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204 AR build, what do I need to know

hooligan shmulligan

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Thinking about building a 204 AR for squirrels and other small creatures. What do I need to know?
A stock 556 bolt should work. Any feed issues using stock 556 mags? What barrel length and twist. Thinking a 24" with a 1 10 twist and 40g bullet. Who makes a nice barrel? Any feed issues with stock weight buffer and spring?
 
.204 is a pretty awesome round. Squirrels will become stardust when you hit one.
I had a Ruger M77VT and it was pretty much a laser beam with 39 grain Blitz Kings. 40 grain it didn't shoot that well but it was a 12 twist.
White Oak Armament has barrels but it'll cost you.
The dimensions of .204 and .223 are very close so magazines won't be an issue.
 
Oh, and as long as I'm spending your money, I'd get an adjustable gas block, a JP tunable buffer and an APA Little Bastard brake. You do all that and you'll have no muzzle jump, makes for awesome follow up shots on his buddies.
 
You might look at a 20 Practical. Just a necked down 223. The only difference is the barrel and brass is usually easier to find.
 
Just saw that Shaw has .204 barrels now. I really don't need to add another caliber to my arsenal, but I got curious.


I've already got a 6.5 Grendel for "long range" AR, I've got an old Olympic Arms A1 style carry handle carbine, I keep telling myself I'm gong to make an A2 style, vintage clone, with a nice .223 Wylde barrel hiding under the the triangular plastic. Other than optics limitations that'd probably do what I'd want a .204 for right?

However, I have some non allocated lowers in the safe, talk me into or out of a .204 for farm varmints, poking holes in paper, or just because.
 
I got my kid a 204 bolt gun. Close to zero recoil and the report is light. He burns through ammo fast so I haven't been able to do my own test but I think the longer bullets would be really good out to 400 yards or more with calm winds. With the light bullets the chance of skipping a bullet is basically nil. Any vermin explode with prejudice.

I'm wanting a 20 cal AR.
 
40 grain v max is 35-3600 fps.
The 32 grain superformance is 4,225.
The 24 grain ntx is 4,400.
Handloads can push those numbers, pay attention to what the brass tells you.

The 204 is fun little round, that flat out vaporizes when it hits. I have just as much fun with it as I do with the 22-250.

For blowing up varmints those 2 easily surpass the 223 and having a .204 AR would be pretty cool.

Not trying to have a cartridge debate, they all have a role. Figure out what your trying to do and find a cartridge that fills that.

And God Almighty if you have a cross breeze with the those little speed demons.....
 
Why not just run light bullets outta a 223?

Same weight the 204 bullets are longer so they buck the wind more and have less drop than a 223. Both are running about 3700fps with 40gr vmax. With a 5mph cross wind the 204 calcs to about 4" of wind drift at 300 yards and 7.1" of drop with a 100 yard zero. The 223 with a 40 drifts 6" and has a drop of 8.4". 200 and under it doesn't really matter.

Or just because......:laughing:
 
Oh and from the ones my kid has shot I don't like the NXT very much. They don't seem to fragment as good and I've actually heard ricochets from them. VMax's and the Bergers I haven't. The Vmax's blow stuff up better.
 
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