My Favorite Prairie dog rifle

Quackshot said:

204R all the way! Mine is a Savage target action, Rifle Basics trigger, xcaliber barrel 11 twist. Loves 40 grain vmax bullets groups seldom go over 1/4 inch at 100. 39 grain Sierra bullets shoot even better. 400 yard dogs are in big trouble with this rifle. I have many kills over 600.

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Similar. I'm running a savage LRPV in 204 ruger with a leupold mark 4 m5. Stupid accurate. Steel or prairie dogs out to 600 have been a blast. This summer will be in northern Arizona at 7000 ft elevation and want to push it to 1000.

It's a toss up… CZ527 204 Ruger Boyd's AT one stock, AR15 204 Ruger 24in Lilja barrel both with Arken SH4-4x16

My favorite is a rem 700 trued with a brux heavy varmint contour shooting 62gr vamageddon.

I've never shot the big PD's but I've shot a lot of Gophers/Ground Squirrels. It's hard to pick a favorite but the easy button is the Practical...just neck down some LC range brass and go shoot! I had a seasoned varmint shooter tell me once "They're like golf clubs you need a few for different distances!"
The .20's are where it's at, on a 2 day Gopher trip last year I took a buddy for his first time and he put together a 20 Practical right before we went but also brought his 223 bolt gun...he enjoyed shooting the Practical so much he never even put a round through the 223 and on the way home ordered everything to build a 20 PPC...LOL
My rifles,
Rem 7 300BO action, 24" Pac-Nor in 11 twist barrel in 20 VarTarg shooting 32gr Varmageddon or 32gr V-Max @ 3800
Savage 12FV action, 24" Shilen 12 twist barrel in 20 PPC shooting 40gr V-max @ 3900
Savage 12FV action, 24" X-Caliber 11 twist barrel in 20 Practical shooting 32gr Varmageddon @ 4300
Impact NBK action, 24" X-Caliber 9 twist barrel in 20 BR shooting 55gr Bergers @ 3600

To really get into the red mist club it takes HP. Lots of velocity with frangible pills. The higher FPS 22's are a good start. .243 Rem with 72 grain or even the 87's really work. my257 roberts AI with 87's and 26 inch barrel exceeding 3500 fps. My 29 inch 270AI and 110's really do a number.

Too many to list, but I do like the 223 sized cartridges the most. The 204 Ruger is a favorite with a suppressor…

This is an extremely rare Cooper in 17CCM…

I've shot prairie dogs for nearly fifty years, and used a variety of center fire rifles and pistols. However, the past couple years I've switched to rimfire rifles with a much higher fun factor. I currently shoot 22lr, 22 mag, 17 hmr, & 17 wsm, all with threaded barrels. I use a rimfire suppressor to help control the noise. As we all know, after a few shots with a 223, the dogs tend to disappear. With the right combination of gun, scope and ammo you can shoot rather consistently out to rather lengthy distances with these calibers. So far this summer, I've shot about 2000 prairie dogs and a couple badgers. Rimfire is cheaper to begin with and you don't have to reload. So, the next time you head out to your favorite dog town, grab that rimfire.

My opinion: Rimfires are a bit light for prairie dogs. l have seen too many crawl off for a slow death

budlight said:

To really get into the red mist club it takes HP. Lots of velocity with frangible pills. The higher FPS 22's are a good start. .243 Rem with 72 grain or even the 87's really work. my257 roberts AI with 87's and 26 inch barrel exceeding 3500 fps. My 29 inch 270AI and 110's really do a number.

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I was in Wyoming in early june and went through 300 rounds of 55 gr hpbt's the first day doing the drive by. My buddy missed more and went through about 500 rounds. I bought another 1250 55 gr hpbts I posted on the AR forum I was using a 20 inch ar non brake target rifle right at 3300 fps

I shoot tons of Pdawgs every year, since I live in Wyoming. My very favorite rifle is my ancient CZ 455 in 17 HMR. My usual Dawgin arsenal is usually a bolt 223 and a 20 cal of some sort. Either a 204 or lately a 20 P.

I typically take 4 rifles. 22 mag, Rem 700 Varmint 223 (55 gr handloads), 22-250 Savage Accu trigger/stock (68 grain handloads) and 6 creedmore Savage accutrigger/stock (87 gr handloads).

I know a lot of different calibers have been noted, but accuracy is likely the most important factor in shooting PDs. Beyond about 200 yds (which is a relatively short shot on a PD town) a 1" rifle becomes marginally accurate enough to consistently hit PDs. Simple math really but a lot of people don't factor that in. I would rather have one really accurate rifle in 223 than 5 rifles in various calibers that were 1"+ type.

The 22 mag is about a 3/4" rifle at 100 yds, so I only shoot it 150 yds or less.
The Savage rifles setup with the Accu trigger/stock shoot extremely well. Without, not nearly as good.
The 700 varmint has the 26" varmint barrel and Bell and Carlson stock. Getting a new Timney trigger in a couple weeks. It shoots very well also.

Shrapnel said:

Too many to list, but I do like the 223 sized cartridges the most. The 204 Ruger is a favorite with a suppressor…


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My opinion: Cooper is the best out-of-the box bolt gun made in the last 50 years ANYWHERE. Bottom feeder KRAZE killed COOPER, REMINGTON, WINCHESTER, KIMBER

sw282 said:

My opinion: Rimfires are a bit light for prairie dogs. l have seen too many crawl off for a slow death

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This is a range issue vs. proper/ethical use.