Great question, and one I was thinking about bringing up here myself. I've been shooting .223 for varmints here in Ontario for about 8+ years, but for 1 year, flirted with a Cooper in 204 Ruger. Great gun, great caliber...but I never warmed to the standard weight (=non heavy) barrel. That, and, I was so paranoid about keeping the rifle perfect that I would only use it days with no threat of rain. If you know hot, humid, southern Ontario summer days...you know that's a real limiting factor. lol I ended-up selling it for THOSE reasons, but loved how easy the gun was to load for, how flat shooting it was, etc.
That transitioned to asking questions about the other ".20s" here and on CGN, but I never felt confident about having a 20 made to my specs. Was closing in on 20-223 because of my familiarity with that case size...but got cold feet. I then re-considered a new 204R, decided on a gun (Tikka Varmint)...then did a 180 and pounced on a new 17 Hornet. That's a surprisingly capable round! I've dropped hefty groundhogs out to 200 yards with it, literally a bang/flop proposition. Looks a little like this;
I liked that gun, and that caliber so much that it's stalled the quest for another .20...but for maybe another year. Going to run that 17H this coming spring/summer...even if the .223 never gets touched! Then...we'll see what happens.
What I'd love to hear from the more experienced here~how does 17H stack up against the lighter 20s? More importantly, which of the lighter 20s would be the "easiest" for a reloader who doesn't like too many challenges? lol
Probably turning back to .204R because here, I may take a dozen shots on a BUSY day varmint hunting. More likely, 1/2 that #! lol