Todd Kindler’s brainchild, the .20 VarTarg (Varmint-Target), was created by necking down the .221 Remington Fireball case with the 30-degree shoulder set back slightly and mouth necked down to .204 caliber. While the .204 Ruger is the undisputed 20-caliber speed king, the VarTarg, like the parent .221 Fireball or necked-down .17 Fireball, is a highly-efficient cartridge providing a lot of performance for very little investment per trigger pull. The .20 VarTarg, for instance, burns from 15.5 to 21 grains of powder per shot, compared to the 25- to 31-grain charges consumed by the .204 Ruger. Unfortunately, the VarTarg lives in the shadow of the .204 Ruger. This is a real shame, as the smaller round proves ultra-accurate, hard-hitting and is mild enough to allow varmint shooters to mark their own hits and misses with even the highest-magnification scopes. Its mild manner also assures improved barrel life compared to the .204 Ruger and longer shot strings before a warming barrel signals a pause in festivities while addressing a hot ground squirrel colony or extensive prairie dog town.

Another big plus for the VarTarg – as far as wildcats go – is it’s pretty simple. Creating brass is no more involved than a single pass through a full-length resizing die. The new Lapua .221 Fireball brass used to make VarTarg brass for this test came out a hair’s-width short of the recommended trim-to length of 1.395 inches after being run through Hornady Custom Grade Series IV dies. Keep in mind, some early VarTarg reamers were dimensioned to accommodate only brass with turned necks (this information usually provided on the barrel adjacent the caliber stamp), while newer .232-inch outside neck diameter chamber reamers (as found in production Cooper rifles, for example) require no neck turning following forming. Resizing is generally most successful with new or freshly-annealed brass. I did ruin three of the 100 Lapua brass early in the reforming process, shoulders collapsing during resizing. The lightest application of Hornady’s Unique Case Lube around neck areas remedied the situation, with no further hulls lost and no ugly shoulder dents resulting.

Aside from simple brass production the VarTarg proves highly forgiving for careful handloaders, a wide variety of powders and load charges providing excellent accuracy with .204 bullet designs weighing from 24 to 39/40 grains. Federal Premium GM205M Small Rifle Match primers were the spark plug used during all testing.

The test rifle was built from a BSA Guns (Birmingham, England, 1911 to 1913) Martini No. 12 Cadet Martini-pattern single-shot rifle manufactured in the early 1900s, re-barreled with a 22½-inch tube measuring .685 inch at the muzzle and fitted with a handsome red/yellow/black laminated-wood stock and forend. The Martini action has its origins in 1880 Martini-Henry Mk III rifles from the late British colonial period, later converted to Martini-Metford rifles chambered for black powder .303 British rounds, and later Martini-Enfield Mk I (rebarreled) or Mk II (newly manufactured) rifles in the same chambering, but suited to smokeless powders. This was the British military service rifle from 1885 to 1918, with many used by former colonies as reserve arms well into World War II. Martini rifles make excellent single-shot conversions because they were very well made and include stout actions capable of handling modern pressures produced from modern rounds like the modern varmint cartridge tested here. This rifle was drilled and tapped for scope use, holding a fixed Leupold 12x 50mm set in Leupold STD rings and single-piece base.

The basic problem with the Martini action stems from weak extractors. So while the action itself easily handles “Plus-P” loads, chamber extraction after the shot can become frustratingly problematic for varmint shooters who gravitate to maximum loads, while seeking flattened trajectories and dismantling impacts. With a hot rod cartridge like the .20 VarTarg, finding you are unable to wring maximum performance from your handloads makes this all the more annoying. This was certainly the case with this Martini rifle, many loads were torn down and throttled back in the middle of testing after shooting the first or second load in a ladder group and finding extraction a tad sticky. If I were shooting Martini rifles on a regular basis, I would develop a keen interest in powders relinquishing the lowest chamber-pressure to highest velocity ratios.

Handloaders of .204 cartridges do not enjoy the seemingly endless bullet options of, say, .224-caliber rounds. Some might view as a blessing, making load development that much easier. Representative bullets were chosen from varmint options and the most common weights – 24- to 39-grain hollowpoint and polymer-tipped examples. Powder choices closely mirror those used to fuel the .221 Fireball parent cartridge.

Hornady’s 24-grain NTX (Non-Traditional eXpanding) bullet allows pushing 4,000 fps with the VarTarg, while also providing excellent accuracy. The NTX is a lead-free, poly-tipped varmint option, legal no matter where you shoot varmints, and it provides aggressive expansion that is ideal for burrowing-rodent elimination. The best combination of both accuracy and velocity – and the load I would automatically choose for burrow-rodent shooting with this round/rifle – was provided by Vihtavouri N-120. Edging toward maximum loads improved accuracy, a .56-inch group resulting from 17.5 grains at 3,911 fps and 18 grains at 4,031 fps producing a .68-inch group. The latter, though, proved a tad sticky upon extraction from this single shot. Accurate 2200 didn’t break an inch until it hit maximum (21 grains at 3,765 fps) while all Accurate LT-30 loads printed less than an inch with top velocities bettering 3,700 fps, without difficulties with extraction.

Nosler’s 32-grain Ballistic Tip Varmint represents a .204 varmint shooting gold standard, a bullet with good ballistic coefficient and explosive small-varmint performance, even at the slightly slower pace of the VarTarg cartridge. Ramshot X-Terminator proved a poor choice for this round, a bit too slow burning I believe and providing lackluster velocities. Though it did provide a sub-¾-inch group with a maximum load of 20 grains at 3,186 fps. An 18.5-grain maximum load of Hodgdon’s CFE-BLK produced a .67-inch group at a faster 3,635 fps, though it did result in somewhat sticky extraction from the Martini action. The most accurate powder with this bullet was Vihtavouri’s N-130, with 17 to 18 grains providing velocities from 3,267 to 3,461 fps, with the best group measuring .49 inch and resulting from 17.5 grains at 3,328 fps.

The 35-grain Berger FB Varmint has proven tack-driving accurate and explosive from two .204 Ruger rifles, an ideal compromise between lighter 32 and heavier 39/40 grain options. It also provides explosive terminal performance. The best group from this bullet resulted from 17.5 grains of Alliant Reloader 7, producing a zippy 3,373 fps velocity and a .55-inch group. Adding a half grain of powder boosted velocity to 3,551 fps, but produced a larger .80-inch group, but cases also began to stick during extraction. Hodgdon’s Lil’Gun produced a .66-inch group with 12.5 grains at 3,328 fps and 19.5 grains of Ramshot TAC produced a .69-inch group at 3,154 fps.

Speer’s 39-grain TNT is a light-skinned, hollow-point projectile made to deliver explosive terminal performance on small varmints, and a superior option when prairie winds stir. While I’ve witnessed some excellent results from this bullet from a couple .204 Rugers, this one just didn’t jive with this rifle. That happens sometimes, a bullet that shoots great from one rifle performing poorly from another, usually with no rhyme or reason. It produced the worst group of this test (2.49-inch with 16.5 grains of CFE-BLK), while its best showing was a highly-respectable .63-inch group with 16.5 grains of Hodgdon 4198 at 3,155 fps. Only 18 grains of Accurate 2200 and 16.5 grains of Hodgdon CFE-BLK broke an inch with all other loads.

Sierra’s 39-grain BlitzKing combines extreme accuracy with excellent ballistic coefficients for longer ranges or breezy days. While testing two different .204 Ruger rifles in the past Sierra’s 39-grain BlitzKing handily outperformed 40-grain, 20-caliber options in the accuracy department, while also offering ballistic coefficients far superior to similar weight .224-caliber bullets. This .20 VarTarg liked the 39 grain BlitzKing and 4198 powders, those combinations producing the best average groups assembled during this test series. Hodgdon’s 4198 produced .32-, .25- and .51-inch groups with 16.5, 17 and 17.5 grains of powder at 3,030, 3,167 and 3,221 fps, respectively. IMR-4198 produced .57-, .82- and .69-inch groups at 3,017, 3,155 and 3,203 fps with 15.5, 16.0 and 16.5 grains of powder, respectively. As a bonus, none of the 4198 loads presented extraction issues.

The irony of testing a contemporary varmint cartridge in a rifle built around an action manufactured at least 100 years ago was not lost on me, but both the new round and the old rifle did just fine. This test sparked a deep curiosity, and I’d like to give this cartridge another look, but preferably in a stout bolt action that could handle full-maximum loads, and a 24-inch tube to maximize velocity. I mean, a round that pushes 24-grain bullets to 4,000-plus fps and 32-grain numbers to 3,500 to 3,650 fps. Like the .221 Remington Fireball parent case, the .20 VarTarg provides 90 percent of the .204 Ruger’s performance while burning, on average, 60 percent of the powder – an excellent trade-off for such negligible recoil and inherent accuracy potential.