Ridge Runner

several years ago I came across the guy who bought the remaining inventory of Zastava left hand mini mauser actions from Charles Daily when they quit producing them, 1 week later I had one delivered to my door, it was in the white, just a non-blued chrome moly action.

I had wanted a 223 AI in the worst way but further investigation showed that the mag box was just too short to make the best of the 223AI. so thought 204, but its longer yet, so even more research showed that the 20 tac was a perfect fit for the action, so contacted Hart barrels and ordered a varmint weight 26" 12 twist 20 cal. barrel

now was making progress.
Still needed a stock of some sort and almost ordered one from boyds then I was at work one day and we were cutting some dead trees along the river and saw that a walnut tree that was on the bank, which had a rope swing in it that I played on when I was a kid had blown out, so my boss gave me a crooked portion of a log and a blank was cut.

I contacted Joel Russo from pa. told him what I was building and the intended purpose, he recommended his A5-3 tactical sporter stock so the blank was shipped.
the completed stock was shipped to Kevin Kram of Montour county rifles as were the action and barrel, he did the smithwork, pillared and glassed the stock and 8 months later I had the rifle home.

I finished the stock, mounted a leupold vari-x II 4x12T on it and proceded to work up a load

was disappointed that I could not achieve suitable accuracy with the 35 gr bergers which were the rage at the time, however the 39 gr sierra blitzking varmint bullets were just what the dr ordered.
3 shots at 150 yards



The 20 Tactical was developed by Todd Kindler it is nothing more than a 223 necked to 20 cal and the shoulder changed to 30degrees, basicly a clone of the 204 with easier to find brass.
anything a 204 will do so will the 20 tac in a bit shorter OAL cartridge, I sight in dead on at 200 yards and can still kill a fox at 300 without holding off fur. and brass is available from Dakota which is made by lapua, best powders is Benchmark, and Varget.
RR

Bocajnala

Are you a lefty RR? I never noticed before on other rifles? Good post!
-Jake

Ridge Runner

yep, had the misfortune of being born right handed and a botched surgery on my right eye as a child left me right handed left eye dominant, my dad tried to make me shoot right handed when I was a kid, one day I told him it was no use to shoot at anything then because I could not tell if the sights were lined up, started shooting lefty and started killin stuff.
Its a long post, my intent was showing folks that building a rifle isn't that big of a deal, and its doesn't have to be as expensive as they read about, but that lil cheap rifle will dang sure shoot.
RR

Bocajnala

Can't believe that as many of your posts and rifles I've looked at it never occurred to me that you shoot lefty. Feeling dumb now. Love the stock on that rifle though.
-Jake

204_ruger

Nice gun. I am running a 204 ruger. Mine is a [email protected] barrel. I like the 35 gr and 40 gr berger hp. But i am playing around with 30 gr berger hp. I came across several old stock of them. I dont have issue finding brass. I have 1000 new brass on hand. When i was at the local gunshop he still had 3 bags in stock.