prairie dog rifle, what would you go with?

[Buzzsaw]

would rather stay factory but open. texas prairie dogs, to 500yrd. lookin at .223 AI. tell me your thoughts and ramblings

i own a very accurate .223 with 20" 1-9 twist barrel which i love, shoots 69 and 77 gr bullets well, 24.0 Varget

 

[Sniper338]

20 vartarg if your open to 1 resizing pass to make the brass before getting going

 

[varget204]

I'd pick 204 ruger ,w/40 grain bullets ,it's a lot flatter,500 yards is well wlthin range.I have shot mine out to 1000 yards.You can see your bullet hits do to lower recoil.I don't think you can get eough velocity w,40 grainer's w/ vartag. If you look on 204ruger forum under extreme range i posted pictures of what the .204 is capeable of.

 

[Mark M.]

204 Ruger

 

[varget204]

Yep, 204ruger .com. The .204 brass is easy to get,bullets ,especially 32,40 grain hornady are cheap.costs around $5 a box to reload ,have had cases loaded over 20 times.Fun to shoot,Most 204's will shoot 1 hole, or clover leaf groups; only downsides ,it gets additive shooting one

 

[jcm24m]

204 & 40gr VMAX is the right choice for me.

 

[Puzzaz01]

22-250 14 twist shooting 40 or 50 gr ballistic tips Theses are devastating!!! I use em every year on our p-dog hunt. The 223 & the 204 or no comparison to the 22-250.

Darrin

 

[mikehotel]

My LGS uses a 22 BR, actually he has more then one.I think one is 12 and the other is 14 twist, he shoots 40 and 50 grain v max's.

 

[SS427]

.223 AI would be a great choice. Excellent ballistics with 40 grain bullets. I started shooting the 20 VarTarg about 5 years ago at sage rats and while my .223s still make the trip and see some action, they are the last rifles pulled out.

 

[L.Sherm]

20 Prac. Or 20 SCC

 

[TheOtherZilla]

Just one gun?? I'd go with a 22-250 or a Swift. But, I shoot a ton of dawgs every year. My go to lately is a 17 Hornet.. 500 yards is a looooong ways for a p-dawg.. Realistically most shots are more like 300-350 and under. Yeah that's what I thought, 500 or so, then I bought a pair of Leica range finding Bino's.. Uh, that est 500 yds is more like 275-300 now..

 

[Ken]

one gun ----223
I shoot hundreds of pds every year and have several calibers. 223 fast twist 60 vmax is hard to beat. Low recoil is a must.

 

[ricco1949]

Vartarg...........you'll never regret it.

 

[DennisH]

22.-250 shooting 55 grain NBT's, or my 243 shooting the same bullet, a 6.5x55 Swede for the long shots, 450 yards plus.

And if you really want to have fun, shoot a 338 Edge with 168 grain Barnes tripple shock, 4,200 plus fps, and a blast! I call it my 22-250 on steroids!

 

[17VLD]

Lots of great suggestions offered,for me it would depend on the amount of dogs in town.You can’t go wrong with the 20 VT for high volume shooting even out a little past 500 yards at a slower pace I’d jump on a 22 or 6BR.
Matt

 

[Hrsmn51]

The most fun Ive had shooting PDogs was with my comp rifle 6mm (6XC and 6 CM) . You can buy factory 87 gr for the 6 Creedmoor. Under 400 they are very devastating and great practice. The relief rifle is a 223 with 53 gn. vmax.
H

 

[Alex Wheeler]

My favorite varmint cartridge is any of the 6BR/6BRA/6Dasher cases pushing 55 grain bullets 3600-4000 fps. Accurate and explosive.

 

[Mark W]

I like to take multiple rifles on a PD shoot. I already have 243, 22-250, 223, and 204R. A slow twist 6BR and a 20 VarTarg are next on my list. Honestly though, the one gun that I will never fail to carry to a dog town is my 17 HMR. The smaller calibers are lots of fun if the wind isn’t too bad.

 

[10XSHOOTER]

.223 w/1-8 twist or faster shooting 75-77gr bullets. i've killed SERT's (self erecting rifle targets) with this combo out to 625 yds. Don't do this every day, but no wind it can be done!

 

[drover]

In my experience most PD shooting is done within the 100 - 300 yard range with an occasional longer shot out to 500.
Given that you already have a 223 IMO you are wll covered, the only suggestion I would make is that you consider another 223 if the place you shoot has lots of fast and heavy shooting. I always take two so that one can be cooling while I am shooting the other one.

As far as an "AI" my thought is - why? It does give another 100 - 200 fps, but within the 300 yard range it really doesn't matter that much, PD's are small easy to kill, any trajectory advantage is so slight as to be a non-issue.

A 223 with a 40 gr Nosler BT or Hornady V-Max at 3750 is a formidable PD slaying machine, the difference between it and the 204 is so slight as to be negligible with more positives to the 223 side - longer barrel life, cheaper brass (free if you are a scrounger), excellent selection of bullets, and heavier bullets if you want, unlike the 204 where bullet weight above 40 grains is uncommon.

drover