.223 or .308 for prairie dogs?

[halvey]

Ok, I'm finally buying a rifle. Well a non-.22LR rile. My choices are between .223 and .308.

I will mostly be shooting paper at the range and have up to 300 yards to do so. I'd like to maybe do some competitions and will take either gun on a hunt for prairie dogs in the North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. I may go after other varmints eventually too, but 99%will be punching holes in paper. I will be reloading whichever I choose.

My choices are between .223 and .308. At this time, I'm not interested in a cartridge that falls in between and don't want to buy both at this time.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Art Eatman]

The .223 will have much less recoil. This gets to be important if you're going to do a lot of shooting.

The larger question has to do with the sort of competition you're interested in. Check to see what sort of rifle matches are in your area before making a decision. It's often the case that competition requirements are fairly specialized.

The rate of fire--the elapsed time for a string of shots--will have some control over whether you look for a standard-weight barrel, or get a rifle with a heavy barrel. If, in your PD hunting or in your casual paper punching you shoot three to five shots and take a break to let the barrel cool, you wouldn't need to focus on the heavy barrel...

For starters...

, Art

 

[LeonCarr]

Take a .308 prarie dog hunting. Load it with 125 grain Speer TNTs, and watch the dogs fly .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[Phattitude]

223 will cost alot less to reload and wont heat up as fast, has less recoil bla bla

 

[twoblink]

308 is more versatile, in case you want to step up to a Deer or something later on.

And recoil is really not that harsh on the 308.

 

[dakotasin]

for close range (300 and in), just go w/ the 223.

my favorite prairie dog gun is a 308, and 2nd favorite is the 22-250... but, 300 yards really isn't that far, and not much of a stretch for a 223.

 

[Sistema1927]

Both of them will do some serious damage to the meat. There isn't much to begin with.

 

[twoblink]

a 308 isn't going to leave much of anything left on a clean hit, are you trying to save a tail or a pic ? If not, go with the 308....

 

[standingbear]

I use blackhills v-max ballistic tip outta my .223 varmiter.it seems to be pretty consistant and has taken groundhogs and a few chipmonks on occasion when the groundhog action slows...out to 300+ yards.
For rifles,I use a ruger markII in 223 with a tasco 6-24x scope and harris long bipod...scope flip covers to keep the lenses clean and scratch free.
The blackhills ammo cost me 18 a box of 50 rnds,I normally take just a small handful of ammo and can pretty much count on 1 groundhog or chipmonk with each shot.222 used to be a durn good rnd for varmiters but nowadays people are using 220 swift,22-250 and 223 remington and the 17 caliber on varmits...on up to whatever wildcat round you can imagine...308 is good but a tad expensive buyimg them in the special configuration that I like in a small varmit round..for me,the .223 remington is a good choice for small to fox sized varmits.

 

[mondocomputerman]

Take both and alternate between them

 

[twoblink]

( 223 + 308) / 2 = 266.5

Is there a round that's a 266.5??

 

[carpettbaggerr]

I'd go with the .416 Rigby. Oh, wait, that's for gopher.

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92013&highlight=groundhog

I'd get the .223 if I were you.

 

[El Rojo]

I started with a Remington 700 VS in .308. I just wanted a real accurate bolt gun. I have shot that gun at squirrels, coyotes, and 1000 yard matches. I find the 110gr V-Max works best on squirrels and the Speer 125 TNTs work better on coyotes. The only trade is cost. I can shoot the .308 all day, no problem with recoil or anything else. Just make sure you zoom down if you want to watch the squirrel fly.

Now, I went and bought a PRK legal FAB-10 and use a 20" Bushmaster V-match upper for squirrel shooting. The .223 doesn't even compare to the devistation the .308 does. However, it kills squirrels dead for much less. Consider a box of .308 V-Max costs about $15-16 for 100. The .223 V-Max only cost about $11. I use Winchester 748 powder in both calibers. I use about 48 grains in my .308 and around 25 grains (I can't remember how much off the top of my head, so please don't load any of these loads) in the .223. So the bullets are about $4 or $5 less a box and you use half the powder! The other nice thing is there is less recoil to the .223 and if you buy an AR, you get semi-auto.

This is by no means an easy choice. I would say that the .308 is more versitile in one caliber, but more expensive. However, if you were to get an AR platform, you could buy all sorts of different uppers for it and have all sorts of different guns from .223 to 6.8mm to .50 BMG and in the case of .223 you could shoot more squirrels for less.

When it comes down to it, you need to buy one and then eventually buy the other!

 

[John Galt]

223 costs way less and has way less recoil...

I used my Ruger Target in 223.
Hitting at 200yds was near 100%. 300yds not much worse.
Over 300yds and the hit rate went way down.
Over the two day period, I got one at 548yds right before dark....

I want to replace it with the .204 Ruger. Shooting the heavier bullets at 2900fps should work great.

I think I shot 300rds per day with a very moderate number of targets available and starting late & taking time our for a long lunch. The factory "heavy" barrels really aren't heavy barrels. I'm real happy with mine, but would trade it for an accurate Savage in 204Ruger.

 

[cheshier2]

I go to South Dakota every other year hunting dogs. I use a 220 swift and a 223. Both using 52 grain match bullets. I have hit dogs out to 800 yards with my swift. You would be very hard pressed to do that with a 223. I put about 700-800 rounds out my swift and 1400 rounds out my AR15 in 7 or 8 days when we go out. I would not want to shoot 800 rounds out a 308 in 7 days. Start with a 223 and work your way up. If your just punching paper out to 300 yards even a 220 swift would work. But you would have to load your own swift its not cheap ammo. GOOD LUCK!!
Shawn

 

[theCZ]

As far as the poster who said a .308 will be more versatile...
Yeah, the actual .308 IS versatilve, but a varmint rifle may not be. No varmint rifle is truly that versatile, as it has a very specific purpose ie shooting long ranges from a rested position. Anybody that is at the point of buying a varmint rifle is at the point where nothing they already have works to their satisfaction.

SO
Buy one of each!

 

[Cindog]

Tough to beat the low cost of the .223 and the next to nothing recoil. Take a look at a Tika T3 Lite, great gun at a very reasonable price. If you want to spend a little more, go for the Tikka T3 Varmint.

 

[halvey]

Man, this tread won't die!

I got the 700 VLS in .308. Sighted it in and then started to blowstriped gophers to bits. My neighbor called and wants to go coyote hunting, so I guess the .308 should be a bit better than the .223. I guess I forgot to put that in my original post.

I will eventually buy a smaller rifle, and the .22-250 looks real promising.

Thanks for the help!