New Cooper M21 20 Tactical

The genesis of this rifle began in July 2007 in a hotel room in Hamilton, MT. My son John Jr. and I had traveled to Montana to participate in the annual Cooper One Shot competition. At this shoot he and I were would be competing with a pair of Cooper rifles, I with a M22 in 6mmBR and Jr. with a M21 223 Ackley Improved.We happened to be visiting with friends and fellow competitors Paul Cooper, his son Max, Jerry Russell(Sundog Firearms, and LeRoy and Connie Barry(Canyon Creek Custom Gunstocks). At the time, the wait for a custom rifle from Cooper was anywhere from 12 to 18 months. LeRoy said that if I wanted a Cooper rifle, that he could provide one in a fraction of that time with all of the options I wanted. I knew that LeRoy did great riflestocks but I didn't know he was set up to do the gunsmithing work that I had envisioned for my next rifle.
Fast forward to the 2009 Cooper One Shot competition. My youngest son Dan and I competed. All of a sudden, I could see I was going to need another rifle for any upcoming events when both of my sons would attend. It was at this shoot that LeRoy and I began seriously talking about a new rifle and how it would be configured.
The first step was to acquire a rifle. This would be easy except for deciding what chambering. I found a M21 Varminter with a grey laminate stock with a 26" barrel in 20 Tactical at First Stop Guns. That was easy. I received the rifle in mid November. I would be able to play with the rifle until January when I would have to ship it off to Canyon Creek to be make over. The first step would be to acquire some brass and begin working up some loads.
The 20 Tactical cartridge or "TACT20" was developed by Todd Kindler who has pioneered a number of 20 caliber cartridges over the years The cartridge itself is a .223 Rem. case necked down to 20 caliber with a 30 degree shoulder with slightly less body taper than the .223. Because of Todd's urging and the popularity of the 20 calibers, a number of manufacturers are offering quality bullets in this caliber.The first thing I needed to do was form some brass so I could begin working up a load. I bought a set of Hornady New Dimension dies in 20 Tactical and began necking down some .223 brass I had on hand. I especially liked using the Hornady sizing die to neck down these cases to .204. These dies have an elliptical sizing button that is as easy on the necks coming out as going in. I used DB wire pulling lubricant to lube my cases, being careful to only lube the inside of the case necks and the case body just above the web. You can see what a good job was done on these case necks.





As one would expect, while fireforming brass, accuracy was sporadic. Groups were inside an inch at 100 yards but the true test of this rifle's potential would be with fully formed brass.
Time was getting short as the rifle was due to be shipped to LeRoy in Montana in January.
The bullet I selected to start development on the load would be Hornady's 32 gr. Vmax .204. The powders would vary but the one powder I was keying on was Alliant Reloder 10X. Preliminary loads were giving me velocities in the 4100 fps range. Accuracy was outstanding as you can see by the last target I shot before the rifle was boxed up and sent to Montana.

This story will continue when I get the rifle back from Montana with a complete facelift. With the help of LeRoy and Connie I will be able to show the the work they did to make my rifle extraordinary. The motto at Canyon Creek is "Life is too short to own an ugly rifle". This rifle will surely live up to that motto, I'm sure of it.