Prairie dog rifle

[Peebles24]

So my best friend is moving to north Dakota currently and we have been talking about doing a prarie dog hunt for 25 years, looks like 2020 is the year for us.

Now i need to prep some rifles.
I know my 22s will be good out to 100
And I'll probably take my savage 6.5cm i have used for 1k comp, dont want to shoot it to much to fast due to barrel life and ammo cost, but if i see some at 800 plus yeah I'll try it.

What i need is a good 223 that i can depend on out to about 5 or 600 yards i think. Know i have never been on a pd hunt so i may be way off base but i think a cheap to shoot 223 will be good 200 to 600 yards. Problem is i dont have one. What should i get cheap. Thinking heavy barrel bolt gun or on the upper end a psa heavy barrel ar. Trying to stay around 600 bucks or less i already have a scope or 3 laying around.

Help and suggestions will be much appreciated

Thank you
Chad

 

[Mark M.]

Cz 527

 

[22DASHER]

223 shooting 40’s for 0-300
223 shooting 75’s for 300-600ish
6BR/BRA/Dasher shooting 105’s for 600ish-1000
Save the Creedmoor for 1 mile plus!!

 

[TAJ45]

Tikka, Howa & Savage come to mind but don't overlook the general idea of a 20 Practical (no fireforming or special prep) should one present itself.
Maybe try Bob White, Shooter Corner. He should have the occasional plain jane......orrr - many times this time of year, some of the Big Sports stores will have Rem, Sav w rebates for under $400. Stay away from the Winchesters, have yet to hear anything good of a general nature in a long while. Flame suit on !

 

[Peebles24]

I was thinking a savage but to get something not a axis can be quite pricey. I had a 10 25 years ago i wish i still had, would shoot dime size 3 shot groups at 300 yard with fed premium ammo.

 

[jepp2]

I know my 22s will be good out to 100

I was disappointed with the crawl offs when shot with a 22. 17HMR is a much better option. Good to beyond 200 if the wind isn't bad.

I know, folks shoot at PD's a lot further out than I do. But the hit percentage drops off pretty quickly after 300 yards.

After the pups come out, I find using an AR provides a distinct advantage on the fatality rate.

I have to do my own spotting, so using a rifle that doesn't take my scope off the target is critical. I prefer the 20P, but use a 223 for quite a bit of the shooting.

I find the reticle to be extremely useful in dealing with the wind you will encounter. Probably as important as rifle accuracy to me. My personal favorite:

 

[Peebles24]

My 22 is my ara rifle so will be head shot only out to 100 pretty easy, even if i take the savage br 22 at .5 to .7 moa accuracy will still be head shots out to 100.

I do have reticle similar to that on most of my rifles.

I have a ruger American sporter 243 which would be total over kill but it may be cheaper to rebarrel it with a 6br heavy barrel than buying a new rifle. Rebarrel to 223 would require a bolt change so no go.

 

[lawman29]

Remington 700 SPS Varmint is ~ $600.

 

[JSH]

Starting from scratch. I gotta say go with a 204 and don’t look back.
Glass, if your reticle is heavy you will cuss. Easy peasy, tube inside a roll of toilet paper, put that up at 300 and see how it looks. About the size of a pup in the spring.

 

[ShootDots]

I have shot many a prairie dog in my "hunting life".. It has been my experience that a good 22-250 shooting 50-55gr bullets above 3700f.p.s. is death on prairie dogs out to 500 yards!

 

[TheOtherZilla]

If ya wanna go cheap look at a Savage. Cabelas has em on sale from time to time. Yes they will shoot. Son has a 223 Mod 12 whatever and it shoots lights out. They also come in 204. And 22-250

 

[Hotshot]

Starting from scratch. I gotta say go with a 204 and don’t look back.
Glass, if your reticle is heavy you will cuss. Easy peasy, tube inside a roll of toilet paper, put that up at 300 and see how it looks. About the size of a pup in the spring.

Plus one on this. I fire 10,000 rounds a year at prairie dogs. 204R is my primary other 20's are secondary and other calibers are distant third.

 

[pdog2062]

I have been shooting prairie dogs for 40 years and I have narrowed my caliber down to 223 and my bullets are 40 grain vmax and 55 grain bulk from Midsouth. I don’t stretch the range much past 400 yards except on occasion the

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

17 wsm for rimfire, 223 53 gr vmax 9 twist, 204 or 20p 39 gr Sierra or the Speer. Should cover the under 300 yard shots while having some mist factor. You want to clear those out first before shooting the big stuff at the long dogs, suppressor helps keep dogs up longer especially on public ground.

 

[acloco]

My favorite PD rifle.....223 AI. Pushes 55's @ 35xx is great medicine on the PD's.

Use a standard chamber 223, 26" barrel, and start practicing with 52/53/55 grain bullets will work rather well in the WIND that you will experience.

 

[jpx2rk]

If ya wanna go cheap look at a Savage. Cabelas has em on sale from time to time. Yes they will shoot. Son has a 223 Mod 12 whatever and it shoots lights out. They also come in 204. And 22-250

I have one of the FV12's in 204/223 & 22-250. They will be on sale for around $300 or so plus tax at BPS/Cabelas. Can't go wrong for the $$.

 

[daniel brothers]

if you can't see the impacts on the PD's... then half the fun is over with... and that is usually what happens with any rifle that has any recoil. Recoil is no problem if your going to watch each other take shots, but if shooting by yourself... then shoot a VERY LOW RECOIL CALIBER.... like the 20VT... and the barrel does not heat up for all day shooting... and it's cheaper to shoot when your only using small amounts of powder and 32 grain bullets.

 

[moondog]

if you can't see the impacts on the PD's... then half the fun is over with... and that is usually what happens with any rifle that has any recoil. Recoil is no problem if your going to watch each other take shots, but if shooting by yourself... then shoot a VERY LOW RECOIL CALIBER.... like the 20VT... and the barrel does not heat up for all day shooting... and it's cheaper to shoot when your only using small amounts of powder and 32 grain bullets.

Problem with Pdoggin is knowing when to stop. I wasn't good at it. I had a 204, great caliber but got really hot. I went with a VarTarg and don't have to worry about heat now. 223 definitely has the mist factor going for it.

 

[Peebles24]

Cabellas has the 223 12fv for 419. And a 75 dollar rebate. 345 that may be the ticket and leaves enough funds to put a decent stock on it. I have the original 12lrp stock off my 6.5 cm sitting in the cabinet but that has a dbm so wont work with out a few extra parts.

 

[drover]

So my best friend is moving to north Dakota currently and we have been talking about doing a prarie dog hunt for 25 years, looks like 2020 is the year for us.

Now i need to prep some rifles.
I know my 22s will be good out to 100
And I'll probably take my savage 6.5cm i have used for 1k comp, dont want to shoot it to much to fast due to barrel life and ammo cost, but if i see some at 800 plus yeah I'll try it.

What i need is a good 223 that i can depend on out to about 5 or 600 yards i think. Know i have never been on a pd hunt so i may be way off base but i think a cheap to shoot 223 will be good 200 to 600 yards. Problem is i dont have one. What should i get cheap. Thinking heavy barrel bolt gun or on the upper end a psa heavy barrel ar. Trying to stay around 600 bucks or less i already have a scope or 3 laying around.

Help and suggestions will be much appreciated

Thank you
Chad

For $600 or less I would suggest either a Rem 700 SPS heavy barrel or a Savage heavy barrel, personally I have had pretty good luck with the 700 SPS heavy barrel the ones I have owned seemed to group right around 3/4" - 1" for 100 yard 5 shot groups which is more than adequate for 300-400 yards. I have no experience with Savage except for shooting a couple of friends heavy barrel 223's and they seemed to group about the same as the Rem heavy barrel. To me the Savages feel "clunky" but they get a lot of good press about their grouping ability and since you already have one you are probably used to the feel of them. The downside to the Rem 700 is that if you are a trigger snob you probably won't be happy with the trigger.

I am assuming you are a reloader from reading your post - cartridge recommendation:
223 Rem using a 40 gr Hornady V-Max or Nosler Ballistic Tip there are numerous powders that will get you 3750 - 3800 fps out of this combination. This is my go to load for my 223's and it has killed PD's out to 500 yds, the drop and drift pretty much mirrors the 22-250 with 50 gr bullets and is a lot easier on barrels and also allows you to see your hits/misses. It also creates a lot of carnage. What you will likely find though is that most PD shooting takes place in the 125 yard to 300 yard range beyond those ranges hit ratios start falling pretty quickly.

I am in the camp that is against using a 22 LR on PD's, even with head shots. There is usually wind on the plains and as you know the drift of a 22 LR can be hard to compute at 100 yards, I like shooting PD's but I hate to see any creature suffer and IMO there is just too much chance of not getting a quick kill shot with a 22 LR. I tried the 17 HMR for a couple of years within the 100 - 125 yard range and was less than impressed with it - just too many crawl offs.

I have quite a few decades of PD shooting under my belt and many thousands of them have fallen to my rifles - just to let you know that I have done more than read about it.

drover