Looking for help on prairie dog hunting rifles

[Mike Matteson]

thanks for the info. I am using a 220 swift, and 17WSM also. Someday I will get my 6mm/280AI into play.

 

[tnbndr]

Orkan sounds like the guy to believe.
I will add that when we were out there in early May this year, it was not windy at all. So the .17 WSM performed well.
My partner had a .223 also.

 

[mtudn24]

I would search ammo first, then buy rifles in the caliber you can find.

Do you know what type of distance you will be shooting? I'd spend money on the best glass you can afford and more ammo. Really make sure you site it in the way you plan to shoot in field. .223 recoil is great you can spot your own miss (which is going to be a lot) with good glass then make quick adjustments.
If PDogs are not pressured you can easily get 3-5 shots before they decide somethings up.

I've been told 75-600 is possible. Its a group of dads that deer / turkey / waterfowl and fish together with the kids. Will be first time for all of us out west. Doing some research on guides, lodges, etc.

 

[mtudn24]

@mtudn24 , I shoot about 5,000-10,000 pdogs per year... and I can tell you unequivocally that anything you bring, can kill a pdog. However, there are some things you should know, in no particular order.

Big loud rifle scare them. Use suppressors if you can.

Vehicles, tables, and other large objects on the edge of their town, scares them. If you want more shot opportunities, pack in and lay down.

Hitting pdogs with light weight lightly constructed bullets, makes for comical impacts... however, hitting those little guys in actual Dakota field conditions is not conducive to those lightweight high velocity bullets. Instead, bullets with high BC's are what makes the hits happen. The wind blows here, nearly every day... and it blows hard. As I type this, its a sustained 35mph out there. If you want to make a bunch of noise and hit a few, the lightweight bullet thing is fine. If you want to really do some damage to a pdog town... high BC bullets in a very accurate/precise rifle will win the day. Fast twist 22cal or 6mm. Either will do. If I could only have one colony varmint rifle... it would be a 6mm BRA or 22 BRA.

Everyone should show up with a 17WSM. ... and I mean everyone. A .17WSM, at least 1000rnds of ammo for each (probably 2000) and a tripod for each. When you first roll into the town, you can just walk around taking kneeling/standing shots on dumb pups with 17WSM's out to 250yds... and you will kill HUNDREDS of them and have an unbelievable time doing it. Everyone will have fun doing that. If the wind is above 10-12mph... leave the 17WSM's in the truck.

Don't bring a wide range of cartridges. You'll spend the entire time trying to get the various rifles dialed in. Instead, just bring two cartridges if you can. .17WSM, and then all .223's or all .204's or all 6mm's. All running the same bullet at roughly the same velocity. That way, the whole party can be dialing in the wind call in mils or moa for every shot fired. All run the same optic configuration. If its mils, then everyone should be on mils. By the time a couple hours passes... you'll all be locked on and crushing shots all over the town. Fast twist barrels with high BC bullets wins the day.

I go out with guys that run light bullets, and it's pretty comical when the wind gets up over 5mph. Consider the following.

500yd with a .223rem in 10mph breeze @ 9:00
Bullet - Elev - Wind
55gr - 2.8mil - 1.9mil
80gr - 2.7mil - 1.1mil

That's a huge difference, and only gets worse, the more the wind blows. So if you like hitting your intended target, focus on precision and accuracy.



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Great info. Thank you.. So sounds like get my 17 WSM and keep the 223's I have or buy a .223 bolt action heavy barrel with a faster twist then what I have currently if I still want to buy a 2nd new firearm? My most accurate 223 is probably the Rugger 77 VT, but its a 1/12 twist as that was only made available back in 2000 when we purchased it new
Thanks
Todd

 

[sw282]

Light/Fast boolits are BEST. Light ones get there quicker too. Example: This year, June 2021, New Mexico my pd buddy and l were both shooting 223s. He like 55gr boolits @3200fps. l prefer 40s @ 3700-3800fps. He gets good hits with his 55s. My 40s are SPECTACULAR.
lnide 300yds the 40s make them EXPLODE. Cut in HALF. You can hear mine POP
Another thing: Leave the ARs at home. Esp for your first chuut:
Stick with single shots/bolt guns. A guy and his son rolled into the lodge from PA for their first PD outing. Both packing ARs, Together they shot around 600 times. Killed about 40 PDS. They both went home disappointed. Blaming their guns/scopes/ammo. Guides say ARs make folks Spray and Pray. PD buddy and l shot maybe 400rds. 50% kill rate.

Scopes. We both use 6-20x. Simpler reticle the BETTER. l use a simple crosshair. Bud uses a fine duplex. Some of these ''tacticool'' scope reticles are so cluttered you cant even FIND those PD targets. You dont have time to DIAL IN your shot either. After a few ''dial ins'' you likely have no earthly idea where those boolits are hitting

 

[Ken61]

I go on 3-4 prairie dog shoots per year. My go-to is 223. I take along a couple of other calibers just for something different and if the wind gets bad-243 Win.
One mistake I make is taking too many different calibers. Take your go-to and a backup and shoot.

The post by sw282 is spot on.

 

[budlight]

I'm a HP fan. I have been a road racing driving instructor for years and I won't even get in a Miata no matter how fixed up! It's been the same way with rifles. As a 10 year old I was given a 26 inch barrel 22-250 and all the reloading gear. Within a couple of years I was getting paid to get rid of marmots.

As I got older rifles got bigger. But for squirrel and Prairie poodles cheap shooting has it's advantages. To be a red mist person forget all those phoney sub .223 crap. No I don't like 17, 19, 20 cal no matter how much money you throw into it.

I go to south Dakota most every year and take quality 20 and 24 inch AR platforms with match grade SS with scopes like 8X32 56 and 60 mm objectives. Big objectives you can get on stuff faster. My friends have pickups with shooting platforms because they are into it! It makes for driving between dog towns better and height is an advantage. You just make the rounds through the day. We also do 4X4 quads with forward solid shooting rests so we can split up hundreds of yards apart and go to work.

We always take our trusty 26 inch rem XPS Varmintor 243's. It's a real red mister with 87 grain V-Max. reloads chrono at up to 3500 fps with StaBall 6.5. I'm not sure about factory v-max ammo.

guns get hot so you need several per person. So you start in closer with .223 and work up to 243 when they start to to disappear. Then drive off to a new town and start over. I've shot up to 1500 .223 rounds and nearly 600 high powered rounds on a single Safari. Yes, I also use quality target 25-06 and 270's for varmints.

There is just a certain amount of satisfaction and bragging rights of who got the dog helicoptering around the highest when you shoot just where their belly is on the dirt mound when they are out sunning. That just doesn't happen with low HP rounds. The ranchers are so happy when we show up. A comment years ago was, :" It sounded like a war today with you three guys showing up and you killed more in one day than $5000 dollars worth of poisoning!" They invite you back.

The other bonus of HP rifles is you also use the same rifles for Texas pig hunting!

 

[orkan]

Great info. Thank you.. So sounds like get my 17 WSM and keep the 223's I have or buy a .223 bolt action heavy barrel with a faster twist then what I have currently if I still want to buy a 2nd new firearm? My most accurate 223 is probably the Rugger 77 VT, but its a 1/12 twist as that was only made available back in 2000 when we purchased it new
Thanks
Todd

7 twist would be best if you are set on a .223. The days of firing 1000 rounds in a day of prairie dog hunting are over. (or at least suspended) They are a skittish bunch. Once you get to banging away, you'll find that the majority of your shot opportunities will be beyond 300yds... and that is precisely the distance that a .223 with lightweight bullets becomes fairly useless if it's anything but a picturesque day. (which we almost never get in the western dakotas) Basically, if you want to really hammer on a dog town, you better be able to hit a soda can at 600yds with 90% of the shots fired. A 26" .223 with heavies is just barely up to that task. A 204 with 55's qualifies also.

 

[shortgrass]

Oklahoma prairie dogs, the wind always blows here! There aren't nearly as many dog towns as there was 30yrs ago. They get shot at a lot, so they're wise! I'm shooting a Rem Varmint Master that I re-barreled to .22/250 Ackley with a 1-8 twist Hart. Loading 69g Sierra Match Kings @ 3175. My second is a custom built 6mm Rem Ackley Improved with a 1-7 Krieger, on a CZ Mauser '98. The 22/250 is a "Varmint" weight barrel and the 6mm is a #4 contour. I loading 107g MKs @ 3100fps. My "varmint Master" was born a .22/250 with a 1-14. 55g was as heavy as it would shoot accurately, and the wind just made it all but impossible on many days. I've hunted with guys who bring 'lighter' armament, and the wind just eats 'um up... I'd opt for a 6mm/243 of some sort if I was going with factory rifles. It'll cover all days, calm and windy. It may leave you with a "bad taste" if ya' travel and have .223s (or lighter) and it's windy all the time you're there. Reloads are the only way to go, as factory ammo would just be too expensive for the number of rounds anticipated. I'm not real familiar with what the factories off these days in 6mm/243, but there's bound to be some that are useful for your needs at 'reasonable' prices. Ammo is gonna' be the biggest factor. I haven't seen any .243 Win. ammo or less than premium brass on the shelves in some time.

 

[tomsd]

For your consideration sir: 105 hybrid @ 2925fps from my 6mm Dasher at 225yds.




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WOW

 

[John215]

I'm no expert but the most fun I've ever had in a dog town was with my 243 WSSM and Barnes Varmit Grenades. Almost as good as a good 4th of July show. Definitely shoot suppressed if at all possible, it will at least double your shot opportunities. Good luck!

 

[cvixx]

I can't respond on a caliber to hunt the dogs, here in S Utah we had a supposedly unique of them which were protected. 5-6 years ago we were suddenly inundated with dogs, hundreds of thousands appeared in every level piece of land. They tunneled under runways, overturned tombstones in cemeteries. Every time you went to town there were a bunch flattened on the road. All protected. Yet a year ago, they all disappeared! None to be seen. Disease? Overcrowding? I have wondered if hunting had been allowed, whether thinning the herd might have prevented their wholesale destruction.

so good luck with your hunt and do your best to preserve the species, while eliminating a few hundred dogs.

 

[Alan Abbott]

Back in the day we used 17 HMR, pop them all day long no issues. Nice flat shooting round.

 

[Tidus56]

I have shot P dogs most my life, my family are all farmers or ranchers so P dogs are a pest that ruin our hay fields and their holes hurt our livestock.
The first thing I would say is 6mm is really my favorite caliber of bullet for P dogs. The cartridge choice in 6mm is up to each person but 6BR or 6BRA or 243 or 6 creed are all great.
For a gun to shoot quantity I would be pleased with a 223 or even a 17 wsm then a 6mm for further stuff.