The .204 Ruger is the best fur cartridge on this site and it is disappearing from the racks. When this page was first written it listed twenty-one .204 rifles. Checking a major retailer’s current catalog today returns five, from three makers.
That is not a judgment about the cartridge. The .204 still does the thing it was built for better than anything else here — very high velocity behind a very light bullet, which is what keeps exit holes small — Hornady’s 32 grain V-MAX leaves at 4,225 feet per second, faster than anything else on this site. The .204 load data still runs to thirty factory loads. The rifles are what has thinned.
What is left
| Rifle | Barrel | Twist | Weight | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruger American Generation II Gun Metal Gray Cerakote Bolt Action Rifle | 20in | 1:12 | 6.6 lb | 10+1 |
| Ruger American Generation II Predator Burnt Bronze Cerakote Bolt Actio | 22in | 1:12 | 6.7 lb | 10+1 |
| Savage Arms 110 Apex Predator XP With Vortex Crossfire II Black Bolt A | 20in | 1:12 | 8.406 lb | 4+1 |
| Savage Arms 110 Hunter Matte Black Bolt Action Rifle | 22in | 1:12 | 7.25 lb | 4+1 |
| CVA Cascade Krytek Highlander/Flat Dark Earth Cerakote Bolt Action Rif | — | 1:9 | 8.70 lb | — |
Two of the five are the same Ruger action in different dress, so in practice this is three rifles from three makers — Ruger, CVA, and Savage’s 110.
Twist
Four of the five are 1:12, which is the .204’s settled twist and suits the 32 and 40 grain bullets that nearly all .204 factory ammunition uses. There is no argument to have here, which is the opposite of the .22-250 situation, where the twist you buy decides which half of the ammunition list you can shoot.
The exception is the CVA Cascade at 1:9, which is fast for the caliber. It will do nothing but good with the 40 grain loads and it is the only one of the five that would suit a heavier bullet if you handload for one.
Why it has thinned
The makers who have moved into varmint bolt guns most aggressively have skipped the cartridge. Bergara does not chamber .204 Ruger at all, and Bergara is now most of the .22-250 list. Christensen Arms and Weatherby, both well represented in .22-250, are absent here too.
What is left is the value end — a CVA, two Rugers and two Savages — with nothing above about $900. A cartridge holds its place in a catalog by selling, and the .204 appears to be selling at one price point rather than across the range.
The counter-argument, and it is a real one: this is one retailer’s new stock. A second check against a seller that carries used and consignment rifles as well returns fifty-one .204 listings rather than five — but from only four makers: Ruger, Savage, CVA and Mossberg. So the thin variety is real and the scarcity is not. There are plenty of .204 rifles about; there are very few different ones, and Mossberg’s Patriot is the one maker missing from the table above because the retailer checked does not stock it.
The .204 has also always been a cartridge that specialist makers chamber to order, so if you want something outside this handful, a custom or semi-custom barrel is the usual route and always has been.
How this was checked
The five rifles above were listed in a major US retailer’s catalog on 3 September 2026, with barrel, twist, weight and capacity taken from that retailer’s published specification for each model. Where a figure is not published the cell is empty rather than guessed.
A catalog listing is not a stock check. Firearms on that site are handled through its stores rather than the basket, so every rifle shows the same “notify me” state whatever its availability. This is a list of what is currently catalogd, not what is on a shelf this week.
Bergara’s absence was confirmed against Bergara’s own B-14 range rather than inferred from the retailer, and Ruger’s current Generation II Predator does list 204 Ruger among its chamberings, which is why two of the five are Rugers.
No paid links. Rifle tables on this site are editorial — see the caliber comparison for how the calibers stack up against each other, and the ballistics for every varmint caliber behind it.