New MVP Varmint in .204

[TKO22]

Hi All!......First post here for me...

While talking to a friend recently, he mentioned he had bought a MVP in .204, and it was a absolute tack driver. This guy knows accurate rifles, and is a great shot out on the prairie dog fields. I was surprised he said that as a few years ago, I had picked up a MVP Varmint in .223, and it was a terrible shooter. I traded it off (at the same dealer where I bought it... they gave my full price I paid, which was actually discounted cause they were clearing them out at the time) after many range sessions and several handload tests.

I'm mostly a prairie dog shooter with a few coyote calling hunts sprinkled in here and there.

To be clear, I have 2 other .204 rifles: A Savage 12FV in a custom stock: .365 avg groups at 100 yds with the Sierra 39 SBK. A few of the prairie dog shots this gun/combo has made are unbelievable!

Also a Custom RRA AR in .204, and it’s a 1/2” gun all day, and used when the action gets heated up.

I recently reduced the calibers I load for to 3: .204, .223 and .22-250.

I sold off 4 rifles and loading gear in .243, 22BR, 6.5CM, etc., and had a bit of money to play with.

SO... I was at the local gun store about a week ago, and they had received a MVP Varmint in .204 with the threaded barrel. I was surprised as I had been keeping an eye on the usual online sources for one after my friend praised his. We dickered on it and I bought it for $540 OTD.

It took about 20 patches of Pro-Shot bore solvent to get the bore clean and copper free... from a new barrel. Mounted a proven good B&L Elite 4000 6-24 on it from one of the rifles I sold. I have windage adjustable mounts, and adjusted them while boresighting to get it close and in the middle of the adjustment windage range. Vertical was off enough that I may revisit that when the weather gets a bit better. I needed 24 clicks down from centered adjustment to get the elevation close.

I took it to the range this afternoon and brought along 50 of my handloads: 25 loaded with 32gr V-Max and 25 loaded with Sierra BlitzKing 39 gr.

The 39 gr. SBK load shoots fantastic in my other 2 .204 rifles, and I was hoping it would also shoot well in this MVP to reduce the recipes I need for different rifles.

I had to shovel and plow the access to my range. It was 30* and dead calm, overcast. I set up at the 100 yard concrete bench, and bore sighted the scope.

The first 5 fouling shots were 4" left and 4" high. I made a few adjustments and shot for accuracy.

Dang it ... the 39gr SBKs didn't shoot too well ... ~1.25 avg. The 32gr shot a bit better ... ~.900 for all groups. A bit of vertical stringing.

BUT... the 2 5-shot groups I shot at the end of the session with factory Hornady Superformance 32gr V-Max shot both groups right at .642 + .643 with nice round groups ... no stringing. Which is about the same as my other two rifles shoot that factory loading... so there's hope!

I measure each powder drop to a tenth of a grain, and these loads for my two other rifles always have performed great.
I do load them with a rather longish LTO (OAL), and perhaps the throat on the MVP isn't as deep as the other two rifles. No pressure signs using 8208 XBR (w/39 gr bullets) or H4895 (w/32gr bullets) powders at the level I load for the other guns.

Likes:

Fit and finish is pretty good.
Smooth feeding from both the single shot mag and the 10 rnd P-Mag I used.
Fits me great, and I'm 6'4". I liked the shorter LOP of the stock. Perfect cheek weld. I dad add a UpperCut pad to the comb. Much better fit than that Savage 12FV, but not quite as "comfy" as the RRA AR.
Light as a feather compared to the Savage and AR.
Rode the rear bag well (shot from a bipod, just like I'll do when PD'ing), recoiled straight back and up a bit.

Dislikes:
The trigger isn't very good... yet. Crisp but heavy. I'm kind of a "Trigger Nazi" and I bet I have it where I like it soon.
The mag rattles, but that'll be an easy fix.
I wish it shot the favorite 39gr loads better.

Otherwise, I think its going to be a great little rifle, even if I do have to feed it $.80 a round ammo. I'll work on getting the 39s to shoot better, but it looks like 2 different loadings will be required.

If I can figure out how to upload picts to this forum, I'll pop up a few pictures.

Take care and have a great week!

Mike

 

[TKO22]

I did a quick gauge test of the throat length of the MVP, and it's WAY deeper than either of my other two .204 rifles.

The 32gr loads, if I were to give it a .010 jump to the lands (which is typical) the bullet would hardly be in the case. But the Hornady 32GR factory loads (which shot OK) have a .110 jump. Perhaps this rifle wants a long jump into the throat.

I've heard of that working good with some smaller caliber rifles, but not typical with any other rifle I've loaded for in the past. My .243 liked .002 jammed INTO the lands. That has to be done very carefully as the pressures can get high quickly.

More testing is in order.

I also have a reduced load (32gr V-Max @ 2650 fps) that works good in the Savage. I'll test in this MVP sometime soon.

Trigger work is next up.

 

[TKO22]

Another range session today with the new MVP .204.

I shot 5 5-shot groups at 100 yards using a usually accurate reduced .204 load at 100 yards. The first 4 groups were my standard hold and hovered around 1". 40 degrees/no wind/overcast.

The last group I tried a "free recoil" hold (pinching the trigger and back of the trigger guard, no cheek pressure, no shoulder pressure), and was 1.75". These were with a reduced load of Blue Dot powder: 12.6gr with a H V-Max 32gr bullet. The first four groups were actually not bad... a little bigger groups with this MVP than my Savage. I can shoot these reduced loads as fast as I can load and fire without heating up the barrel, with almost zilch recoil. Much like shooting a 22 Hornet.

I also shot 1 5-shot group with factory Fiocchi 32gr V-Max, and was OK at just under .75". Interesting, those five shots heated up the barrel fast. By the 3rd shot of the factory stuff, I was seeing drastic mirage from the barrel heat.

Interesting to me is that I can't make a better load than the factory shoots in this MVP ... as of yet. Never had that happen in all the years I have been reloading and shooting. I haven;t yet loaded to maximum suggested loads, and perhaps this gun likes to be pushed.

I have the gun apart now, and will begin a trigger tune and bedding the action.

Bad weather heading our way and probably won't get to the range again until next week. I have a coyote calling hunt next weekend, and we'll see if this MVP makes the cut.

 

[meanstreak]

Thanks for sharing TKO, and welcome to the forum from Oklahoma.

 

[dieselmudder]

Very good write up. Although I've not ventured down the .204 rabbit hole, it's good to hear about performance.

Where do you shoot prairie dogs at? Do you have access to private property, or use a guide or outfitter?

I'm in Indiana, and have long wanted to do a prarie dog hunt, just dont really know where to get started.

Sent from my SM-J727V using Tapatalk

 

[Djcala]

Excellent review thank you for,sharing it .
I appreciate the good reading. Enjoy that rifle

 

[TKO22]

Very good write up. Although I've not ventured down the .204 rabbit hole, it's good to hear about performance.

Where do you shoot prairie dogs at? Do you have access to private property, or use a guide or outfitter?

I'm in Indiana, and have long wanted to do a prarie dog hunt, just dont really know where to get started.

Sent from my SM-J727V using Tapatalk

Very good write up. Although I've not ventured down the .204 rabbit hole, it's good to hear about performance.

Where do you shoot prairie dogs at? Do you have access to private property, or use a guide or outfitter?

I'm in Indiana, and have long wanted to do a prarie dog hunt, just dont really know where to get started.

Sent from my SM-J727V using Tapatalk

The .204 works great for what we use it for...prairie dog control and some coyote hunting. Very flat shooting out to 300 yds, and we have made first shot kills on PDogs at ~500. When it gets windy and late in the "season" and the PDogs are spooky, we usually use a heavier round: 22-250 and .243 at longer distances. The .204 is actually flatter shooting than the 22-250. And the 39gr. Sierra BlitzKing bullets have a rather high BC and work really well in the wind too.

We have family (extended: my wife's sister's husband's (rest his soul) family.) that owns ranch land in the middle of Nebraska. We have 3 tracts we hunt. 2 family owned and one we lease from a family friend (We pay $400 a year for the lease, and split that up among myself and 3 other friends.) The leased spot is the better of the 3 as no one else is shooting them, and it's hard to get to. We hunt 10-12 times a year... more early in the season, then spread out until late October.

I haven't used a guide or done a paid hunt, but some of my buddies have done them, and reports are spotty. Mid-May to early June is the best time. Some fantastic trips, and some not so much ... usually depending on the weather. And since you need to book quite a ways out for a guided hunt, it's a crap shoot on weather. Speaking of weather ... If going it solo, I can warn you about getting caught in the middle of nowhere when those rain storms suddenly come up. There is nothing more slippery and slimey and gooey as the gumbo dirt in middle South Dakota when it's raining.

We usually do a "turn and burn" when we PDog hunt. It's a 2-1/2 hr drive to our place, so we get up around 6 am, and are shooting by 10:00. We'll move to the other tracts during the day depending on shooting, and usually clear out and head home around 6 pm. One buddy occasionally tows his sideXside ATV, and we'll use it to be more mobile on each tract, but I'm convinced we get less shooting the more we move around on the smaller tracts.

We'll sometimes take the camper if it's early in the season, and there is lots of shooting all day long. With the smaller tracts, it's rather easy to shoot them out and or spook them for the day, and we would rather save some stock for later hunts.

My recommendation is to make a guided trip to PD country for a few days, and then try to make some contacts in the local areas: diners, bars, convenient stores, etc. They all know where the PDs are, and you might strike it rich. I asked around at a family wedding and that's where I made my connections. The leased spot we found through the Sheriff, who was at the wedding. So happens his secretary is also related to my extended family somewhere! She gets a Christmas card and a small gift card each year, and always coming up with new ideas for us to try.

 

[meanstreak]

TK, I lived in the Omaha area for 40 years, 1970-2010, there are lots of wide open spaces in central Nebraska for sure. I have ridden motorcycles throughout the state as well. I remember times I'd ride for 20-30 minutes and never meet oncoming traffic, and that was on the main state roads. It's a shooters paradise. It's like the tree falling in the woods with no one around. If there's no one around to hear you shooting are you really shooting ? LOL.

 

[TKO22]

TK, I lived in the Omaha area for 40 years, 1970-2010, there are lots of wide open spaces in central Nebraska for sure. I have ridden motorcycles throughout the state as well. I remember times I'd ride for 20-30 minutes and never meet oncoming traffic, and that was on the main state roads. It's a shooters paradise. It's like the tree falling in the woods with no one around. If there's no one around to hear you shooting are you really shooting ? LOL.

I was born and raised just south of Omaha. Omaha then had about 100K people, and Boys Town was a "road trip".

Now Omaha Metro has over a million people, and Boys Town is about midtown now.

Anyway...

I shot the MVP again today. Was cold but dead calm and sunny. We have about a foot of snow on the ground, and today is probably it for the week as we are expecting another 4-5" tomorrow evening.

I did a trigger job on it, and I like the trigger now... about 20 oz. and breaks crisp. I did disassemble the entire trigger mechanism. I didn't change any of the angles of the sears, but did install them on my pin block and used a couple of india stones to clean them up. Since the parts are sintered steel, I was careful not to break into the crystalline structure. I did a quick polish, changed the "accu-trigger" (or whatever Mossberg calls it) blade to a softer spring, and reassembled. I staked the trigger pin back into the housing. Good there.

I bedded the plastic bedding block to the stock, waited a day, then bedded the action to the bedding block. I floated the tang. The nice thing about it now is it comes up to torque "right now" instead of slowly getting tighter. I torqued it to 55 in./lbs. both front and back screws.

It shot nearly the same as before. I did find that it definitely DOES NOT LIKE the Sierra 39 gr. BlitzKings (SBK). First .204 that I've worked with that didn't. And that's too bad, and my other .204s shoot them great, and I have a zillion of them squirreled away.

My reduced load 32 gr. V-Max load shot better... ~.800" five shot groups at 100. All under 1".

The reduced load 39 SBKs shot like a shotgun ... ~2.75" five shot groups. 4 shots always inside 1.75, but would toss one way out right.

Again, the factory Fiocchi 32 gr. V-Max shot under .75" for 2 groups. And they're cheap too.

35 shots were fired today through it. I have the bore soaking with some Butch's Bore Shine now, and will see how much it's coppering up when I clean it later tonight.

One change I did make ... I didn't shoot from the bipod as I have with the earlier shooting with this MVP. I shot from my Rock benchrest with rear bag as I was with my son and we were testing his AR-15 .223 with a 24" barrel that he always shoots from a benchrest, and I didn't want to tear down his set-up for my rifle. One thing though ... this MVP outshot his $1600 AR, but he was using factory rounds, and I suspect we can get it shooting better with some handloads. I did shoot 5 shots through my Savage FV, just to satisfy me that I can still shoot... .350" group from a cold dirty barrel with the 39 SBKs.

OOPS ... I also added a Flaming Pig to the barrel before I shot. I have one on my AR .204 and it measurably help the accuracy of that barrel. I probably changed too many things to get a feel for how the gun reacts to changes.

I won't shoot it again til the weather gets better, and I've decided it will stay home this weekend, and I'll take my AR .204 and my 22-250 on the coyote hunt.

A couple of picts of the big sky country we hunt. And our usual set-up: My son spotting and his army buddy shooting, while I'm making sandwiches, eating pretzels and laughing at their misses!. T hen swap! That trip my son scored a nice Western Coyote lurking in the PDog fields.



A shot from my camera drone showing the PD density in one area we hunt. This shot was 720 ft. (straight to the right) from our position and 62 ft elevation.

 

[wood chucker]

TK,
Jard and a couple other outfits make triggers that fit the MVP. They might not be listed as such but the MVP uses the same aftermarket triggers that fit the ATR, 4x4 and late Howa 1500.

 

[TKO22]

A quick 6 month update...

The MVP in 204 is shooting great!

I used it on two prairie dog hunts so far this year, and have a couple of first shot kills at 350+ yards and “walked” a few in around 400.

My home range was flooded out on March 15th of this year in the epic flooding of 2019, and still has 2-3 ft of muddy water and goop from the target frames all the way back to the 200 yard bench’s.

I didn’t do any load development at all since the flood, and I took my best guess when I loaded for it for the hunts. I loaded 150 each of three different powder weights of IMR 8208XBR. I usually don’t vary test loads by more than .3 gr., but I used .5 gr as the spread as I wanted to take a big swing at it. The 26.5 gr. under the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing bullets was the ticket! It did show a bit of primer cratering, so it looks to be the max load in this rifle. I also loaded them out to 2.325 COAL, which does not fit in the magazine, but I added a single shot sled and loaded them one at a time. Still not as accurate as my Savage 12, but way easier to shoot.

After the first hunt if the year, I still didn’t like the trigger, so I tore it down again and went “all in”. I drilled a chunk of barstock and made a trigger jig/fixture and worked over the sear angles, removed the “accutrigger blade” (or whatever Mossberg calls it), relaxed a spring or two, and ended up with a perfect 8 oz trigger. Passed all my bump tests, but I still don’t close the bolt until I’m nearly on target and ready to shoot.

I haven’t had it on a bench yet, but the 2nd hunt really showed it’s potential. It scored 6 straight kills from 150-225 yards before a miss, and went 8 for ten on that string.

I held the long one-shot of the second day with the MVP until my buddy lobbed one out there at about 410 yds. w/ his AR15 to win the $ pool. Btw, the weather was perfect with hardly a breath of wind both days. I never did get out my 22-250, and only shot the MVP and my .204 AR15.

The problem is: I can’t load one recipe for my 3 .204s. The bolt guns use one length, but the AR required full length case sizing and Mag length to function. On this trip, I shot reloads out of the MVP and M12, but used factory Fiocchi for my AR.

At the rate my range is drying out, it’ll be end of Sept. before it’s usable and I can really tweak the loading.

Have a great rest of the summer!

One pict: the MVP at the ready...

 

[Djcala]

A quick 6 month update...

The MVP in 204 is shooting great!

I used it on two prairie dog hunts so far this year, and have a couple of first shot kills at 350+ yards and “walked” a few in around 400.

My home range was flooded out on March 15th of this year in the epic flooding of 2019, and still has 2-3 ft of muddy water and goop from the target frames all the way back to the 200 yard bench’s.

I didn’t do any load development at all since the flood, and I took my best guess when I loaded for it for the hunts. I loaded 150 each of three different powder weights of IMR 8208XBR. I usually don’t vary test loads by more than .3 gr., but I used .5 gr as the spread as I wanted to take a big swing at it. The 26.5 gr. under the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing bullets was the ticket! It did show a bit of primer cratering, so it looks to be the max load in this rifle. I also loaded them out to 2.325 COAL, which does not fit in the magazine, but I added a single shot sled and loaded them one at a time. Still not as accurate as my Savage 12, but way easier to shoot.

After the first hunt if the year, I still didn’t like the trigger, so I tore it down again and went “all in”. I drilled a chunk of barstock and made a trigger jig/fixture and worked over the sear angles, removed the “accutrigger blade” (or whatever Mossberg calls it), relaxed a spring or two, and ended up with a perfect 8 oz trigger. Passed all my bump tests, but I still don’t close the bolt until I’m nearly on target and ready to shoot.

I haven’t had it on a bench yet, but the 2nd hunt really showed it’s potential. It scored 6 straight kills from 150-225 yards before a miss, and went 8 for ten on that string.

I held the long one-shot of the second day with the MVP until my buddy lobbed one out there at about 410 yds. w/ his AR15 to win the $ pool. Btw, the weather was perfect with hardly a breath of wind both days. I never did get out my 22-250, and only shot the MVP and my .204 AR15.

The problem is: I can’t load one recipe for my 3 .204s. The bolt guns use one length, but the AR required full length case sizing and Mag length to function. On this trip, I shot reloads out of the MVP and M12, but used factory Fiocchi for my AR.

At the rate my range is drying out, it’ll be end of Sept. before it’s usable and I can really tweak the loading.

Have a great rest of the summer!

One pict: the MVP at the ready...View attachment 21371

Excellent write up report and data , well done.
Thanks for taking time to share the info sounds the MVP is performing well in real world environments.

 

[Artful]

Great post - thanks for taking the time!