.20 Ghost on some pdogs this morning

[Franklink]

Had about 45 minutes available this morning so took advantage of that and got a few pdogs. Wind was supposed to kick up at any point so I took my slugger, the .20 Ghost.

Ended up with a total around 25.

The farthest was 230ish yards. Needed 13 mils of holdover, dialed 5 in to the scope, and held over for the other 8. Got a couple others in the 190-220 yard range. These farthest dogs were taken with slugs of course.

Somewhere around 100-110 yards and less and I was grabbing the .20/15.89 pellets instead of the slugs. So this morning's pdogs were taken with a mix of .20/18.9grain NSAs, and the JSB .20/15.89s.

These six were all pretty close together for photo op, in the 90-120yard range.





Of all the many guns I've used to take prairie dogs over the years, this .20 Ghost gives them the least sporting chance at still being alive when I call it a day.

 

[wolfmangreg]

Quite an endorsement of the 20/15.89!
And of course, the shooter

 

[Franklink]

Quite an endorsement of the 20/15.89!
And of course, the shooter

For a 30fpe pellet, the .20/15.89's well and truly are as good as it gets.

Doesn't take much power to get them to that 880-920fps range that they seem to prefer. So, large shot counts/fill. Nice and docile to shoot.

And with their strangely high BC (relative to FPE and pellet weight), you can reach wayyyyyy out there with em.

I've shot them from four different .20 barrels now, and they've all been accurate enough to raise eyebrows, and of course to stock 'em up deep in my ammo cabinet.

 

[Pumacarl]

I really like your NSA slug numbers. Probably the pinnacle of performance to power used on the small side. You are right to stockpile what works. They are constantly changing up dies, lead, and product lines lately. Nice shooting too!

 

[Roamin Greco 1]

Great shooting! Now there is a "hidden" benefit of the .20 caliber that should be really touted. Reminds me of the 6.5 Creedmoor. It's about sectional density and ballistic coefficients at long range. Wow!

 

[Franklink]

Great shooting! Now there is a "hidden" benefit of the .20 caliber that should be really touted. Reminds me of the 6.5 Creedmoor. It's about sectional density and ballistic coefficients at long range. Wow!

As a data point.....

A few years ago I used the JSB .20/15.89 at the American Field Target event (now called Extreme Field Target) at Extreme Benchrest.

In the .22 and down class ("Sniper") I was the only guy NOT using a .22. And of course most of the .22 guys are in the 55fpe realm, me at 29fpe with the .20s. And I got a check. I was in the top five or so, and that didn't include the couple of targets that I hit with very clean paddle hits but didn't have enough on-paddle fpe left to knock down.

So, the accuracy is more than there with the .20, even with the power deficit.

With most EFT matches, you gotta knock the ever living hell out of the target to get it to go down. I consider myself an accuracy/precision nut. Making the projectile go right where I want it to, at sometimes ridiculous distances, is what trips my trigger. Feeling like I should grunt like Tim the Tool Man Taylor after every shot? Not so much.

 

[Billm]

I’m intrigued by what I’m reading about the .20. I’ve never had much exposure to the .20 other than seeing ads as a kid for the Sheridan and thinking that their .20 cylindrical pellet looked weird lol. But, now that I’m swaging my own slugs and reading what @Franklink states about the .20 BC and range etc., I’m thinking it might be fun to pick one up and maybe have some custom slug dies made for it. I’m always looking for a challenge. What PCP rifle platforms have the .20 as an option? I don’t see many options. Is the .20 barrel for the ghost a custom barrel? No specific goal other than fun and experimenting. I’m really surprised that three thousands of an inch makes a difference (.177 vs .20).

 

[Solo1]

For the ghost the 20 is a custom barrel. You can get a 177 28” slug barrel and mine shoots very well! Lw has some 24” 20 barrel blanks their around 250-300 bucks and then you would need a machinist.

 

[Franklink]

I’m intrigued by what I’m reading about the .20. I’ve never had much exposure to the .20 other than seeing ads as a kid for the Sheridan and thinking that their .20 cylindrical pellet looked weird lol. But, now that I’m swaging my own slugs and reading what @Franklink states about the .20 BC and range etc., I’m thinking it might be fun to pick one up and maybe have some custom slug dies made for it. I’m always looking for a challenge. What PCP rifle platforms have the .20 as an option? I don’t see many options. Is the .20 barrel for the ghost a custom barrel? No specific goal other than fun and experimenting. I’m really surprised that three thousands of an inch makes a difference (.177 vs .20).

Air Force Condor or Condor SS for an off the shelf .20 that'll shoot the NSA .20/18.9 that I think so highly of.

My Ghost .20 barrel was custom machined to fit the Ghost. But it's a typical choked 1:17.7, 12 land and groove Lothar barrel. The particular barrel in my Ghost came out of a really good run of LW barrels. But I've tried the NSA .20/18.9 from a barrel with the same specs in an Airforce Condor and they shot respectably enough to be worthy.

 

[Wingman115]

Looked like a great hunt.

 

[Dogowski]

Looked like a great hunt.

Hey man welcome to the forum! Enjoy your stay here.