Quoted: Randall,
Do you ever plan on offering the same barrel in 20 Tactical chambering? The 204 Ruger sounds great and all, but would just as soon stick with 223 brass.
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I looked into this a while back and here is my reasoning for not offering 20 tactical.
#1, 20 tactical is NOT SAAMI approved, so there is no standard to work from.
#2 Dies are only available from Redding and they are $50+
#3 No factory ammo
Looking at 204 Ruger, we have:
#1 SAAMI approval, standardized chamber, ammo and reloading die dimensions.
#2 Wide acceptance, lots of load data available
#3 Factory ammo availability
#4 Cheap dies from several companies
#5 Properly headstamped brass from Remington, Winchester and Hornady.
Now, 223 brass is free, I give you that.
Say you buy your $55 Redding 20 tactical dies and use your free (223 headstamped) used brass
With a 204 Ruger, you can buy $25 dies from Hornady or RCBS and then spend the $30 saved on 200 pieces of NEW properly headstamped 204 ruger brass from Remington or Winchester.
The cost to reload is basically equal, but 204 has a little more powder capacity so it will be faster.
Did I already mention that you can also buy factory ammo?
I can understand your wanting to use free brass, but is it really worth all the other disadvantages?
This is why I can't justify spending $200+ on tooling to make maybe 1 or 2 barrels a year.
I had several 20 Tactical requests before 204 was SAAMI approved, but since then, only 1 or 2 per year.
Having said all that, if you still want a 20 tactical barrel, I can make you one.
There will be a $100 tooling premium for it though.