.204 Ruger

- Roy Welch

The .204 Ruger cartridge, developed by Sturm, Ruger and Company and Hornady Manufacturing, Inc., made its appearance in 2004, quickly establishing a reputation as a top-tier, high-velocity varmint cartridge. The .204 Ruger was initially designed to propel a 32-grain bullet at a velocity in excess of 4,200 fps from a rifle with a one-in-12inch twist barrel – rivaling the muzzle velocity of the .220 Swift. Additional .204 Ruger factory loads were to follow, including those with a 40-grain bullet at a muzzle velocity of 3,900 fps and a 45-grain bullet at 3,625 fps. More recently, Hornady has offered a factory load with a 24-grain NTX bullet at a muzzle velocity of 4,400 fps.

The relative merits of the .204 Ruger have been a subject of interest over the last 14 years, with many articles written extolling its virtues as a top-flight varmint cartridge. One such article written by Gene Cline appeared in the January-March 2009 issue of The Varmint Hunter Magazine (now defunct) and deserves mention. It provides an in-depth comparison of nine popular cartridges from the .17 Fireball to the .243 Winchester, including the .22-250 Remington and .223 Remington, and places the .204 Ruger at the top of a list of preferred prairie dog cartridges.

My experiences using the .204 Ruger and other varmint cartridges over the past 12 years are similar to Mr. Cline’s. The .204’s accuracy, flat trajectory, low recoil and explosive impact of bullets makes it an excellent cartridge to use either from a bench or from a “walking varmint rifle.”