Tackling the .20 Practical

Black Gold Custom Arms MT-15

- Rob Behr

The Black Gold Firearms Model MT-15 set for a day at the range. The Dog-Gone-Good shooting bag shown supporting the rifle has become an indispensable tool for both range shooting and prairie dog hunting.

Everyone should have a friend like Dave Allard. He is one of those men who sails gracefully through life, untouched by raindrops and unwilling to see the world as anything other than a hilarious place created for his amusement. He is also a fantastically talented shooter with a taste for the finer things in the firearms world. So, when he offered to loan his brand new .20 Practical AR rifle for testing, I jumped at the chance.

A (1) .223 Remington is shown with three .20-caliber cartridges: (2) .20 Practical, (3) .20 Tactical and (4) .204 Ruger.

As it turned out, there was a reason why Dave’s new rifle was unfired. He admitted that he had no idea how to make the wildcat .20 Practical, and he had little interest in the cartridge if it proved to be an inordinate amount of work. He intended to have the rifle rechambered to .204 Ruger if the .20 Practical proved to be a headache. With that said, he handed me a pedestrian gun case containing an awe-inspiring MT-15 rifle built by Black Gold Custom Arms in Belgrade, Montana. Yup, everyone should have a friend like Dave.