Which stock/chassis for a prairie dog rifle

[Lefty2506]

I'm slowly collecting funds to assemble a mid range (400-600 yd) bolt action PD rifle. Will probably be in 22BR. I'm at a point where I can start purchasing some of the components if I find a good deal on them. On that note, I'm trying to decide what stock or chassis I should try to focus on. My current PD rifle is a Savage Mod 12 in .223. I've had it in a Boydes At-One thumbhole stock. For that rifle, that stock would have been fine except that it had a blind mag and I was always scraping my knuckles while loading ammo. I switched to an Oryx chassis and like it a lot better just because I can feed from an AICS mag.

At home in Indiana, my shooting will be done off a concrete bench, but out west I'll be sitting in a bag chair shooting off a tripod or laying prone. Even though we normally do some walking while we hunt, I don't mind the weight of the Oryx. Not sure I'd want to go much heavier though. My only real complaint about the Oryx is that it didn't have any M-Lok on the sides of the forfend, or any convenient way to add a QD Sling socket to the sides of the rifle. I was able to fill part of the fore end with JB weld, and then do some simple machine work to add what I wanted, but if I'm spending money on something more expensive than an Oryx, I would expect it to already have this feature. I do want a mostly vertical palm swell, an adjustable cheek piece, and some way to adjust the LOP (shims are fine). My ball head fits an ARCA rail, but I have an M-lok adapter already (and they are inexpensive), so a built in ARCA rail is nice, but not a must have. I normally bed all of my actions (even chassis), and I'm not completely set on getting a chassis instead of a stock. I just know that a chassis is normally going to have all the features and adjustments that I want. I'm leaning mostly towards an MTD chassis only because I can normally find them in stock at some of the bigger retailers meaning there's a better chance of finding one on sale. If there's a reason to look at another brand instead, I'm all ears. I don't have my heart set on a specific model because I don't really know or understand they differences between all of them. The only one I've used has been the Oryx, and aside from the whole sling mounting issue, I'm very satisfied with it. Most of the other MTD chassis appear to be about the same weight, or at least close enough that it shouldn't negatively impact my application if they are a little heavier.

I'd love to hear thoughts from others on this subject. Why do you use what you use? Pros and cons of the stuff you've tried.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[5spd]

I had the boyds thumbhole stock on my savage pdog rig for years, great stock, BUT then I got a MDT ORYX stock, BAM what a difference a solid chassis makes. The 10 round aics mags sure beat the heck out of any blind mag.
Magpull 223 Aics mags work slicker than the mdt aics mags as well.

 

[10XSHOOTER]

KRG - Bravo!

 

[Dave in WI]

My only real complaint about the Oryx is that it didn't have any M-Lok on the sides of the forfend, or any convenient way to add a QD Sling socket to the sides of the rifle.

Check out their XRS chassis.
XRS Chassis

 

[shoot4fun]

The only magazine that gets loaded on a dog town is for my AR and the CZ452 17HMR. Single feeding wins on everything else. No problem with what your plan is though. It should give you a little cool down time when reloading magazines. As I have always shot from benches or truck windows, I use an inexpensive Caldwell rest. That helps me stay at least close to the area where I want to be sending more rounds toward and is a little more stable than a bipod.
Are you going to have a guide? If so, he will tell you what his normal MO for the field is. Ask if he has benches (rotating or not), if "drive-by" shooting is usual or he doesn't allow it, how many shooters per guide/spotter he usually uses, will he supply field food for lunch and cold beverages (water, Gatorade, etc).
Ask what stocks/chassis he sees most and what caliber rifles are best for the areas you will shoot on.
The AR and 17HMR are my "truck guns" and (my all-time favorite) 22-250 bolt guns from the bench. Why? They can be handy when he wind blows (and it usually does), reach distances from close to pas 500/600 yards easily and they make those varmints a visual treat (explode and launch).

 

[powderbrake]

I can't fault your choice of 22BR, but a magazine gun is not really necessary for PD hunting. Our group of four uses (2) 204 Ruger, (1) 22-250, and I use a custom 6BR single shot, with a 22-250 single shot as my back-up gun. The other guys all shoot Savage 112's, Long range or similar.

Both of my stocks are McMillan's. One an A3 and one A5 both with adjustable cheekpiece, and sloped lower on the butt for gross elevation changes (not flat like an F class stock.) Actions are bedded.

We all shoot off of rotary tables, 3 with fixed front rests and a rear bag, except me, I use a SEB mini joystick front rest. I slide the rear bag for gross elevation changes, and use the joystick for fine changes.

We all use a rangefinder or rangefinding binoculars, and have wind meters and ballistic solver programs. A couple of us have been doing this for 30 years, and have evolved to what we now use. Here is a pic of my set-up. It is lefthanded, as a couple years ago, my right eye went bad, so I had to learn to shoot left handed. The table top simply flips over for right handed. I am running a Kestrel 5700 on a wind vane mount,with Applied Ballistics, reading out clicks on my Iphone which is mounted to the table.

 

[Lefty2506]

The only magazine that gets loaded on a dog town is for my AR and the CZ452 17HMR. Single feeding wins on everything else. No problem with what your plan is though. It should give you a little cool down time when reloading magazines. As I have always shot from benches or truck windows, I use an inexpensive Caldwell rest. That helps me stay at least close to the area where I want to be sending more rounds toward and is a little more stable than a bipod.
Are you going to have a guide? If so, he will tell you what his normal MO for the field is. Ask if he has benches (rotating or not), if "drive-by" shooting is usual or he doesn't allow it, how many shooters per guide/spotter he usually uses, will he supply field food for lunch and cold beverages (water, Gatorade, etc).
Ask what stocks/chassis he sees most and what caliber rifles are best for the areas you will shoot on.
The AR and 17HMR are my "truck guns" and (my all-time favorite) 22-250 bolt guns from the bench. Why? They can be handy when he wind blows (and it usually does), reach distances from close to pas 500/600 yards easily and they make those varmints a visual treat (explode and launch).

No, we don't use guides. Some of our hunting is on a Res, so vehicles have to stay by the road and we have to walk in. That's why I don't bother with portable benches. If we wanted to drive another 8-10hrs, a portable bench would be well worth the effort, but 16-17 hrs of driving each way is about as far as I'm willing to go.

The only reason that I would prefer a detachable mag is because I absolutely hate loading a blind mag. I generally use on piece pic rail (even if its a 0 MOA rail), and I'm constantly taking the skin off my knuckles when I load them. I can always stick a sled in it to load singles if I want. I prefer not to break position between shots, and that is still doable with a single round sled, but if I'm shooting PDs, the convenience of feeding from a mag is nice so long as I don't get in a hurry.

I'm waiting on a 20 Practical upper to be finished (currently waiting on the barrel). Once I've done load development for it, it will probably replace my 223 Savage simply because its ballistics with a 39-40gr bullet should be an absolute ballistic twin to what I get from my Savage with a 53gr v-max. I run my 223 out to 600 yds now, but prefer to stay inside of 300. Depending on the wind, I can still get a good hit ratio at 400 with it. The rifle is accurate enough to shoot 600 with no problems, but the wind blows it around too much. Even when its relatively calm (for the prairie anyway), the unknown distance ends up biting me a lot more past 400 also. Plan is for 223 or 20P for 300 and under, and 22BR pushing a 62gr ELD-VT for anything further. If the 69gr ELD-VT turns out to have any added benefit, I may end up going with a slightly larger cartridge (22GT?) to push that instead. Still have time to decide on that though.

 

[Lefty2506]

Check out their XRS chassis.
XRS Chassis

What do you like about vs others on the market?

 

[Ackman]

I'm slowly collecting funds to assemble a mid range (400-600 yd) bolt action PD rifle. Will probably be in 22BR. I'm at a point where I can start purchasing some of the components if I find a good deal on them. On that note, I'm trying to decide what stock or chassis I should try to focus on. My current PD rifle is a Savage Mod 12 in .223. I've had it in a Boydes At-One thumbhole stock. For that rifle, that stock would have been fine except that it had a blind mag and I was always scraping my knuckles while loading ammo. I switched to an Oryx chassis and like it a lot better just because I can feed from an AICS mag.

At home in Indiana, my shooting will be done off a concrete bench, but out west I'll be sitting in a bag chair shooting off a tripod or laying prone. Even though we normally do some walking while we hunt, I don't mind the weight of the Oryx. Not sure I'd want to go much heavier though. My only real complaint about the Oryx is that it didn't have any M-Lok on the sides of the forfend, or any convenient way to add a QD Sling socket to the sides of the rifle. I was able to fill part of the fore end with JB weld, and then do some simple machine work to add what I wanted, but if I'm spending money on something more expensive than an Oryx, I would expect it to already have this feature. I do want a mostly vertical palm swell, an adjustable cheek piece, and some way to adjust the LOP (shims are fine). My ball head fits an ARCA rail, but I have an M-lok adapter already (and they are inexpensive), so a built in ARCA rail is nice, but not a must have. I normally bed all of my actions (even chassis), and I'm not completely set on getting a chassis instead of a stock. I just know that a chassis is normally going to have all the features and adjustments that I want. I'm leaning mostly towards an MTD chassis only because I can normally find them in stock at some of the bigger retailers meaning there's a better chance of finding one on sale. If there's a reason to look at another brand instead, I'm all ears. I don't have my heart set on a specific model because I don't really know or understand they differences between all of them. The only one I've used has been the Oryx, and aside from the whole sling mounting issue, I'm very satisfied with it. Most of the other MTD chassis appear to be about the same weight, or at least close enough that it shouldn't negatively impact my application if they are a little heavier.

I'd love to hear thoughts from others on this subject. Why do you use what you use? Pros and cons of the stuff you've tried.

Thanks,
Mark

The stock doesnt matter, use whatever you like. The rodents will explode regardless of the stock. Years ago I shot many with stock Rem Varmint rifles. My varmint guns now wear McMillan Sako varmint pattern, or Win. Marksman. Those stocks because the barrels are heavier, and I like the way they look. I mostly feed them singly and seldom as a repeater. Forend size only needs to accomodate the barrel contour, prairie dogs don't care what stock you use, they don't know.. A sporter would blast them just as well. And there's no rulebook saying you gotta use a chassis. But it's nice to have a bedding block, like the HS, or a bedded stock. I have both.

 

[shoot4fun]

No, we don't use guides. Some of our hunting is on a Res, so vehicles have to stay by the road and we have to walk in. That's why I don't bother with portable benches. If we wanted to drive another 8-10hrs, a portable bench would be well worth the effort, but 16-17 hrs of driving each way is about as far as I'm willing to go.

The only reason that I would prefer a detachable mag is because I absolutely hate loading a blind mag. I generally use on piece pic rail (even if its a 0 MOA rail), and I'm constantly taking the skin off my knuckles when I load them. I can always stick a sled in it to load singles if I want. I prefer not to break position between shots, and that is still doable with a single round sled, but if I'm shooting PDs, the convenience of feeding from a mag is nice so long as I don't get in a hurry.

I'm waiting on a 20 Practical upper to be finished (currently waiting on the barrel). Once I've done load development for it, it will probably replace my 223 Savage simply because its ballistics with a 39-40gr bullet should be an absolute ballistic twin to what I get from my Savage with a 53gr v-max. I run my 223 out to 600 yds now, but prefer to stay inside of 300. Depending on the wind, I can still get a good hit ratio at 400 with it. The rifle is accurate enough to shoot 600 with no problems, but the wind blows it around too much. Even when its relatively calm (for the prairie anyway), the unknown distance ends up biting me a lot more past 400 also. Plan is for 223 or 20P for 300 and under, and 22BR pushing a 62gr ELD-VT for anything further. If the 69gr ELD-VT turns out to have any added benefit, I may end up going with a slightly larger cartridge (22GT?) to push that instead. Still have time to decide on that though.

I wasn't aware one could hunt the Res without having one of them guiding. Everyone I know who's shot on a Res has said they had to pay for a guide.
In the last 25 years I've shot PD's in TX, NE, KS, SD, WY AND NM. Mostly have used a guide and generally all were very productive. One of the best places was in TX where we had seemingly unlimited targets and free roam of 13,000 acres guided only by which PD rich area we wanted to hit that day. we paid the rancher a very minimal trespass fee and, one time, were invited to be guests in his "bunkhouse".
I know what you mean about the travel. It seems the towns get farther away from AL every year!
As for cartridge choices, make it easy on yourself (as I do). TAKE AT LEAST ONE OF EVERYTHING!!!!!

 

[Rick300]

I have an Oryx chassis and don't like the ergonomics of it. If you get one be sure to get high scope rings or you won't be able to get low enough to have a clear picture through the scope. I like the XRS better

 

[Lefty2506]

I wasn't aware one could hunt the Res without having one of them guiding. Everyone I know who's shot on a Res has said they had to pay for a guide.
In the last 25 years I've shot PD's in TX, NE, KS, SD, WY AND NM. Mostly have used a guide and generally all were very productive. One of the best places was in TX where we had seemingly unlimited targets and free roam of 13,000 acres guided only by which PD rich area we wanted to hit that day. we paid the rancher a very minimal trespass fee and, one time, were invited to be guests in his "bunkhouse".
I know what you mean about the travel. It seems the towns get farther away from AL every year!
As for cartridge choices, make it easy on yourself (as I do). TAKE AT LEAST ONE OF EVERYTHING!!!!!

Yeah, unfortunately it's hard to really say that Indiana is within driving distance of and decent PD towns. We end up around Pierre SD. If we drove further into the western portion of the state, or into WY, or into western ND, the shooting would be noticeably better, but we have fun with it as is. We did a guided hunt in WY on our first trip, and the shooting was better, but not enough to justify the extra travel time or extra cost. The res we hunt on doesn't require a guide (yet), but I think its the only one that doesn't. If that changes, we will likely stop hunting on the res all together. I have no problem paying a nominal fee for access to property, but there are a number of places that want just as much for PDs as they do for pheasant and deer. I'm not tight on funds, but I am a financially responsible person, and I can have just as much fun catching crappie in TN with my buddies as I can shooting PDs with them out west, and one of those has the added benefit of some pretty tasty eats.

 

[Lefty2506]

I have an Oryx chassis and don't like the ergonomics of it. If you get one be sure to get high scope rings or you won't be able to get low enough to have a clear picture through the scope. I like the XRS better

As I mentioned, I already have an Oryx on my Savage mod 12. I don't have any issues with the ergonomics, but I do understand what you're saying. I normally use glass with 54-56mm objectives, so I'm normally into high rings right from the start. Sounds like the XRS is just a better fit for you. That's worth looking into before I buy anything. I wonder if there are any factory rifles that use the XRS that I could shoulder and use for a comparison.

 

[RabbitSlayer]

KRG works for my prairie dog guns. They dont really have sales. The only discounts are site wide discounts on a distributor website or on 4th of July and black friday they have a blem sale.

 

[jpx2rk]

I use Savage actions more than anything else, so I have acquired the Savage BVSS laminated stock for each one, they accept the aftermarket barrels with little to no sanding as they usually came with the Savage bull or varmint barrel from the factory. The only thing that changes is the caliber, from a 20P up to a 6BR. Everything is basically the same, easy set up, not much/no fiddling due to different stocks. I do have a Boyds AT-1 on a 223, and a Boyds Praire Hunter (?) on another 20P. They are similar enough to where the bag set up is similar IIRC. I use single shot sleds as I hate loading mags, both internal and external. I use a portable bench that folds flat for travel.

 

[NDSU]

KRG - Bravo!

This. Great off a bipod, bench or walking around. They offer a military discount too.

 

[NDSU]

I have a set of 22BR dies if you need them.