the targets that I shot last year with those 34 grain Dogtowns in my Savage 12 in .204. I have a three shot group at 100 yards that measures .085" center to center and a 5 shot group that measures .280". The load was 27.2 grains of Benchmark and I used a CCI BR cap. I do not recall the OL length.

BTW, of my .17 Rem, my .223 rifles and my .243 Win this is the only one of the three that seems to prefer Benchmark to Varget. But when you poke three holes in a target that you cant shove a drinking straw through I would say that I have found my load for that bullet.

And one more thing, it may be a good idea albeit time consuming to weigh your bullets and separate the heaviest from the lightest. There is a bit of weight variance with the batch that I got it seems.

Hope this helps.
 
Ok, I finally got to shoot some 34 gr. Dogtowns. I started at 27.0 of RL 15 and went up (very safely)to 28.0 gr. OAL 2.24"
Both rifles prefered the 28.0 gr. and had nearly the same POI as my 40 V-Max loads, just a 1/4" lower, but otherwise "centered". The CZ 527 got a nice 3/4" group and the Howa 1500 Heavy Varminter got a 1/2".

I got roughly 3765 fps from the 22" CZ and 3875 from the 24" Howa.

All great news...Now I can choose to shoot these rather than the more costly V-Max.
 
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