Recommendation for prarie dogs

I am planning a permanent move to Wyoming in the next few months, and I may well have to invest in a 223 in order to increase my fun factor. I am also thinking about a 260 Remington-I hear they are pretty good for long range.

Clearly the answer

Well I learned some things in this thread.

I need an AR ASAP.
I also need a new bolt gun that doesn't throw pumpkins like my .30-06's. The very least, a longrange .308.

A friend of mine and I went to South Dakota to shoot praire dogs in 2013 and 2014. My friend got a Savage 12 in 22-250.

I muddle over the choice I had and elected 204 Ruger. It shot a little flatter than the 223 Remington so longer range shots, out to 500 yards or so, would be a bit easier.

I also got a Savage 12 and like rifle very much. The first year, I had hoped to take an AR-15 chambered in 204 Ruger but I was having feeding problems that I could not correct before the trip. So I took a 223 Remington bolt rifle as back up.

I found the AR problem was the bolt carrier was moving too fast so the second year I took the 204 Ruger AR with the Savage as back up. Loved the quick follow up shots with the AR. I used 10 round magazines loaded with 5 or 6 rounds to control my shooting speed. If I knew I was going to run out of ammunition soon, I paid closer attention to each shot. The short magazines were easier to deal with on a shooting table.

Lots of cartridges will work well if chosen based on the distances one expects to shoot at.

I shoot prairie dogs and gophers in Montana every year. Here is a list of the cartridges I have personally used based on the town we were shooting.

22 LR for small gopher towns around a lot of cattle and horses. Shots under 100 yards.
22 mag and 17 HMR for most applications. Less than 200 yard shots. Wind can become a major issue on the prairie when shooting the light weight 17 bullets.
AR in .223 for a really target rich environment. As mentioned earlier, the smaller mags if you are going to be prone for a while. We had one town, now defunct, where we wore ghillie suits and would lie in the same spot for an hour or more shooting more than 100 rounds.
.243 for the opportunity shots riding around the ranch.
Anything that will shoot straight will kill a prairie dog. Wind is often a big issue but I couldn't hit a cow at 500 yards so I don't even consider that an option.

Oh boy, p-dog hunting. My favorite way to pass the time. My brother and I have two rifles at the gunsmith being rebarreled. They are both .204 Rugers in CZ Model 527s. We burned them out last summer. The .204 ruger is a blast close in, say out to 250-300 yards. I shoot a couple of AR 15 rifles in .223 and they work well at moderate distances. My brother skips over the .223 in favor of a pair of 22-250 rifles. I also shoot a 22-250 and if the wind isn't howling they work great to 500-600 yards. My brother has shot p-dogs to 800 yards with a 22-250, but 1000 yds has escaped him.

I would like to get something that has a good amount of reach, I do want to work on my long game while I'm out there.

Click to expand...

I shoot a 6mmBR quite a bit. This will be the last summer for the rifle because the barrel is about shot out. The 6mmBR works great with 105 Berger Hybrids out to around 600 yards. I have shot p-dogs past 1000 yds with a 6mmBR, but that is really stretching the barrel. For long range work I shoot a 6.5 Creedmoor with 120 A-Max bullets or 140 Berger VLD Target bullets. A .260 Rem would work as well. For really long range, I use a 6.5-284 with 140 Bergers.

There are many other calibers that will work just as well. Have a great summer.

Forgot to mention,

I also have a Alexander Arms OverWatch 24" in 6.5 Grendel. It's mainly my predator rig, but it will reach out and touch a pdog too.

My brother and I have killed 1000s of prairie dogs shooting 22LR, 17 Mach 2, 17HMR, 22 Hornet, .204, .223, 243, and 22-250; all useful depending on circumstances. If you have access to new towns especially with lots of young and dumb dogs, my favorite is the 17 HMR. The 22LR will kill them, but not with the same "whop" factor and you'll have fewer crawl-offs. The Mach 2 works well too, but with a bit shorter range. The 22 Hornet works well out to 150-200 yards and is cheap to reload. It also has very little recoil. We've killed the most dogs with the .223 and .204. Neither round has much recoil. The best centerfire rifle for dogs is a toss up between my Remington 700 VSF .223 and my Kimber 84M .204. If you like to see them fly through the air, the .204 does the job. The big guys are the .243 and the 22-250, but recoil becomes an issue if you shoot a lot. I shoot 58 gr bullets in my Remington 700 VLS .243 and it gives me quite a bit of range, 300-400 yards. My brothers 22-250 gives I'm longer range, but frankly, neither of us is fond of long distance dogs...too many misses. I really like shooting my Anschutz 1517 MPR; the 17 gr V-Max out of that rifle is wicked accurate and effective.

I'd love to find another P-dog town close by, up to 100 mile range. I've got an older Rem. 788 in .223, shoots really well, just put a new Vortex 6X24X50 scope on it, can now shoot 4 rounds into one hole, but....... no dog towns to try it on. Maybe this year will be a good time to find a town.

Finally got to try my new CZ527 in 17 Hornet on a dog hunt. It's awesome. I've been bringing a 17hmr for close ones and calm nights, but the hornet runs circles around it. It's a good dog gun out to 300yds. Solid hits flip and gut them right along with the bigger guns. Depending on the situation the MUCH lower noise level helps get good shooting when the bigger guns keep them underground.

I saw the .17 hornet on dogs for the first time last weekend , It may well be the best all around dog caliber i have seen .

TC in .223, Weaver V16 Scope

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A coworker just got back from a dogtown trip with his AR. He has a 5.56 upper and a .204 upper. I think he used his 204 the whole trip out. He was shooting with 2 guys with cooper custom rifles, and said he was having a blast laying down short strings where they could only go 1 at a time through their purpose built bolt actions. His description makes me want to give it a try.

The advantage to the smaller recoiling guns is being able to see your bullet impact.A break open single shot is not the best choice if you get into a lot of shooting too much time moving the gun to load and set back up.I hunt with H&RS and a Encore but not prairie dogs.I don't have an AR for it but thinking about it a good accurate one would be a lot of fun.I.ve put single shot adapters in my bolt guns its easier single loading as fooling with the magazine

I pick them off with everything form 22-250 to 7mm RM, though the bigger cartridges do wear hard on the shoulder pretty quickly, but are really good at super long distances.

My favorites are 22-250 and .243 win for this task though.

GS

Typically you have anywhere from moderate to strong wind. Dogs will sit sometimes (actually usually) after the first shot miss. With an AR, you can adjust your hold off and fire again.

And don't forget the .22

Hard to beat the overall economy of the 223. If the wind isn't blowing you can pop em at 600 pretty easily.
I've got 220's and 22-250's but the 223's are my favorites, low recoil, cheapest to reload, easy on barrels, not much noise, not much dust.