Good for P Dogs?

[sundance]

Lots of water, sunscreen, and deet. Prairie dogs have fleas that can have the plague. That will ruin your day. I almost lost a good friend that got bit by a flea when he was shooting off a ground pad.He was 2 weeks in the hospital and the doctors saved him in time. After that we all went to trailers to shoot from. Keeps you away from the snakes too. I use plenty of deet. It is cheap insurance. Be safe.
Soon the pups will be out in SE Colorado .That is the starting bell for me to hit the towns. I promise to stay at least 6 feet away from them.

 

[fyrewall]

Hard to be critical of your planned rifles unless some kind of compulsive perfectionist - did I miss seeing a .20 Practical or .204R on the list?

Good advice about fleas, and sunscreen - these small rodents are filthy - carefully avoid any contact with them including fleas, poop, and body fluids. I would not be surprised that these rodents transmitted Hanta virus. I have seen some rattle snakes, most often near boggy or damp areas; red winged black birds also hang around snake spots.

The rodents are stupid but not that stupid and a display of truck chrome or paint shine can spook them - park behind a rise and set up on the other side in front of a feature that will block your outline.

After setting up, I range (range finder) various distances to identifiable land marks like prominent rocks, fence posts, clumps of sage, trees, PD mounds and whatever and make a 200* fan shaped diagram with the distances to these features to enable rapid shooting without constant range finder use.

Stay hydrated - lots of cold bottled water. Eye & ear protection. Long sleeved shirt & some kind of hat to make you look like a pro.

 

[DogBuster]

yes...bring your own shade......table is important.....laying in the dirt doesn't work...

Don't pick up dead dogs.....no no....drinks..snacks....Sham Wow soaked in ice water

243 never interested me.....field weight gun ? too much heat/recoil/noise

My dog guns weigh 16-18#....heavy SS barrels.....223 AI with 53 V max is awesome

20's are where its at if your're serious....this pic is my 20-222

 

[JSH]

yes...bring your own shade......table is important.....laying in the dirt doesn't work...

Don't pick up dead dogs.....no no....drinks..snacks....Sham Wow soaked in ice water

243 never interested me.....field weight gun ? too much heat/recoil/noise

My dog guns weigh 16-18#....heavy SS barrels.....223 AI with 53 V max is awesome

20's are where its at if your're serious....this pic is my 20-222

Take the butt pad off and the grip cap, fill with #9 shot sprayed with WD40 to keep it from corroding. It will make the bigger ones settle down. I took a length of 1/2” steel flat bar, made some T nuts, drilled and tapped it for a swivel stud for a bipod, removable weight. 22-250 heavy barrel acts like a little 17 or 20 now. Should be able to see my hits.......... and misses with no spotter.

Some folks really knock the Choate stocks, I like them for the purpose.

 

[DogBuster]

Have always filled the grip cavity with shot

Get about 1 pound in it..

No corrosion problem here in Utah...

Dry as a popcorn fart

 

[Iowa Fox]

On the 6mm. Anything the 75gr V max can do the 87 V max can do better, short range or long range. I bought 500 each of the 75 and 87 on the same day. I don't think I'll buy anymore 75s.

 

[David Eberts]

I live in south central Montana. I use the roof of my pickup to shoot P dogs. I throw a thick old rug on the top so the bipods don't screw up the finish. Then just behind the cab, just above the cab brake light there is a 2x4 that runs crosswise that's good for sandbags or none. This elevates me high enough to see over the taller grass/ weeds and gives me a excellent field of vision, about 45 degrees of shooting. Most of the time the P dogs have cleared all the vegetation for at least 100 yds. There is not actually a town unless you call a mile wide by about four miles long full of P dogs a town. Well I'm not gonna tell you where this is at. Yeah I stick out like a sore thumb but it does'nt seem to matter. First I will clear out the close in to 100 yds dogs with a Ruger 10/22 then I go to my Savage .17 HMR for dogs that are about 100 to 200 yds out. From 200 yds. to 400+ yds the Savage .223 ( bull barrel 1/9 twist) comes out. Now I'm getting older than dirt so I'm not that good of a shot any more. Yeah my barrels get hot but I wired up a female cigaret lighter socket and mounted it on the before mentioned 2x4. I bought a cool little 12 volt blower ( the kind you blow up air matreses with) at a pawn shop for about 5 bucks and wired in a male plug. Pull the bolts out of the 2 Savage's and stick in the blower tube. Yeah I only have about 45 degrees of horizontal movement but when I can spend about 6 hours of nonstop shooting , except to cool barrels down and never move, who cares. Fair winds and following seas. Phantom Phixer

 

[searcher]

The combo you describe will surely cover the gamut. After many, many refinements and trying different things - I'd alter my lineup to .17WSM short range (0- 250 YDS) .223, .20 Practical (to 400) or .22 Nosler (to 500) for midrange and a heavy-barreled 6 BR for long range. I chose these because they can take repetitive firing and I'm feeling I'm being realistic is windy shooting conditions. A .223 can whack them way past 600 but real-life conditions with wind really tend to shorten the effective range a lot of the time you are out. The .243 is fine for taking some shots "here and there" but it can't tolerate sustained shooting unless it is a really heavy barrel and is constantly cooled with something wet. Even then.... The 6Br can easily knock down twenty in a row before setting aside for ten minutes or wrapping a wet towel around the barrel. Frankly - you will see as many way out there as close in - so you want to use a caliber as much as you can. The .22 Nosler is a fantastic "all around" as with 55 grain bullets, as it is a laser like the .20 practical, though you can step up to the heavier bullets. Once you get out past 400 yards, a range finder is critical. Guesstimating distance wrongly by 25 yards will result in a miss with any of these calibers once they start dropping like a mortar. I've used the Leica and Swarovski ranging binoculars a lot and prefer the Leica. Using binoculars (and scopes) all day really puts strain on the eyes big time if not using quality optics. Get the best you can afford and have fun.

 

[markT]

Take the butt pad off and the grip cap, fill with #9 shot sprayed with WD40 to keep it from corroding. It will make the bigger ones settle down. I took a length of 1/2” steel flat bar, made some T nuts, drilled and tapped it for a swivel stud for a bipod, removable weight. 22-250 heavy barrel acts like a little 17 or 20 now. Should be able to see my hits.......... and misses with no spotter.

Some folks really knock the Choate stocks, I like them for the purpose.

Choate Stock !! Fill the forearm cavities with milled steel flat bar to add weight.

 

[KY_Windage]

In addition to not picking up dead ones, you need to avoid any area where dogs were shot earlier, because the fleas there have abandoned the carcasses and are hungry for a new host. About 24 hours post-mortem seems to be the worst. If you nap in your vehicle be careful when you step out -- rattlers like shade.

For me it is hard to beat a heavy 204. Very accurate and deadly out to 400 yards, 500 in a very accurate rifle in no wind. I have shot them farther than that but even with bigger calibers it is too hard to be accurate much past 400 on such small, often fidgety targets in the wind. I don't like missing or wounding. I used to think the goal was to be able to report firing the most rounds at the end of the trip, now it is to have the highest one-shot kill percentage while avoiding "no-challenge" shots inside about 200.

P-dogs are a wonderful resource for improving your long-range shooting, but they are getting harder and harder to find in most places due to so many people getting into shooting them. Don't waste them by blowing up ones that involve no challenge. I have seen big, thriving towns turned completely barren because they were over-shot and the few that were left could not stand the concentrated predation by eagles, badgers etc. They are not "pests" that need to be eliminated, even in the eyes of most cattle/horse grazers. Notice I said "most." People with limited grazing land often will poison them to get rid of them, but then they won't let people shoot them for fear that one of their cows will get hit.