From my early days of shooting, I had a hankering for a small cartridge that would combine the manners of my hornets with the reach of my 22.250 and the 17Rem was making a bit of a splash but the reported difficulties with fouling and wind effected shots put me off the 17 cal. I really liked the look of the 17mk iv and thought that if there was an inbetween cartridge on the Fireball case it would have to be a winner. Step forward a few years (quite a few) and the 20 VarTarg came on the scene.
While the 17 Hornet runs a 20 gn v-max at 3650, my 20 VarTarg sets a 35gn Berger out the muzzle at 3735fps (19.2gn H4198 - 2207) and this dose indeed have the reach of my 22.250 but with better manners than my hornets had and better accuracy than either ever had. I have also got a under 200 yd load of the 34gn nosler (cheap bulk pack bullets) at 2800fps over 9gn Blue Dot. A veritable goldmine of a little cartridge and have even taken goats with the Berger - 3735fps load. All the small game rifle that I always wanted.

Von Gruff.