Question on reloading 204

Yes I am sure most of you are safe.

I just asked because I've never seen a car blow up at a gas station but have seen three guns blow up. Just made me wonder if its easy to make mistakes.

Like is it possible you used 30gr of a powder but the stuff you bought is actually 2x more potent than you thought.
 
Most folks that have accidents are cocky fools who think they know more than they do. They don't think starting loads are necessary or they exceed max loads because they think the manuals are "lawyered up", or any number of other foolish things.

Occasionally, "real" accidents happen due to equipment malfunction or the attention lapse that we're all susceptible to at some point or another.

Most careful reloaders never have an accident, sort of like most careful folks have never blown up their lawn mower while putting gas in it.

There are many things to pay attention to. Some powders have nearly identical names, but they're not the same. Some powders look nearly identical but they're not even close. In some cartridges, with some powders, you could be off by 5 grains and not hurt anything. Other cartridges with other powders, a grain too much might blow it to bits.

The best advice I can give you is to get "The ABC's of Reloading" and a good load manual., like the Lyman 50th Edition, and read them. Get your questions answered here. Get your equipment set up and then get more questions answered. Slow and steady is safe.
 
For some reason the .204 has stayed a pretty niche market, and for some reason it's kept the price up there on these rifles. Pretty much only the serious varminters seem to get into it. I would advise you to look into the .22-250 as well if that's what you were considering. They have almost identical ballistics, and nearly identical barrel wear, but you would have a LOT more choices of rifles in the price range you're looking at, if you go with .22-250. I personally like the heavier bullet for the wind anyway, although the .22-250 is a little bit louder, and gets the barrel hotter a tad bit quicker. Anyway, that's one option to consider.

The only other option that I know of, that is the caliber you're talking about in the price range you want is the Thompson Contender rifles chambered in .204. They're very handy little rifles, although lots of people who haven't shot them dislike them. Most people that have shot them really enjoy them, and they're dang accurate. I've only shot a TC G2 out to 300 yards, but it was dead nuts on the entire time. Either way, I think that's gonna be about your only other option for the price range you want.
 
Craddleshooter,

I did quite a bit of research on .204 vs 22-250. The .204 won out.

- does not jump as much (can see the hits easily in scope at high power)
- less powder
- better ballistics
- better barrel life (does not get as hot)
- It was from people that have shot 1000s of P Dogs that owned both.

They are both nice calibers and the 22-250 is more popular, been around longer. But the Ruger .204 is pretty cool. And I could not pass up on the deal for the Thompson. Brand new gun, 4-12x scope, case, extra rail, 50 box of new ammo for $370.00 only 10 shots down the barrel. (they guy is moving and dumping all his stuff) The same gun with all the stuff would have cost me 1k plus filling out FFA and sales tax.

It came with 1/10 twist (normally 1/12), the 1/12s don't stabilize the 40gr well so most have to shoot 39gr. 1/10 will do 40s and the new 45gr SP.

The good news is I can do any caliber I want. I got a steal on a .204 Thompson Dimension at first I thought it was gimmicky but its built well and shoots great. Last time I bought a gun I was delayed like 5 days for reasons unknown. Cost me 100 miles of extra driving. Sort of soured me from wanting to buy more.

With this Thomson I can order new barrels on the net delivered directly to me, no more FFL forms, no more wait times etc.

So I can do 223, 22-250, 243, 30-06, 6.5 creedmoor etc.

Right now I am very very happy with the .204s performance. If I want more i can go to 22-250 or 243 for more knock down.

I'm topping it off with a 250 Bushmaster for deer. Its down to the new Savage Wolverine (nice synthetic stock) vs the Wood Ruger.

https://ruger.com/products/scoutRifle/specSheets/6837.html
https://www.savagearms.com/search?query=wolverine

I looked at the cheaper savages but the stocks were paper thin, very light gun but almost toy like. I'm a sucker for wood stocks but that Wolverine was much better than expected when holding it. very nice and solid with V block and side action bedding that holds the action from bottom and sides.
 
Oh forgot to ask how dangerous reloading is. Is it easy to overload one?
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There is a certain danger to reloading, just like working on your car. If you understand how to determine a method, mature your process and build in fail safe checks, you will be good. Study manuals. Almost nothing published is unsafe. Write down your steps, write down your data, check off your steps and data. Tie your ammo to your notes by date or lot number. Determine your most important variables and record at regular intervals like 1:25 rounds. Take notes on your results.

Once you develop a good load, quit tinkering. Make ammo to shoot. The more changes you make, the more you have to manage.
 
Brian Pfleuger,

Thanks for the information good stuff!

Question, when you put too much powder in the cartridge why does it not just shoot the bullet out faster vs blowing up sideways? Seems the path of least resistance is out the barrel.
 
Pressure is a funny thing. Barrel diameter and the bullet blocking it while it travels out while seems fast to us, in the pressure world is an eternity and not fast enough to bleed off the access. The speed at which pressure builds on fast burning powders is phenomenal. Think about how big a 223/556 round is and then imagine 60k psi.....to put it in perspective a C5 cargo jet loaded to Max 840k sitting on concrete ramp exerts roughly 1/32 of that per tire(28 tires total) ....now focus all that pressure Into a much smaller area. You get the picture.
 
BobbyJ said:
Question, when you put too much powder in the cartridge why does it not just shoot the bullet out faster vs blowing up sideways? Seems the path of least resistance is out the barrel.
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Time and momentum.

Simply put, there's simply not enough time for the bullet to get out of the way.

In open air, gun powder burns relatively slowly but under pressure, the entire charge ignites and builds to maximum pressure in fractions of a millisecond.

In high-powered rifle cartridges, the pressure goes from 0 to 55,000, even 65,000 psi, in maybe 0.2 milliseconds. In that time, the bullet only moves an inch or so. That's under normal conditions.

Gunpowder burns faster under higher pressure (generally speaking), so an over-load creates what you might see as a "run away" reaction. More powder makes more pressure, more pressure makes powder burn faster, faster burn makes higher pressure because the bullet has even less time to get out of the way.

The process is highly complex, and that description is overly simplified but it hits the main points. You can think of a gun barrel and bullet as a bottle and cork, except this cork has to travel a ways before it can "uncork" the barrel. If the pressure rises beyond what the structure of the steel can handle before that happens.... BOOM!
 
Yea that makes sense, some great explanations on the overcharged loads.

Its pretty amazing how intense each shot is. 65,000 psi! crazy.

My buddy bought a new Bmag .17 cal rimfire. They develop psi of like 33,000 psi. He got a hot load from the factory and it blew up. Well what happened is the edge of the casing blew out. The guns bolt only covers 1/2 of the rim and bottom half of the rim is fully exposed. It was engineered to fail that way in case of a hot load.

So most of the pressure blew down towards the magazine. It blew off the mag, the trigger, the trigger guard and his hand. He did not loose any digits but he said he was afraid to look as it felt like it had been hit with a hammer.

That was a safe explosion, I can imagine ones where there is no exit valve the entire chamber must blow like an M-80.
 
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