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Posted: 5/18/2009 6:33:18 PM EDT
| looking into getting a 204 24" 1 in 12 twist SS barrel. any certain brands to stay away from? and do you have to get a different BCA or can you use the AR one? i know the mags are the same. |
| I have one of the factory .204 Ruger uppers from DPMS. Bought it from Cabela's about a month or so ago. Haven't shot any prairie dogs with it yet but I've shot paper with it and it's really nice. It's a bit heavy, but for p-dogs I'm VERY happy with my decision. It's not something I'd think about carrying around for yotes. I've got it paired with a Bushnell 6-24x50 on a lower with a standard A2 stock. It's good enough for me! |
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if ya dontmind me asking why not for yotes? I will be doing mostly groundhogs and an yotes here and there. Every rifle has a mission 
IMO it's too heavy to carry around for yotes. If you're in a blind, you're fine but that 24" barrel weighs quite a bit. I have a 18" Compass Lake barreled .223 AR-15 for yotes as well as a 16" WOA .223 AR-15 for yotes. They are much lighter for carrying around out in the field. If weight isn't a factor, then it should work just fine. |
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If you want a really good one get White Oak Armament's. They have two barrel twist options. Get the PacNor barrel. is there anywhere that deals with White Oak Armament's other than themselves? I sent them an email to check stock which i am sure they are out. dont know a good place to get .204 uppers that are in stock other than checking www.gunbroker.com |
| I have 2 custom built uppers. One with a pac-nor and one with a shilen select match. I wouldn't say the DPMS barrels are "bad" just not true match grade or target grade, more of a decent production grade. Some will be very good and some won't, for the money difference I would put one together with the best barrel you can afford. The rest of the parts will be pretty much the same anyway. |
| DPMS had a bad batch of 204 barrels last year. The ones I have received this year have been fine with no problems. Of course you can't find one at the moment. They are a good buy for the price and most shoot sub MOA. The 204 Ruger depends on super high velocity (over 4000fps) to be effective. The last thing you would want is one in a short barrel. If you want one that shoots little tiny groups I recommend Lilja Precisions new 3 groove handlapped Stainless steel barrels. I got Dan Lilja to make some in a lightweight contour because nobody sells anything but the heavy varmint style 204's for Prairie dog shooters. |
| Sabre Defense makes an outstanding 204 Ruger AR rifle - it is a bit expensive as it pushes 2K but the quality is up there with the top mfg's. You can get an upper for under 1K if you can find one. The 24" configuration are fluted but still a handful to pack around as a walk around rifle. The 204 Ruger compares to the 22-250 not the 5.56 REM in terms of ballistics so there is no problem with shooting coyotes as long as you pick a good bullet. |
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If you want a really good one get White Oak Armament's. They have two barrel twist options. Get the PacNor barrel. is there anywhere that deals with White Oak Armament's other than themselves? I sent them an email to check stock which i am sure they are out. dont know a good place to get .204 uppers that are in stock other than checking www.gunbroker.com Are they out or not? That particular caliber isn't on the high demand side of things. I would be surprised if they don't have one or two laying around looking for a good home. |
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DPMS had a bad batch of 204 barrels last year. The ones I have received this year have been fine with no problems. Of course you can't find one at the moment. They are a good buy for the price and most shoot sub MOA. The 204 Ruger depends on super high velocity (over 4000fps) to be effective. The last thing you would want is one in a short barrel. If you want one that shoots little tiny groups I recommend Lilja Precisions new 3 groove handlapped Stainless steel barrels. I got Dan Lilja to make some in a lightweight contour because nobody sells anything but the heavy varmint style 204's for Prairie dog shooters. According to this, 22" seems to be about perfect. I wish I had read this before I had finished the 204 upper I built. It has a 25" barrel . I would cut it back to 22", but its owner will not let me touch it again, as it shoots extremely well. It will shoot the Hornady 32gr factory load into sub-0.5moa five shot groups over and over again. This 204 took an antelope in New Mexico a few years ago at over 300 yards. I had Lehigh Bullets turn some 36gr banded solid copper hollow point bullets late last summer. We went out with the first test loads late October and had okay results. Then Obamageddon happened and we have been busy with work. The rifle's lucky owner just went out with the second lot of loads last week end. It shot the warmest of the loads the best, using H4895 pushing that 36gr bullet to just over 3800 fps in about 3/4" for five shots at 100 yards. |
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I LOVE my 24" 1:9 Shilen bull barrel on my upper. I built my rifle from parts. It was my first AR build, and I'm VERY pleased with the results. I wanted to shoot 39gr Sierra BKs, and didn't disappoint. Handload development has yielded a 0.25MOA group at 100 yards with one powder (IMR 4064) and a 0.35MOA group with another powder (H4198). Both doing 3400-3500 fps with the 39gr bullets. Factory Nosler Custom ammo shot half-MOA out of the box. I plan on using this rifle mostly for hunting wild pigs, so that's why I went with the 39gr bullets over the 32gr. They have more downrange energy at 300+ yards, too.
I know riflecrank has used these barrels in the past in his uppers, too, with similar accuracy results. I was going to get one of his uppers but decided to build my own as a learning experience and to save some $$. Don't know if I saved any $$ b/c I bought a bunch of tools, but it sure was fun building it, and now I'm using the tools to build a .223 upper and two 6.5 Grendel rifles. Here's my new baby sans the Mueller Optics Tactical 4-16x50: http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s276/rsvetlik/204AR2small.jpg Load development group: http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s276/rsvetlik/204Target4064.jpg |
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