What's the perfect 223 prairie dog specs?

[searcher]

As experienced by Rtheurer, I too have a 700 w/factory barrel. Only skim bedded the action in the V-block, added the Sightron III scope and Timney trigger. I too feel a bit cheated when I look at what it does compared to the guns I spent the big bucks on. These things can be so accurate. And that group with 9,000 rounds on it - I hope mine lasts that long!

 

[xring]

Hydenseek : I went thru the same thing as you , but it was about 30 years ago . I have taken Pdog Trips almost every year after that . For up to 500 Yards ( mostly 150 to 450 Yards ) , I settled on a Reworked Rem 700 in 223 . I shot various Bullet weights from 40 to 55 Gr. and various Powders . I finally settled on using a 1:14 Hart Barrel and 40 Gr. Vmaxes with either H322 or AA2015 BR Powder ( toss up for Accuracy ) with CCI BR Primers . V133 Powder was also great , but I had plenty of the other two Powders on hand . The Brand of Brass never made much difference in Accuracy with this Rifle and included Win , Rem , IMI , Guatemalen 223 , PMC , and others I can't remember right now . The 12 Pound Rifle is Muzzle Heavy with about 0.94 inches Diam. at 26 Inches , but is exactly what I wanted for a home-made stand-up ( or sit down ) Tripod . I walked around carrying the Heavy Rifle , Tripod , Water , Ammo , Binocs , Rangefinder , and even a fold-up lawn chair for many years . Shots out to about 400 Yards ( or a tad more ) were easy . When I got tired walking , I used a 3 Legged super sturdy Bench built by a guy called Dogbuster ( if I remember correctly ) . Even though I have all sorts of Scopes , I favored a 16X Leupold . I have helped Friends install Bases on a lot of Rem 700s and 2 Piece Bases were always way out of Alignment ( using Brownell Pointers ) . We all went with I pc. Bases . I used all sorts of other Calibers ( Swift , Roberts , 6mm , 243 , 222 , etc. and have a 6.5-06 Ackley for Long Range which I have never used . I was hoping to take one last Trip out for Pdogs , but don't know if I will ever have the opportunity and energy anymore to go out and find good places to shoot . I know my Hart Barrel has over 10.000 Rounds thru it ..... all in the Pdog Fields . I kept very loose records but my Average shooting was about 200 or 250 Rounds per Day , but have heard shooting is down quite a bit lately . If I were going to stretch out the Range to 600 or 700 Yards , I would go with the 53 Vmax in a 223 AI , one of the Hotrod 20 calibers with heavy Bullets , or one of the 6 BR variants . Good Luck !

 

[sundance]

I like the 223 Ackley. Mine are-
Rem 700, Krieger 1 in 14 1.250 inch no taper 28 inch barrel.Jewell trigger.28 grains of 2200 powder with a 40 gr vmax.4100 fps.
Stolle Panda ,barrel unknown, 23 inch 1 in 14 twist ,unknown set trigger(Jewell on its way here now), 27 gr of 2200 ,40 gr vmax at 3900 fps. With no wind last week It took out 3 pdogs at 480 yards with 4 shots.With no wind this caliber is all I shoot.
Good luck with whatever youi get!
Marty

 

[drover]

Well I am going to go against the suggestions, I see that you said you do not intend to use it as a walking varminter but that is a nice option to have. I use a Cooper Varminter in 223 (also available in 223AI), the reason for the Cooper as my choice is simplicity - it has a forend which rides the bags very well for shooting from a rest but with a Leupold 6x18 VX-2 on it the weight is just slightly over 9 lbs so it also can be used as a walking varminter.
The best part is that they come with one-half inch accuracy guarantee, which all of mine have easily beat, so it is just a matter of putting a scope on them and shooting small groups. Another thing in their favor is that are available without having to wait for a build and they are available in a wood or synthetic stock depending on your preferences. The price may seem a bit high but most of the time you will end up with as much in a built rifle with no guarantees of accuracy nor the resale value of the Cooper. And with some careful shopping a person can often find good used ones at less than retail.
I use 40 gr Nosler BTs at 3700 fps and have no problem taking PDs out to 450 - 500 yds with this combo.

drover

 

[Phil]

My friend Joe is correct. My 1:8 223 AI does 3725 with the 53 grain V Max. Very accurate.

What free bore do you run????

How far out are the 53`s seated with it???

Phil.