Almost two full years into the development and marketing of the .204 Ruger, Federal finally introduced the 39-grain Sierra BlitzKing in a headstamped Federal .204 Ruger cartridge. I hauled it out on coyote hunts, prairie dog forays and even some animal-control hunts for local ranchers who needed a hand in that area. The bullet was a good design, retained its velocity well and stayed together when making contact with badgers,large 'yotes and even a wild hog or two.

Now Federal has made a second move and introduced a .204 Ruger cartridge with a 32-grain Nosler varmint bullet.

The .204 Ruger cartridge offers light recoil, flat trajectory, and explosive results on varmint-size targets.

After a phone call from Federal's Jason Nash and a short discussion regarding external rifle ballistics, I soon found several boxes of the new fodder at the doorstep and also an invitation to join Federal on a hunt for ground squirrels, prairie dogs and rockchucks. It was the rockchuck event that interested me most in that here was a fat rodent that made for a formidable test subject when applied to a fast new varmint bullet.

Within a few weeks I found myself rolling up to Rod Herrett's home in Twin Falls, Idaho. Rod builds and designs Herrett handgun stocks and also spends a good deal of time guiding writers across Idaho and Nevada. We were heading for Nevada and the rugged mountains along its northeastern border. This was rockchuck country, with its massive outcroppings of rimrock ledges.

As each shooter was requested to bring along whatever he wanted to shoot, I elected to pack my H.S. Precision Pro Series 2000 turnbolt. This rifle was in fact a barreled and chambered .204 Ruger built on a high-grade military/police sniper platform. The rifle was a special-order weapons system used by the FBI and had established itself as an almost single-hole tackdriver at 100 yards. Mounted with a Leupold VX III, this setup was a class act, and it showed once the bullets started to fly.

Because Federal's parent company, Shooter's Ridge, had brought along a multitude of benches, rests, bags and even new magazine designs for Ruger autoloading-type receivers, we started our event shooting small ground squirrels with rimfires--magnum and Long Rifle. This was not work for a .204 Ruger in any bullet configuration, but it was a good time to get the feel for Shooter's Ridge products and match them to my H.S. rifle.

Unlike several other brands of .204 pills, the new 32-grain bullets in the Nosler BT design were better suited to hanging together on large rockchucks.

Rod Herrett had hauled along about 10 different firesticks that ranged from custom XP 100s in an assortment of chamberings to a couple of Low Wall handmade rifles in .22 Hornet and .223 Remington. What this did was give me an on- site reference as to just how effective the new Federal/Nosler 32-grain Ballistic Tip loads would be compared to other calibers.

The morning of the second day afield brought pure joy to this old varmint shooter's heart. We were heading into the deep mountains near Jarbridge, Nevada, and the targets would be rockchucks for a full day. I had been informed by a writer friend on the hunt, Holt Bodinson, that in Europe the mountain marmot--or rockchuck, as we call it--is so prized that only a single 'chuck can be harvested during a hunt, and in some cases these are mounted as trophies.

Reaching the Diamond A Ranch--a sprawling outfit that snaked along deep into the rock-ledged canyons of the area-- we started glassing the upper ledges of the rocks for the big yellow-and-brown rodents. We had climbed about 3,000 feet on a road that was no more than a cow trail when I spotted my first target. Tom Knudtsdon, product line manager of Shooter's Ridge and Weaver, hit the binders as the big 4x4 Suburban rolled to a sliding stop. I was not paying much attention at this point to Tom's driving because it was simply time to move, set my sight picture, then drop a few pounds off my trigger.