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Prairie Dog Rifle

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    #16
    no way to go wrong with the 223,, and the 204 ruger, the 223 wins because of availability, bullet choices and price .... the 204 is just awesome on impacts!

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      #17
      Took a trip to the OK Panhandle my friend had a dedicated rig in .243AI and took out dogs up to 730 yds with it.

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        #18
        I see a lot of people saying .223. When I lived in Colorado, there were a lot of .220 swift, 22-250 and .243's being used for prairie dogs. I don't remember seeing anyone using .223. Is this more of a Texas thing than out west?

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          #19
          Originally posted by Ironman View Post
          I see a lot of people saying .223. When I lived in Colorado, there were a lot of .220 swift, 22-250 and .243's being used for prairie dogs. I don't remember seeing anyone using .223. Is this more of a Texas thing than out west?
          not i don't think so , for some it is a price thing, especially if you hand load the 223 comes out way cheaper when you do a 1000 rounds or more, prairie dogs don't require a super high velocity, but hits are more fun!! i had a good time lobbing 223 rounds at 700 yards,,,, certainly not the round for that distance but it is more challenging when your adding several feet of drop! and it seems like everyone in the state has a 223.... i may take my 458 socom and give it a try,,, i know not many have tried that round!

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            #20
            Originally posted by Ironman View Post
            I see a lot of people saying .223. When I lived in Colorado, there were a lot of .220 swift, 22-250 and .243's being used for prairie dogs. I don't remember seeing anyone using .223. Is this more of a Texas thing than out west?
            I've seen lots of people shooting dogs with a .223. Even the old .22 hornet is pretty popular. The reason is that you can do 10 quick shots with a .223 before the barrel starts getting really hot. Try that with a 22-250 or a 220 swift and your barrel will be toast before long. The bigger boomers are great but when the action is hot and heavy the barrels heat up too quick. Keep pushing them and you will ruin your barrel.

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              #21
              I've shot thousands of them, bring two rifles at the minimum. 17hmr and a 223 are my perfect combo

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                #22
                We used to bowhunt pronghorn in Wyoming and the ranch had two PD towns that we set up on once we had a goat on ice. The .223 was ok, but the 22-250 was the berries at longer distances in the wind. That 40 gr. bullet at 4,000 fps gets there quick ! We both used .223s at first, but when the dumb ones all died you had to reach on out there.

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                  #23
                  12 gauge,22lr,17mach2,17hmr,.22mag and .17WSM for shorter range. The .17WSM is my favorite.

                  .223,204 and 22-250 for long range. A .223 is a good option. Ammo is pretty cheap and you can see the hits better. If you're just doing it every once in a while the costs of ammo might not matter much. American Eagle Varmint and Predator 50 grain HP's for .223 and 22-250 are a good choice of ammo if you're wanting to save a little on ammo. That's what I use in mine mostly. But there's a dog town a mile from my house so I don't shoot the high dollar stuff. During the Spring I'd go broke if I did. Coyotes and other scavengers eat pretty good that time of year.

                  It just depends on the time of year as far as how much ammo you can expect to go through goes. When the baby ones are out you'll go through a lot of bullets. Just depends how much they get shot at too though. This time of year they run and dive in their holes when a pickup rolls through the gate.
                  Last edited by okrattler; 02-10-2018, 11:34 PM.

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                    #24
                    Originally posted by M.E.B. View Post
                    I may get a chance to hunt prairie dogs. What caliber rifle should I use/buy?

                    I hear that you get a lot of shots over 3 days.

                    Is it possible to shoot out a barrel? Makes me a bit afraid to spend a lot on a rifle.
                    I ran 6 years of PD’s on 25 sections on the biggest dog town in West Texas...I ran 140 selected shooters and saw 50,000+ rounds sent down range a season..Seen every kind of round made for a prairie maggot. You won’t be hand loading so you won’t burn up a barrel in 3 days. Get good GLASS!! Don’t over think this...KISS.. Keep It Simple Stupid.... you are obviously a first timer..Get good glass... 22-250,.204,.223. High winds .243. My favorite WAS the .243WSSM because it was fast, bucks the wind, and turns them inside out and puts them 20 feet in the air.. NOW it’s the .204.... the .40gr bullet kicks butt way better than the .32gr but it’s tough finding a gun that liked it...Clean the gun every 50 rounds... You miss a PD by a 1/4 inch you still missed... Clean the gun.... if you are going when pups are up, shoot momma first.. She calls out she will take the pups down with her.... If you are doing pay and shoot, always shoot into the wind or 90 degrees, never downwind..they can hear the shots easier and smell you... and never walk into the area right after shooting, it’s toast ... Get good glass... get an elbow pad, 300-600 rounds a day.. if it’s cloudy you won’t shoot as much... windy windy you won’t shoot as much ... hot won’t shoot as much... know the ballistics of the round and have a back up rifle... there is more but it’s late, good luck.. Get a good F’ing scope!!!

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                      #25
                      I got to go once as a kid. Spent two weeks in the Casper Wyoming, well that's where we stayed. We hunted around Elk's Mt. Colorado, and other places in southern Wyoming. All we had were a couple of 22 LRs, we kill a lot of prairie dogs. When we went to one place, it might have been Elk's Mt., don't remember, just remember it was some place that was noticeably higher elevation. I remember very clearly that the area around Elk's Mt. was a lot higher elevation that we had been in. Where ever it was, we found what we thought were huge prairie dogs, they may have been, but people have told me since, they were probably rock chucks. Whatever those things were, they were hard to kill with a 22 LR at 150 yards. We would shoot them, they would fall over, then get right back up. The common size prairie dog, we had no problem killing with 22 LRs, using CCI Stingers. We killed prairie dogs out to probably 200 to 250 yards with the 22s. Most of our shots were at ranges of 70 to 100 yards.

                      I have talked to guys who like to take custom built ARs, in 223 and shoot prairie dogs out to 1100 yards. I would think the wind drift at that range, would make it pretty hard to hit those rodents at that range. I sure would not mind taking a 223 Wylde or 22 Noser AR with a 24 barrel, prairie dog hunting. That would probably be a blast. With probably something like a 6-20X scope and a good spoting scope.

                      I have been told that in most areas, that the praire dog population is nowhere near what it used to be. I have been told that disease has killed off a lot of them years ago, in many areas. But I would bet those things reproduce very quickly and could repopulate a area quickly. I know when I went to Wyoming and Colorado, they were like rats in south Texas or cockroaches on the coast.

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                        #26
                        I'm supposed to go with a buddy that's been several times. He said bring 2000 rounds of 22 mag and 2000 rounds of 223 , he said you'll shoot most of them. They use the 22 mag for some smaller dogs that are everywhere he said. He said you will fire of shooting

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                          #27
                          You need this! Tack driver on small game...204 with 100 rounds ammo!

                          Last edited by mdnabors; 02-11-2018, 06:14 PM.

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                            #28
                            Originally posted by Ironman View Post
                            I see a lot of people saying .223. When I lived in Colorado, there were a lot of .220 swift, 22-250 and .243's being used for prairie dogs. I don't remember seeing anyone using .223. Is this more of a Texas thing than out west?
                            Probably more due to the volume of shooting & distance...most of the guys I know who did it regularly would take the 223 with a lot more rounds for the closer shots & then switch to the swift / 22-250 when they started to thin & wanted to reach out.

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                              #29
                              Originally posted by Artos View Post
                              Probably more due to the volume of shooting & distance...most of the guys I know who did it regularly would take the 223 with a lot more rounds for the closer shots & then switch to the swift / 22-250 when they started to thin & wanted to reach out.
                              Either that or people in Texas just get it. I've shot them with a .223,.204,22-250,.243,.308,7mm,ect and I know someone who has shot them with a 50bmg. I can't say I've ever killed one any deader with one than with the other. Like you said you'll dump some at further distances with some but out to 300-350 yards a .223 gets it done.

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                                #30
                                204! Mostly just because I love mine lol

                                Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

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