Which action to ise

[Humpy73]

I'm gonna build a 223 for prairie dogs. Which action would you go with?

 

[FEENIX]

I'm gonna build a 223 for prairie dogs. Which action would you go with?

You have plenty to choose from. It boils down to budget, intended purpose, and preference.

 

[Hydra6]

One that takes prefits. I used a Tikka T3 with 223 bolt face

 

[Humpy73]

It's just gonna be a sit and shoot rifle. Not packin it anywhere. Will put a heavy barrel on it.

 

[MSU Marksman]

You'll be hard pressed to beat a Mac Bro's and some Remage barrels.

 

[sable tireur]

It's just gonna be a sit and shoot rifle. Not packin it anywhere. Will put a heavy barrel on it.

The reality is that you can choose just about any action for your PD shooting, it won't make much difference at all. Most of the suggestions are a popularity contest.

The difference comes into whether or not you're frugal and want to spend less money or the costs makes less of a difference and the handling of the action becomes more important.

Frugal, you can get a Howa Mini Action with a heavy barrel for a decent price (Brownells) or you can find one of the many custom actions for up to $2,000 without a barrel or trigger. Custom action are all wonderful, so the price and availability will be the deciding factor. The trigger should be an important consideration though and you should put some work into testing some out first.

I'm not a huge volume shooter for PDs so I've standardized on single shots now. I have no reason to use large capacity magazines since I'm concentrating on making that one great shot. Most action makers will offer single shot configurations. These save them time, money and tooling wear so they are delighted to charge you the same price as an action set up for magazine feed.

While not available commercially anymore, the Remington M788 in .222 Remington were superb rifles for prairie dogs. Don't be afraid to look around in the Classified Forums for lightly used rifles or actions which can be good finds as is or for modifications.

Enjoy the search!

 

[VinceMule]

When buying the action, remember you are building the foundation for a platform. Over the years, your likes and dis likes may change. An Action that will fit a Remington Foot Print will give you a ton of options, so will a savage. Tons of options for Rem foot print, not to mention trigger options.

ON my 223/223 AI switch barrel, I wanted weight so I could see my hits. Heavy laminate stocks help, but ended up ordering a McMillen with the front and butt empty, filled those full of a combo of casting resin and lead shot, added a 30" Max Heavy varmint contour barrel with a muzzle break. This made my Rem 700 weight 19 lbs, and the recoil was so little, I saw the bullets track to the p. dog in high humidity. The 223 AI shoots the 50g V max and blitz kings at 3800 fps with H335 with very long barrel life. I highly recommend the AI, and of course fire forming during shooting p. dogs is the norm. Today, the AI with the 53g V max is fantastic, 12 twists zero freebore to .020 freebore chambers.

Some will boo hoo Savage, but a Savage model 12 with a heavy laminate stock would be a fantastic dog rifle, but I would drill out the butt and fill full of lead.

Bottom like, what kind of budget do you have to work with?

 

[LuvDog]

Since you asked what action I'd go with

For 223, I'd probably pick up an Origin

But the next action that I will be buying is a Lone Peak, but that's because I've have/had most of the other popular actions - Zermatt, Defiance, Terminus, Impact, ARC, and Kelbly.