Excellent Article on 20 Vartarg from Cooper Firearms

Cooper Firearms and the 20 VarTarg cartridge are featured in Varmint Hunter Magazine, a publication of the Varmint Hunters Association (VHA). Author Thomas Tabor recounts the fascinating history of Dan Cooper’s successful Montana-based company. Tabor then field-tests a Cooper Model 21 Montana Varminter chambered in 20 VarTarg.

CLICK HERE to Download Cooper Firearms 20 VarTarg Story (.PDF File)

The 20 VarTarg is based on the 221 Fireball case necked-down to 20 caliber. Invented in 1995 by Todd Kindler (of Small Caliber News), the VarTarg is an accurate and ultra-efficient cartridge. With just 18-19 grains of powder the VarTarg can drive a 32gr bullet at 3750 fps.

Tabor explains the simple procedure for forming 20 VarTarg cases and compares the VarTarg to other popular 20 caliber cartridges. He notes that “the popularity of the 20 VarTarg is growing dramatically, particularly with both varmint hunters and [small caliber] target shooters. While the .204 Ruger offers about 200 fps higher velocity, Tabor argues that: “the 20 VarTarg is a superior cartridge in some ways to the 204 Ruger… based on the fact that the VarTarg is considerably more efficient.”

Tabor visited the varmint fields to give the 20 VarTarg Cooper a real-world test: “As was expected, the 20 VarTarg was an exceptional performer on ground squirrels. Out to 250 yards both the cartridge and rifle were deadly accurate.” Tabor was impressed by the little VarTarg. He found that the VarTarg rivaled the larger .204 Ruger, while being kinder to barrels since the VarTarg burns much less powder.

Overall, this article is a “must-read” for all Cooper Firearms fans. There are many interesting anecdotes about the early years of the company, and the author provides a wealth of useful info for anyone thinking about buying or building a 20-caliber varmint rifle.

Photos © 2008 VHA, All Rights Reserved

Whidden Gunworks Bullet Pointing Die

Tech Talk by German Salazar

Many of you have doubtlessly read Bryan Litz’s articles in Precision Shooting and on this website about various current long-range bullets. Bryan’s work carries a great deal of weight in the world of ballistics, so his comments (and mathematical proofs) regarding the benefits of bullet pointing certainly caught my attention. Bullet pointing, like meplat trimming, is an effort to reduce the ballistic inconsistency created by the somewhat jagged tip of the jacket where the bullet forming dies bring it to a point in the manufacturing process. Of course, we could eliminate this problem altogether by shooting closed-tip, open-base bullets like the Lapua D46, but that merely shifts the jacket problem to the other end of the bullet.

In any event, hollow point bullets rule the accuracy world today, so John Whidden, two-time National Long Range Champion at Camp Perry (2007, 2008) and a talented gunsmith and designer to boot, came up with a very handy tool to let us make those hollow points pointier. Let’s have a look at John’s tool and see how it works.

The Whidden bullet pointer uses a Forster bullet seating die body as its basic structure and that’s a good choice given the quality machining Forster does on these. The real heart of the tool comes in two parts: the caliber sleeve and the pointing die that fits inside the sleeve. In fact, to point up different caliber bullets, you only need to change the caliber sleeve, everything else remains the same. The last item is the bullet base that slips into a standard .308 shellholder and supports the bullet as it goes into the die body.

It took me less than five minutes to get everything set up, including changing the caliber sleeve from 6mm to .30 caliber. John’s instruction sheets are well illustrated and clearly written; you should have no problem getting up and running.

Pointing the bullets is as easy as sizing a piece of brass. You can see in the top photo the difference between a few pointed bullets and a few un-pointed ones. The innermost pointed bullet in the picture was my first attempt and I adjusted the die a little after that, you can see that the others are closed a little more. John even includes a couple of sample bullets so that you can see one done right and one done wrong; a very nice touch.

I think Bryan’s work supports the validity of this concept and John’s tool puts it into practice in a simple to use manner that makes it just about impossible to do any damage to the bullet. I expect to shoot pointed versus un-pointed bullets at a couple of matches in the next few weeks and will report back on my findings. Unfortunately, these matches will only be at 500 yards as our 1000 yard matches don’t begin until November – I’ll do another update at that time.