The first .20-caliber produced in a large scale, the .204 Ruger arms shooters with a red-hot varminting round.

• The .204 Ruger was the first .20-caliber cartridge produced on a large commercial scale.
• Accurate, with a mild recoil, the .204 Ruger also offers excellent barrel life.
• The parent case of the .204 is a .222 Remington Magnum.
• It is necked down and given a 30-degree shoulder angle.
• The .204 performs best when shot out of a 26-inch barrel with a 1:12 twist.

Introduced in 2004 as a joint Hornady-Ruger project for varmint and target shooting, the .204 Ruger became the first .20-caliber cartridge to be produced on a large commercial scale. Remarkably, it also offers excellent barrel life. After shooting approximately 500 prairie dogs with the Ruger and Dakota rifles chambered for the .204 Ruger, a former contributing editor to this book found it to be an accurate, low-recoil round, superbly suited for long-range varminting. The .204 Ruger received the Academy of Excellence 2004 Cartridge of the Year Award.

The 204 Ruger uses the 47mm-long .222 Remington Magnum as its parent case, necking it down to accept .204 bullets and changing the shoulder angle to 30 degrees. It performs best with 26-inch barrels using a 1:12 rifling twist. The cartridge is available in Ruger, Dakota, Remington, and Savage bolt-action rifles, Thompson/Center and SSK Industries Contender single-shot rifles, and AR-15 style rifles. Hornady, Remington, and Winchester offer loaded ammunition.

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from Cartridges of the World 15th Edition.

Next Step: Get your FREE Printable Target Pack

Enhance your shooting precision with our 62 MOA Targets, perfect for rifles and handguns. Crafted in collaboration with Storm Tactical for accuracy and versatility.

Subscribe to the Gun Digest email newsletter and get your downloadable target pack sent straight to your inbox. Stay updated with the latest firearms info in the industry.