Originally Posted By: knockemdownOriginally Posted By: ricky_arthurI have to scratch my head a little at people who use Lapua brass in the 20 tac. I thought the whole purpose of choosing the round over the Ruger .204 was cheap milspec brass? Otherwise it's almost as good as the Ruger .204 and just as expensive to shoot. What am I missing? Is it really just wanting to have the correct headstamp?
Just curious.
That's an easy question to answer, Ricky!
Using the 'good stuff' makes loading for the .20TAC a 'turn key' proposition
And a 'turn key' .20TAC is one accurate SOB that doesn't have the potential feeding issues that some .204 uppers seem to have from time to time. Ask enough guys with .204 uppers & you'll hear about 'em...
And compared to the .20Practical, there is no need to deal with necking down, making donuts, trimming to uniform size, or dealing with inconsistent thickness of mixed headstamp .223 brass. The Lapua/Dakota brass is excellent in quality & consistency.
I actually chose the .20TAC over the other .20 cals specifically because of the availability of Lapua/Dakota brass
Sure the initial cost is more, but I've never thought of shooting as being a cheap hobby anyway.
And considering a dude is gonna spend close to a grand on a custom upper, and at least half that more on a decent scope for it, what's a couple extra bucks on the back end to use good brass that can be loaded straight from the box?
Man, I'll tell ya, loading several hundred rounds of p-dog ammo is a heckuvalot more efficient with the 'good stuff'. I enjoy reloading, but it's a means to an end. And that end comes about more quickly & easily with 'turn key' brass.
If a shooter has ooodles of time on their hands, and access to lots of free .223 brass and already has the proper sizing dies, then the .20Practical seems like a super idea! But then again, once you do all the work to neck down .223 brass, trim & shoot it once, you could just as easily fire it in a .20TAC chambered rifle and have brass fireformed for that instead! And you are gonna need dies either way, unless you already have a bushing .223 die already. Which I doubt many .223 AR shooters are presently using to roll .223 ammo. Considering that, most guys are gonna need to purchase a bushing die + bushings to form .20Practical brass anyway...
OR, as outlined above, have your AR chambered in .20TAC, and buy .20TAC brass & dies. Then, load beautiful consistent ammo quick & easy and go shoot! The sting of paying for it all goes away soon enough...
Thanks for the explanation. I guess I never thought of improved feeding as a reason to go with the Tac or Prac, because I've been shooting an AR in .204 for several years and have never had a single malfunction, nor have a I heard of any reliability issues with .204's. ???? Just me I guess.
My Brother has a Dtech 20 Practical that will hopefully be done in March and cheap brass was the main consideration in his decision on which of the 20 calibers to go with.
