20 cal BIB bullets

Originally Posted By: W. Chad ShultzMy hunting buddy has a tc compass and it will shoot dang good! Haven't shot the BIBs in it yet but it shot 35 bergers under 1/2" at 100 with 8208.

I got the chance to put mine on paper yesterday at 200 yds, it will shoot the 40 gr Hdy very well, I didn't go down and measure but groups weren't any bigger than my 1" dots. It's a rough looking rifle for sure and pretty sticky action but it's getting better. The trigger is decent once I messed with it it breaks at 2.5 lbs but has a bit of take-up. I do like the magazine allowing long loading. 27.3 gr 8208 netted just under 3700 fps average with a cci 400 primer. I bumped up to 27.5 but didn't check speeds again.
 
Have you heard anything about fur damage on yotes? If good I am going to have to get my name on list and get to work on a load.
 
All the reports I've read say no fur damage. If you go to his website look at the pictures. Most are from a guy in NM shooting coyotes with the 40 gr 20 cal.

He will be getting very busy towards spring and summer with his BR bullet orders, availability is going to be spotty. I could tell he doesn't expect to sell this many of this particular bullet so it could be easy to overwhelm the guy. I've watched videos on hand making bullets, and wow it's a lot of steps involved. I'd want a buck a piece I think lol.

I've generally been very happy with my 87 gr vmax at 2900 fps for little fur damage and good anchoring power and good wind resistance. The issue is I worry too much about range and shooting low past 200 yds. I want something a little flatter without blowing them in half. I've always been reluctant to shoot the small calibers due to wind deflection and anchoring power, but it looks like this might be the best of all worlds. If I really like it I might build an upper in 20 Tac or Prac, or just might stick with the bolt.
 
I'm bumping this up, as I got the notice my order for 500 bullets was ready last week, and they arrived today. They are a good looking bullet, very similar to the 40 gr Berger, but smaller meplat and more "pointed" profile. The distance to the lands was 40 thousandths longer oal than the Berger, so definitely a different profile even though the jackets are the same.

When I get a chance to put some on paper I'll update again.
 
Originally Posted By: 204 ARI'm bumping this up, as I got the notice my order for 500 bullets was ready last week, and they arrived today. They are a good looking bullet, very similar to the 40 gr Berger, but smaller meplat and more "pointed" profile. The distance to the lands was 40 thousandths longer oal than the Berger, so definitely a different profile even though the jackets are the same.

When I get a chance to put some on paper I'll update again.

Thanks for the update. Very interested to see how they shoot for you and perform on coyotes.
 
So I finally got the chance to put a few through the Compass. I shot 12 a couple weeks ago under pretty breezy conditions at 200 yds, with some promising results. I could tell right away they are very sensitive to seating depth as are most bullets that "pointed" IME.

Today I put about 30 more through and think I have something dialed in pretty well. Brass is new Winchester that is annealed, sized and trimmed but not sorted in any manner. Range is 200 yards. Breeze was about 7 or 8 mph from 8 oclock by my estimation and I don't have wind flags. After changing out targets, and letting the barrel cool completely I loaded 5 more and clustered them all in a group as small as any of these at 200 yards. So probably as good as I'm going to get a $400 rifle to shoot I feel. The dots are 1".

PydXV3El.jpg


You can see the bad group that happened when I varied the seating depth only 8 thousandths longer. The same holds true if you go shorter. Speed from the 22" barrel should be in the 3750 range based on my load with 40 gr vmax, though I didn't set up the crony. I want to load up a few and get them out to 500 yds to see if they hold together, then hopefully have several fur reports this fall.
 
I forgot to mention, I'm no where near the lands with these, and can't get there and have any bullet in the case. Also want to mention that the magazine for the Compass will handle a very generous oal, I can't remember exactly now but at least 2.34". Compared to the RAP which will only go 2.26 without some work. Which really sucks because there was no reason for Ruger to shorten it up that much, there's a half inch of dead space in the back of the mag that they could have easily made it another tenth of an inch longer. So TC wins the magazine competition for sure.
 
Though initial results were very promising, I haven't gotten consistent results that I need to be able to trust the bullet/rifle for hunting. This rifle shoots 40 gr vmax really well, but I don't really trust that bullet on coyotes, so I'm going back to my 223AI for hunting this fall until I get the 204 sorted out.
 
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