The 20 Practical

[Zee]

Nothing is as good as “H”.

[Wambli Ska]

Until I opened this thread I had ZERO interest in anothe AR. Damn you

Hey, I found out McGowan is pretty reasonable on pricing and at least this barrel is on track to be a good shooter.

And, apparently the cartridge is capable of 4200 fps out of a 24” bolt gun. Find you a mini action, get it barreled for 20 Practical and drop it in MDT’s inexpensive Oryx chassis.. Once you get there, I’ll get you a list of all the die stuff you’ll need to load it.

https://mdttac.com/oryx-chassis-system/

https://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek061.html

STOP!!!!!

[Jay]

Hey, if I’m having my money spent by others in the name of science, I gladly pass on the info I gather so someone else can be second hand enabled..

I’ll have another build thread in the near future. More info. More options. Stay tuned.

[Jay]

I’ll bump this old thread back up and add some new info.

I worked up a different load for the 20 Practical and finally took it out to test yesterday. I had been using 34gr hollowpoints in this cartridge at 3900 fps. I wanted to try something different and a little heavier bullet. And came out with a winner. 39 grain Sierra Blitzking. This is the new load for this gun. Extreme spread and standard deviation aren’t great. But it shot .4 and isn’t intended to be a long range gun. Now I just need to load more, zero it and take it out for coyotes.

827DED5E-3F3B-4B94-A519-2CE3CB17A844.jpeg (3.57 MiB) Viewed 2037 times

0F40201B-D616-4098-845B-138C8033B2F9.jpeg (246.84 KiB) Viewed 2037 times

[mitdr774]

I wouldnt be thrilled with that spread, but if it works......

[Jay]

The spread is definitely not good. The load before with .5 gr less powder was 110 fps spread. I have to wonder how much of that was due to me loading them in the mag and shooting with a suppressor. I was loading all my test loads into the mag, then shooting groups. Good amounts of hot gas being blown back into the action, heating up the top round in the mag. Then that round sits in a hot chamber until the next round was fired. But, all 4 groups fired shot under an inch with this one shooting the best two groups. Maybe I’ll try single loading it next time, just for fun, and see if spreads tighten. Powder in this load is H335.

[jwv2023]

I know you've probably already seen this, but if you haven't here it is.

https://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek061.html

[Jay]

I know you've probably already seen this, but if you haven't here it is.

https://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek061.html

Yes. Their information helped me a lot in the process of playing with this wildcat.

Interestingly, in some of their load info, they list a 40 grain bullet and H335 as a “barrel break in” load and 3500 and some change FPS. I used this to start my loads with H335 and the 39 grain bullet. I get 3800 with 35.5 grains. It pays to start a little low and work up….

[jwv2023]

I shoot a 20 Tac. I shoot mainly 32 gr. bullets. I've found that with these bullets it's hard to get velocities below 4000 fps. I've used many different powders, 10X, N133, and Tac. I started working up loads when powder was scarce so I have a lot of good go to loads. When I shoot ground squirrels, instead of hearing a whump, you hear a pop. Here are some of my 5 shot groups:

[GrapeApe]

impressive

[Jay]

Very nice!

[Wambli Ska]

DAMN!!!!!!

[jwv2023]

[/quote]
Interestingly, in some of their load info, they list a 40 grain bullet and H335 as a “barrel break in” load and 3500 and some change FPS. I used this to start my loads with H335 and the 39 grain bullet. I get 3800 with 35.5 grains. It pays to start a little low and work up….
[/quote]

The purpose of my previous post was, don't get stuck on a particular powder. The twenties are inherently accurate. I personally didn't care for the Hodgdon powders because they seemed to me to burn dirty. Lots of residue. I see that earlier you tried some loads with Xterminator. I really like that and TAC. These work well in a 223 sized case. I use Xterm and N133 in my 223 AI. I favor Xterm because it measures so well.

[Jay]

Previously, I just wasn’t able to get decent velocity with Xterm. That was the main reason I stopped trying it. I am handicapped a little with the AR platform and shooting heavier for caliber bullets. Further handicapping it is that the chamber throat was cut a little shorter than I’d like. I have to seat shorter for them to chamber and not stick bullets in the lands. H335 is giving great velocity and accuracy. Just the extreme spread and standard deviation aren’t great with this new load. At least mag feeding it with a suppressor. And that makes everything dirty anyway..